Discussions > Teaching and Learning
Still working on it, but do you think when you play from memory?
playandteach:
One of the problems I'm having is that no matter how hard I tell myself that I'm starting a tune in G, my GC brain takes over half way through the tune and converts G to C. So I'll be playing away, say for example Galopede in G, and at the B section as I go up for the G in the first bar, my brain says, oh we've been here before - that's a C. At that point with no warning, all the notes and chords flip to the wrong key. I find that G on a DG box switches to C, and D on a DG box switches to G. The exact place this is happening is usually the C chord in DG becomes F. And the low D right hand notes become G (but most of all Em just won't stay Em - wants to be Am all day long). I've put the GC box away for the last month, but it isn't going away, Doctor.
So...(doesn't matter for this if you only ever play one key of box)
when you are playing do you:
1 Stay aware of the chord or right hand notes as you play them (in terms of note / chord names)?
2 Consciously or subconsciously know how chords relate to each other - chord I, V, IV etc?
3 Not a clue, just know where the sounds are that I want to get to?
4 Depends on the key - if in X - that's instinctive, but Y takes careful thought?
5 Have a set of options but at any one time if you stopped me, I'd know the notes I just played?
I really am working at this, and these shared experiences do actually help me understand my route out of the maze.
george garside:
To me one of the key components/ingredients to playing form memory is absolute familiarity and ease with scales i.e. being able to play them at speed with no conscious thought. I see scales simply as 'roads' along which a tune travels backwards and forwards.
With knowledge of the 'road' firmly embedded in autopilot the process is much the same as humming singing or whistling in that you 'think' a tune and the gob works all by itself so on the box you decide which key you want it in and your fingers are worked all by themselves in the same way as the gob when humming etc.
Using this ?method enables me to play the same tunes on either fourth apart or semitone boxes, or mouthorgans, the only decision required being the choice of key or scale.
on a 2 row semitone box everything exept the home keys of the two rows requires row crossing but is not generally seen as such as it is compulsory rather than optional. The 2 alternative notes need to be practiced so autopilot will direct the fingers to the best one in a particular situation. ( the 3 row BCC# is a little more complicated by a larger choice of alternative fingering) for
on a 4th apart box two alternative roads are needed for each key if the intention is to so called ' cross row i.e on the rowing and cross rowing.
I find that if I have to consciously think the tune in the sense of which buttons aand bellows direction is required for each note I make a complete balls of it!
george
Thrupenny Bit:
hmmmm an interesting question!
Well, I live in 'DG Land' and all but one of my melodeons are DG, the other is a BbEb and so I encounter your problem when playing that.
I suppose I think in terms of steps on a ladder, so on the BbEb I start on a different step but the sequence of steps are the same.
I tend to know where the fingers go but not always, and certainly not the first time playing a tune on the BbEb. I stumble a bit until I've 'confirmed' the steps by the sound. Once established then I'm ok.
I'm thinking this through as I write, so I presume I'm 'sound led'
I certainly don't think in terms of 'if it's a x chord on a DG it's y on a BbEb'.....
Good question, this is my best answer!
Q
squeezy:
I'm afraid I cannot be of much help here because I have never suffered from the same problem ... but I think talking about why might help you think about how it could be fixed, or at least explain what's going on.
Because I have always learnt tunes by ear - I never paid much attention to the names of the notes and can only work them out by thinking about it if someone asks me what they are. What I learn is the shape of the tune and its rhythm and with that its implied harmonies or commonly played chords. So if I pick up my C/F box - I know it sounds lower, but it does not sound unlike the tune and my fingers just go to the right places. This is similar when transposing a tune from G in to D on a single D/G box ... the D fingering is different but I just slot the tune shape in to that way of playing and away we go.
I wonder if you have perfect pitch ... because I do not. While it's an amazing talent and undoubtedly useful in certain situations, I have seen that it can be a real hinderance on transposing instruments like melodeons in different keys because the highly trained ear (brain) can not only tell what a note is, but becomes distracted when it doesn't hear the correct one if a given button is pressed.
So for me ... I guess option 2 is the closest. I learn the tune as a shape of notes which is abstract and independent of any note/chord names. When I hum it to myself I will start on any random note. When I play it on the melodeon it goes throught some sort of mental processor which turns those notes in to the tune on the particular box I have in my hands - so it's a 2 step process - most of which has become fairly sub-conscious.
I can, however, sympathise a little bit. I've recently bought a miniature 1 row melodeon that plays an octave up from where I expect the notes to be. Just hearing the notes I'm playing in that register absolutely convinces me that I am playing in the upper octave fingering and almost nothing will convince my fingers that they need to play lower octave fingering. As a result, I am almost completely unable to play a tune on it at the moment ... which I can tell you is really depressing!
Anahata:
As a mainly D/G player, I get similarly confused when playing a G/C or C/F box.
I tend to play different tunes on each, which helps, especially with the Club tuning on the C/F.
Only on D/G do I have a deeply ingrained sense of note positions enabling me to read music fluently.
If I am reading on other boxes, I think I work out where the first note is and then use a combination of relative pitch (from one note to the next) and 'playing by ear' of the tune I hear in my head, or alternatively by using the relative positions of the notes in the scale. Since the button and bellows mechanics for e.g. '6th note of scale' are invariant on any melodeon, this is a useful middle step between the written music and the box, in whatever key it's in. Minor scales can get confusing, though...
Everyone will have a different way of approaching this (all those you listed!) depending on:
- how much they play by ear vs from music
- whether they have perfect pitch
- relative amounts of time spent playing boxes in different keys.
- (perhaps) whether they play other instruments
This might sound perverse, but it might help to get the G/C box out again and alternate playing on both. It will help to reinforce the idea that they are different instruments, so you are forced to develop a separate set of playing patterns for each. Not tested methodically, just a random idea.
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