Melodeon.net Forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to the new melodeon.net forum

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Scales on a D/G  (Read 2953 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

johnp_g

  • Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9
  • Saltarelle Le Bouebe in D/G
Scales on a D/G
« on: February 17, 2008, 11:18:14 AM »

I've followed the discussion around the rights and wrongs of practising scales on another topic and I'm convinced by George et al that it might be a "good thing".

I've been learning to play D/G for a few years, in a spasmodic "stop start" way and generally just find a new tune, bash away at it until my finger muscles remember roughly where to go next and then move on to another, hoping that by regularly playing previous tunes I can keep them all in my fingers. It's a bit like keeping an increasing number of plates spinning. I'm hoping that the quality of playing just organically improves the more and more I play and the more new and varied tunes I learn.

I think some "pre-training" in the form of scales/runs/arpeggios might be a good idea. A 2 octave scale in the home key is a start  - although I'm puzzled about the fingering for doing the full 2 octaves (where do you change position, at the end of the 1st octave, moving whole hand up to fit the 2nd octave, or more progressively every few notes?)

I know there are other keys that can be played on a D/G (I have a copy of JK's videos and remember his description of all the various modes/minors, but now I can't play the video due to lack of suitable hardware! Perhaps I should buy the DVD edition?)

So far I've come up with :-

G Row = Gmaj, Amin (dorian), Emin (aeolian), Dmaj (myxolidian)
D Row = Dmaj, Emin (dorian), Bmin (aeolian), Amaj (myxolidian)

I guess there are other scales that can be played that involve a bit of cross rowing to pick the odd note from the other row where necessary.

At the risk of upsetting the "no scales here" folk, for the benefit of us struggling few who see the value of scales, can someone help with a set of  scales (with fingering if possible  :)) etc, with the intention of improving muscle memory and speed/strength.

Cheers,

John
Logged

george garside

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5401
Re: Scales on a D/G
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2008, 12:16:21 PM »

[quote 
I've been learning to play D/G for a few years, in a spasmodic "stop start" way and generally just find a new tune, bash away at it until my finger muscles remember roughly where to go next and then move on to another, hoping that by regularly playing previous tunes I can keep them all in my fingers. It's a bit like keeping an increasing number of plates spinning. I'm hoping that the quality of playing just organically improves the more and more I play and the more new and varied tunes I learn.

I think some "pre-training" in the form of scales/runs/arpeggios might be a good idea. A 2 octave scale in the home key is a start  - although I'm puzzled about the fingering for doing the full 2 octaves (where do you change position, at the end of the 1st octave, moving whole hand up to fit the 2nd octave, or more progressively every few notes?)

I ) .

Cheers,

John
[/quote]

no hard & fast rules as to fingering but I prefer for scales ( i.e. finger/brain  programming)   in hojme key to start on say G with first finger playing   F with little finger and whilst playing F to transfer the first finger from low G to high G where it replaces the little finger.this then puts all 4 fingers ready for upper octave. some playrs shuffle/walk up 2 buttons at a time which probably works just as well.

It helps when playing the 2 octaves to remember that the push pull sequence does not change in the upper octave!  in both octaves it is push/pull,push/pull.push/pull, pull/push.  The only difference between the 2 octaves is that whereas in the lower octave the push - pulls are on the same button whereas in the uppr octave they are a button apart  i.e. push on G pull next button for A.  It also helps to remember that the same note is always inthe same bellows direction irrespective of octave & that on the push notes repeat evry4 buttons & on the pull every 5 buttons. which makes playing 'in octaves' easy.

george
Logged
author of DG tutor book "DG Melodeon a Crash Course for Beginners".

Stiamh

  • Old grey C#/D pest
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3538
    • Packie Manus Byrne
Re: Scales on a D/G
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2008, 01:16:31 PM »

You can also shuffle every button - see this earlier post for another approach to fingering. Only one among many possibilities of course but great for developing mobility.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 


Melodeon.net - (c) Theo Gibb; Clive Williams 2010. The access and use of this website and forum featuring these terms and conditions constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions.
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal