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#448664 - 03/14/18 11:04 PM
Re: Playing from music OR by ear...REMEMBERING??
[Re: leeboy]
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Senior Member
Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
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I'm both.....formally trained but play by ear also. I've always had a pretty good ear, but lately using a friend's exercise has improved my ear 1,000%. And I wasn't doing the exercise to improve my ear. It just happened.
The exercise is simple as pie. Just make up a melody line and play it VERY slowly (VERY SLOWLY) one note at a time, but.......think "pitch"...where you want the next note to fall according to the melody you hear in your head. You're on a C note and you can hear in your mind the pitch of the next note. Do you think it would it be a 2nd, 3rd, a suspended 4th, an augmented 5th, dominant 7th, flatted 9th, etc. Take a few seconds and then go for it. Hit the note you think it is. It will probably be wrong, but your mind will hear that's it's "wrong." The next time you're in that situation, your mind will remember the "wrong" note and NOT go there again. Eventually you'll start hearing the "correct" interval and your fingers will automatically go to the right place. It's taken me about 3-4 months now of doing this religiously every day, but now I can recognize intervals clearly AND quickly. As in most endeavors, nothing happens for quite a while and then one day it ALL happens. One day your pitch recognition becomes industrial strength almost overnight if you keep at it regularly.
I actually started doing the exercise because I'm fascinated with how horn players from the classic band band era improvise so easily...how they just hear in their heads what they want to play, and.......they play it. So I started listening to what they were doing and I began improvising very slowly.....one note at a time to replicate what they were doing at fast speeds.
Most of you know already I've always been into "power of the mind" principles with many things in addition to music. There's two well-known books called "The Inner Game of Tennis" and "The Inner Game of Music." They both deal with "Power of the Mind" principles as applied to tennis and musicians. Also.....Maxwell Maltz states in his book "Psycho Cybernetics" the following, which is exactly the way it is: "You will never be great at ANYTHING (that includes music) until you believe in your mind that "you are GREAT." A person who wins millions in the lottery, is still not rich until he finally believes in his mind that he is rich. It took me many years to fully understand that and apply it to music!
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#448675 - 03/15/18 03:06 AM
Re: Playing from music OR by ear...REMEMBERING??
[Re: leeboy]
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Senior Member
Registered: 09/21/02
Posts: 5520
Loc: Port Charlotte,FL,USA
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While I always find your insights interesting, I have to wonder about the last statement in "Psycho Cybernetics". I have played with people that think they are great, but in reality, stink. Not only that, they never improve. I, on the other hand, think I am good, but not great. The difference is that I improve at something I am working at every day.
Thanks for the video link on playing by ear.
_________________________
pa4X 76 ,SX900, Audya 76,Yamaha S970 , vArranger, Hammond SK1, Ketron SD40, Centerpoint Space Station, Bose compact
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#448702 - 03/15/18 10:46 AM
Re: Playing from music OR by ear...REMEMBERING??
[Re: leeboy]
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Senior Member
Registered: 10/09/04
Posts: 2580
Loc: Ocala, FL USA
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Wow, A lot of superb information, and a big variance on what people are doing. A lot for me to digest and try...MANY THANKS and keep it coming as I think in some small way it could help others here too.....
Bachus, can you recommend a course that you described?? I have a few, but nothing that good. After a few years not having a keyboard, I am saving for a Genos.....so will be starting up again soon. I used to play organ, so chords I get.
Rikki, no keyboard right now, getting a Genos soon!....glad your doing well, yep, a lot of us still here.
_________________________
Lee S.
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#448725 - 03/15/18 12:56 PM
Re: Playing from music OR by ear...REMEMBERING??
[Re: leeboy]
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Senior Member
Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
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Wow, A lot of superb information, and a big variance on what people are doing. A lot for me to digest and try...MANY THANKS and keep it coming as I think in some small way it could help others here too.....
Bachus, can you recommend a course that you described?? I have a few, but nothing that good. After a few years not having a keyboard, I am saving for a Genos.....so will be starting up again soon. I used to play organ, so chords I get.
Rikki, no keyboard right now, getting a Genos soon!....glad your doing well, yep, a lot of us still here.
Its not one course... My piano/keyboard teacher uses a lot of different resources to archieve all of this... The last few years i have been trying to concentrate on piano mostly... You will not find this in a single printed course...
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