< And truly, playing any instrument becomes a real pleasure when the
< day comes that you don't have to think about how to do it...>
In fact, that´s absolutely true. Among the many harp artists I heard there´s
one whom I know even better than Toots and who is a real master in "ignoring
the how to" and that´s Wim Dijkgraaf from the Netherlands. He told me that it
was a hard way and took him 5 years until he had "engraved" where all notes
of all 12 keys are positioned. From Wim I got also the idea to build these
wholetone chromatics (my Tonies) where one needed only 4 different slide
pattern to play all 12 keys which makes the matter considerably easier.
.
Interesting is also the way how to get this pleasure.There are many ways
and not all are useful. An example:
When my Dad trained accordion long long years ago I stood as a child behind
his music stand and played his ètude on the harp together with him. However,
every time Dad made a mistake he started the tune from the beginning again
and again. To my impatient urge to finish this dam song he informed me that
the most successful way of learning an instrument is to train no matter how
long it last.
Harpie had said: OK, Dad, then we may never hear how this song ends.
Today I know that this is a successful method not at all. Crucial isn`t the
time you spend for the training but the frequency of training and above all
the pauses between the exercises.
On harp-L one can often read the slogan: practice, practice practice.
Hmmmh, that sounds like the request to eat in order not to die on starvation.
The Iceman once said: "just 5 minutes per day, but every day."
Absolutely, the constant repetition is what the brain needs to engrave
a certain information. Now neurologists or other scientists searching on the
function of the human brain say that the brain deletes information not needed.
That´s certainly correct but for my feeling the formulation is too general.
The question should be how the neurones got the information = way of
transmitting the impressions. Again an example:
Another way how to "engrave" a melody for sure I noticed when I trained
"Bluesette". It´s not only that the slide finger learned the pattern of in
and out but it also worked to train the melody noiseless. Yes, it´s amazing
to learn that any tune can be imagined only in mind without doing mistakes,
without an instrument, with real notes and nobody has the slightest idea
what you are just doing. The question is only whether you learn to play the
notes on an instrument in reality.
At least for my part I noticed a third kind of engraving an accoustic
impression. I use to "see" the melody three-dimensional like a path in the
landscape. It goes up and down, turns around the corner, crosses a river,
climbs a mountain etc.
Anyway, I can´t imagine to forget "Bluesette" whether I play it or not.
Hoping not to have told a lot of nonsense,
Siegfried