[Harp-L] Jim's Engineer Brain....I'll fly away....

[Doug Schroer <dougharps@xxxxxxxxx>]

The approach I suggested was not to suggest Jim turn off his brain... just
part of it. ;>)  The suggested approach was to use different parts of his
brain. I don't think his teacher is wrong, his teacher is just encouraging
a different path than traditional music education.  I have played with a
number of traditionally trained musicians who can sight read and play
wonderful music from sheet music, but cannot improvise and cannot play by
ear.  They cannot let go of the way they learned.  They rely on written
music and are anchored to it.  Folk based music can be played by ear
without focusing on technical musical reading skills.

I encouraged Jim to explore the harmonica and music by ear, building
connections in his brain between the sounds, the music desired, and blowing
and drawing without considering the number of the hole. Mistakes are a
necessary part of this approach.  Basically, it is working on ear
training.  It is listening to the sounds of the chords and what notes on
the harmonica work with those chords by ear without naming the notes or
chords.  It is based on HEARING the music.

You can learn to relate to the sounds of the scales (and modes!) easily
accessible on a diatonic harmonica, and if you learn where the intervals
are located by ear on one diatonic, you can easily transpose to a different
key of diatonic without consideration of the note names.  The intervals are
the same, just the starting pitches differ.

The naming of notes by interval, tab hole number, or by note name uses a
different part of the brain than just hearing the relative pitches,
connecting those pitch changes with movement on the diatonic harmonica, and
developing scale skills using relative pitch.  Visualizing a keyboard can
obviously be productive (Howard Levy), especially if you already play
keyboard.  Adding an extra step of visualization is not necessary on
diatonic harp with transportable scales.  Why conceptualize everything on a
fixed C instrument when you are constantly changing the key of the
instrument you play?  If you need a theoretical basis, consider it solfege,
moveable do, not fixed do.

If Jim wants to learn to knowledgeably choose a position on a diatonic to
access a mode in which a song lays easily, and wants to play music by ear
creating his own ornaments and fills, then exploring diatonic harmonica by
ear and building knowledge of note locations by ear can be very
productive.

If Jim wants to learn to read sheet music and play note for note from
written music, then my suggested ear training would not be the way to
proceed at this stage.  If you are learning to play it all on one key of
harmonica then you will either choose chromatic harmonica or learn to
overbend and play a diatonic chromatically. If Jim wants to read and
further develop his analytical knowledge of music, I totally agree with
your suggested approach of using the keyboard.  Ultimately, both approaches
are productive depending on your musical goals.

Just my opinion... I know that many will disagree, particularly those whose
music is based in reading.

Doug S.