[Harp-L] fly away with jim

[JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 8, 2014, at 4:06 PM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>  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.

Because you think of notes as sounds, and  not as named notes on the instrument you're playing, but as concert notes. It's possible to think of each differently keyed instrument as producing piano-related notes, not notes related to the key of the instrument in your hands at the time. That's probably the ultimate goal. I certainly can't do it, but I've seen it done. And it's really interesting. How someone can play a line that takes several differently tuned instruments to pull off and have it sound like one instrument, double stops and all. It's spooky, But it can be done. I asked how it was done, and was told by the player,  "I don't think".

Sure is spooky, though.  And more than slightly annoying.

jk

The philosopher Socrates, discovered to his dismay that he was the smartest person in Athens merely because he, and he alone, recognized how ignorant he was.
http://jonkip.com