Re: Playing by Ear

["traume@xxxxxxxx" <traume@xxxxxxxx>]

I suppose much of knowing the harp is 'subconscious,' or perhaps 
tactile or kinetically based.  But after a while you just know where 
to go to play an Eb - automatically knowing blow or draw and slide 
usage (or non-usage) and position on the harp.

So once I've figured out the scale degrees: 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 3 3...  I 
choose the key, turn the sequence into notes: Eb Eb D C Bb Ab G G G, 
and then go find them using my knowledge of the instrument.

I started out doing this in diatonic, and it was much easier to 
master the layout.  But for something chromatic like the bridge for 
As Time Goes By, I'd rather have all the notes without bending and / 
or overbending (which I can't do).

I should mention that this is my approach to playing melodies on 
piano and guitar as well: know the song, then know where the notes 
are and be able to go right to them.  And I still think that knowing 
where the notes are can be learned fairly quickly.  But being able to 
think in scale degrees, to me, is like being able to hear a language 
and understand it immediately.

Take the piano for example.  Anyone can quickly learn the 12 notes 
and go right to them on demand.  But many people would struggle to 
play The Christmas Song in the key of B major without fumbling 
around.  This is probably because they're not thinking in scale 
degrees for every single note (which requires some discipline, but 
gets easier after a while), but instead are falling back on a 
guesstimate strategy - "Hmmm, it's a big leap here so I'll jump this 
many keys and hope for the best...  *clunk*  Oops, that wasn't 
right."  This second method is the time and energy-consuming 
'relative interval' approach that I don't like to use.

I'd say it took me 4 years of musicianship courses in college to get 
to this point, and I didn't really start playing the harmonica until 
after I graduated.  But I can listen to most well-behaved melodies 
and convert them into scale degrees right away.  I don't even like to 
use the term 'convert' because every note I hear already arrives in 
my head as a scale degree.

Patrick

PS. Complex jazz frustrates me.  I hear a note and think it's 
definitely a 3rd scale degree at that moment, but 10 seconds later 
the piece has modulated through so many key areas I can't even 
remember what country I'm in.



At 6:29 PM -0700 6/23/04, d.m.fairweather wrote:
>Patrick, I understand what you're saying about analyzing the 
>intervals, but how do you
>relate that to the harp?  Have you got every interval in every key 
>corellated with a
>physical location on your harp?  And are you thinking about all that 
>stuff while you
>play?  Or is it subconscious?
>
>--- "traume@xxxxxxxx" <traume@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>  I'm a lousy chromatic player, but I can play just about any
>>  well-behaved melody on first try.  Sometimes in group jams that need
>>  a little structure, I'll play the melody note-for-note for my
>>  instrumental break - that way everyone knows when the break is over
>>  so they can start singing again.
>>
>>  I think learning the mechanics of playing the instrument (i.e., being
>>  able to go right to the note you need) is the easy part.  The hard
>>  part is getting your mind around the tune, and figuring out those
>>  needed notes while playing.
>>
>>  There are basically two approaches to figuring out a melody by ear:
>>  1) relative intervals and 2) absolute scale degrees.
>>
>>  Using the relative intervals approach would produce something like this:
>>
>>  C, unison, up fifth, unison, up major second, unison, down major second...
>>
>>  The absolute intervals approach, for the same song:
>>
>>  1 1 5 5 6 6 5
>>
>>  The song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and I prefer to use the
>>  second method.  After thinking about music this way for years, I've
>>  started to hear the characteristics of the scale degrees.  The 3rd
>>  scale degree for example is unmistakable.  I just can't hear Jingle
>>  Bells without thinking "3 3 3..."
>>
>>  The absolute scale degree method also helps me with figuring out the
>  > starting note.  It's easy to hear the perfect 4th at the start of
>>  Amazing Grace.  But I hear, "5th scale degree --> 1st scale degree."
>>  So in the key of C I know to start on G, whereas others might start
>>  on C and unintentionally play the key of F.
>>
>>  If I weren't so familiar with Hava Nagila (meaning I've actually
>>  analyzed the score) I probably wouldn't get it on first try.  The
>>  starting note could be thought of as the 5th scale degree of a minor
>>  scale, but I definitely don't hear it that way - I hear it as the
>>  1st.  But As Time Goes By is a piece of cake, and I'm not saying that
>>  to be boastful.  It's very straightforward: 3 4 3 2 1 2...  3 5 4 3 2
>>  4... etc.  Then I just have to deal with rhythm.  But if I can sing
>>  or whistle it, I can play it.
>>
>>  Patrick
>>