RE: Playing by Ear

["Laughton, Bob" <LaughtonB@xxxxxxxxx>]

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d.m.fairweather wrote:

> If you want to play a melody you've never=20
> played before, by ear - can you play it
> mistake-free the first time you try?

This is an issue I've been addressing, as I try to play tunes that I =
already know, but have never attempted on the chromatic. I'm also trying =
to gain skill playing in a broader range of keys than just first =
position.

It's been said of Wolfgang Mozart that he could vizualize the entire =
musical content of one of his symphonies as if he were looking at the =
contour of a mountain range. In my own, much smaller, way (a range of =
pebbles?) I try to vizualize a melody, at least the next few oncoming =
notes, as a profile or contour, and try to map that against the contour =
of the scale of the particular key I'm trying to play in.

How that scale lays on the harp and my familiarity of it seems to be =
solely a matter of practice. On a C harp, for instance, I can play a =
melody I know fairly easily in C, G, or D - A is really tough and slow, =
F is still a bit sticky (thanks to that uncooperative Bb!), and it's all =
seriously uphill from there.

What I would like to ask the more advanced players out there is, does it =
ever get any easier, does that facility of playing in any key "build", =
as does in developing tone or bending skill? Or do you have to "map" all =
12 keys in your brain through practice, one at a time - a miserable slog =
until you just one day sort of "get there"?

Bob

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"Years ago, my momma taught me that two wrongs
 don't make a right - but I soon figured out that
 three left turns do." - Jim Hightower
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