[Harp-L] re: Learning Other Instruments from Harp

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow wrote:

"I'm currently learning diatonic accordion. The single row of melody
buttons is arranged like Holes 2-11 of a 12-hole diatonic. So I know
where all the notes are."

I tried my hand at diatonic accordion for about a year myself.  I  
think it was a good example of how transfering knowledge from one  
instrument to another can be both a help and a hindrance.  While I  
had the note-knowledge Winslow speaks of, I found it very hard to  
stop playing "harmonicistically" and stary playing "accordionistically".

I've noticed a similar thing when I play keyboards.  My training is  
as a classical percussionist, so I'm familiar with the layout, scales  
and so forth from my xylophone/marimba lessons.  But, I always  
approach the keyboard as if my hands were holding mallets--very two- 
fisted.

The good part is that you can get around these limitations, with time  
and effort, of course.  Moreover, these can help you define how you  
relate to the instruments you already know--you see their strengths  
and weaknesses reflected in what techniques work and what don't work  
on the new instruments.  Take such similar instruments playing-wise  
as the organ and the piano.  What works on one often doesn't work on  
the other.  Knowing what these are can help you realize what pieces  
will fit one and not the other (particularly useful for keyboard  
sonatas where the instrument wasn't specified--some will work better  
on organ, others piano).

As Winslow pointed out, just switching to chromatic or diatonic (and  
I'd say tremolo and octave as well--try them, they won't bite:) both  
gives you good entry points, and then starts to show you how they  
differ.  Knowing the later you can start figuring out both why that  
is and how to take advantage of the differences.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'