Re: [Harp-L] What are the simplest and best diatonic practice strategies/meth...

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

I like to take a scale and add on one additional scale degree to the end -  
playing up and down, without stopping at the "top" or repeating the "topmost"  
note. This changes the scale from a SCALE to a series of melodic tones that 
form  a line.
 
For instance - Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, Re, Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa,  Mi, 
Re, Do.
 
By not thinking of the melodic line as a SCALE, more music is allowed to  
flow through the series of notes - simply a choice of these particular  notes.
 
Try it on harmonica with your major diatonic scale beginning on 4 hole  
exhale. Don't think scale - think melodic line. 
 
For the beginner students, this helps them learn through repetition and  
muscle memory where the notes "live" and also keeps them from falling into the  
academic sterility of scales existing separate but parallel to the  music.
 
The Iceman



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