Re: [Harp-L] Reading Music

[Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

The most helpful thing that I discovered in learning to read on the (chromatic) harmonica is to learn to recognize the Cs, Es, and Gs on the staff as the ONLY blow notes.  All the rest (Ds, Fs, As, and Bs) are draws!

Getting the right hole is very intuitive as you associate high on the staff with the right end of the harmonica.

The above gets you started on diatonic music in the key of C.  Being able to read many simple tunes makes you comfortable and confident.  This is a nice "bite-sized" chunk of reading ability that is easy to acquire.   

 Then the sharps and flats next to the accidentals tell you when to use the slide.  Start with tunes in C with only a few accidentals, ( "Spanish Eyes" contains only 3 accidentals).   

Then tackle the keys of G (one sharp) and D (two sharps).

Then try F (one flat) that requires you to play the note below on the scale with the button pushed.

Reading is daunting if you try to confront everything at once.  When you learned to read text, they started you with Dick and Jane and their dog Spot...not with the encyclopedia.  

"The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step."  Take a step, the next is only one away, and you are moving.

I also used the following method to learn to read.

Write your own tab!

1. Make a crib sheet with all the notes of the harmonica on a musical staff with the tab notation (hole #, blow/draw, slide in/out) underneath. 
2. Copy all of the pages of a songbook.
3. Using the crib sheet, write the tab notation under every note.  This is hard, slow work that will become much easier as you begin to memorize the frequently-encountered notes.  
4. When you no longer have to use the crib sheet, pick up the harmonica.  You now can look at a note on the staff and know the hole, blow/draw, and slide in/out.  You can play any song albeit haltingly.
5. Now go back to the original song book and practice for speed. You will now be associating notes on the staff with actions on the harp.  You will be eliminating the intermediate step of thinking about hole, breath direction, and slide position.
6.  Now read sheet music of songs that you don't know by ear or read the songbook tunes backwards. 
7. If you want the ultimate in practice, use the Bonfiglio-annotated Bona exercises.

If you will invest an hour a day for several months.  You can teach yourself to read.  The problem that I always had with learning to read directly from the music is that if I knew or quickly learned the tune by ear, I played it without paying attention to the written music. The above method forces you to decode the notes on the staff.

Vern  

 



  










On Oct 17, 2010, at 8:30 AM, Aongus Mac Cana wrote:

> 
> ...........I would like to be able to get to a stage like my "intermediate" touch
> typing where I could practice the harmonica and play tunes in my head. I can
> "hear" the tunes alright, but so far I have only got as far as playing the
> scales.
> Are there any sports coaches or neuroscientists out there who can throw any
> light on this?
> Beannachtai
> Aongus Mac Cana