Re: [Harp-L] Transposing instruments? (and maybe about 'harp tab')

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My favorite Aongus, the way 'I' learned to read music was to WRITE it. We had a Xerox machine at work that was always clogging up because it wasn't used enough.
So, I found that running a few pages through it every day cured that problem. It saved my employer a lot of expensive service calls.Then I went and bought myself a package of paper, drew lines on a piece of card stock and started making music paper at the rate of a few sheets a day. 

Then I would take a piece of music and RE-write it into a different key. Like for example from C to Bb. At first I used a crib sheet where C became a Bb, a D became a C, an F became a Eb, etc. After a while, as I was able to look at the treble staff, I no longer needed the crib sheet. Then I started to spread out my transposing. Going from (say) Bb to E. 
Eventually it all locked into my head. And while still not a good reader, I manage in about 6 keys....and a few minors. (B & E still give me fits..lolol).

During my layoff of 30 years on harmonica, I played clarinet for 18 years, and then trumpet for 12. They are both Bb instruments and most of my music is IN Bb transpositions. 

smokey joe 

On Sep 4, 2013, at 9:12 AM, Aongus MacCana wrote:

> Rob Paparozzi's recent post caused me to think about this subject and to
> wonder if I am the only guy on this list who finds harp tab virtually
> useless. What little music I have learned has been totally by ear and when
> making a meal of the tin sandwich "blow 4 draw 3" makes about as much sense
> to me as saying "salami and cucumber". For a start with the device in your
> gob who knows where the heck hole 4 is? 
> 
> Mind you, when I do get the hole and direction of the first note of a tune,
> my 'automatic pilot' does seem to be able to know where to go from there.
> 
> I have come to the conclusion, that even at my advanced years the only
> viable solution to reading music is to get seriously into the five lines and
> the four spaces as recommended by all you professional know-alls.
> 
> A YouTube video of an interview with Howard Levy lit a light bulb for me. He
> said that he started with the piano, which gave him a fix on where all the
> notes were and that he still visualises the piano keyboard when playing
> music on other instruments.
> 
> In the spirit of "Reverse Engineering" I decided to take a page out of
> Howard Levy's book and invest in an electronic keyboard. I have no
> aspirations to become a piano player, but now on my daily constitutional I
> occupy my mind by visualising reading the G and F clef and picking out two
> octaves of the C scale on each of them using the appropriate hands. When I
> am able to apply this practice - physically - to the actual keyboard and to
> pick out (not play fluently) a reel from O'Neill's collection, I will regard
> myself as having achieved "lift off". No doubt I shall find myself unable to
> restrain myself from letting you guys know all about it and I will depend on
> my trusty "automatic pilot" to transfer the tune from keyboard to harmonica.
> 
> Beannachtai
> 
> Aongus Mac Cana
>