[Harp-L] Playing in your head and reading music

[bfrain@xxxxx]

well...um...i cant read music, and believe me, i tried...my adhd wont allow it, lol.... but i know what i like to hear, and it's gotta hit me right here...beethoven never appealed to me, but tchaikovsky? that guy had feel, lol... but that's just me, of course...we all like what we like for whatever reasons...but if i cant feel it, i usually dont listen to it much....that's why i immediately glommed onto butterfield, and not so much piazza (and i certainly recognize rod is one of the best ever!)
---- Aongus Mac Cana <amaccana at xxxxx> wrote: 
> I don't know if there are any Neuro-Scientists on this  list, but I am
> fascinated by how you can get skills like driving, playing golf, reading and
> playing music into the "automatic pilot" section of your "chip" .
> 
> In my mid fifties I made one of my best ever investments in time. I learned
> how to touch type with a cheap computer program. 
> 
> At an intermediate stage of my learning I could type memos to myself in my
> head (even when driving the car - Dangerous!), visualising my fingers going
> to the appropriate keys. What surprised me was that when I got better at it
> I could not do this anymore. Now I only have the vaguest idea of where the
> letters on the keyboard are. My fingers just seem to go there themselves.
> 
> When I retired I thought to myself: "Maybe I can do the same thing with
> reading music". No such luck. I discovered that I am a pure ear player and
> that I have no idea what note I am playing. I find harmonica tab useless and
> ABC tab marginally better. I can read sheet music slowly like a Ladybird
> Book. That is to  say I can figure out what notes the dots correspond to.
> This is slightly useful in figuring out the bar I am having problems with.
> 
> I invested in a cheap electronic keyboard, because I heard that his was
> where Howard Levy started and that he still visualises the keyboard even
> when he is playing the harmonica. I never actually play the darned thing,
> but I can visualise what key I should be hitting when I read the staff. When
> bored while travelling along in the bus I sometimes play the scales in my
> head.
> 
> Do these geriatric ramblings ring a bell with any of you guys?
> 
> Beannachtai
> 
> Aongus Mac Cana
>