reading music, was Re: Kinesthetic/Random-Abstract
nellebelle
I spent 5 years playing violin in the school orchestra, but *quit* when I reached high school. (Now I wouldn't think of it as quitting, but that's how my parents thought of it then and I'm sure it colored years of my thinking about playing an instrument.)
During the last couple of years I've been playing guitar, a little. A friend showed me how to play 4 chords for "Where have all the flowers gone?". I've been practicing that one song. Then I picked up an electric guitar and bought a "teach yourself" book. I was surprised that it starts out with notes played with one finger on one string at a time. I'd assumed guitars were only played in chords. The book explains which finger goes on which string AND shows it on the staff. It leads through boring songs with one and two notes, but builds on that as it goes. I'm now on the third string and can play several recognizable songs. Jingle Bells and Aura Lee are two. That may not be much, but playing real songs is much more rewarding than isolated notes, for me anyway.
Playing from the sheet music was very hard at first. I marked most of the pages with the name of the note underneath the note on the staff. It is beginning to connect in my brain so I can look at the notes and know which fingers to put where! If I go several days without playing, it's a bit harder at first.
Lisa, 11, wants to learn to play too. She looked at it with me but got quickly frustrated, saying, "I can't read music!". I agreed that she couldn't, but that she *could* learn how, just as she learned to read words. I explained that I hadn't been able to read it at first either, but am figuring it out one note at a time. She doesn't pick it up as often as I do, but she has learned the first couple of songs.
One thing about playing guitar is that you need to keep your fingernails very short, at least on the left hand. I'd never noticed before how very fast fingernails can grow!
Mary Ellen
During the last couple of years I've been playing guitar, a little. A friend showed me how to play 4 chords for "Where have all the flowers gone?". I've been practicing that one song. Then I picked up an electric guitar and bought a "teach yourself" book. I was surprised that it starts out with notes played with one finger on one string at a time. I'd assumed guitars were only played in chords. The book explains which finger goes on which string AND shows it on the staff. It leads through boring songs with one and two notes, but builds on that as it goes. I'm now on the third string and can play several recognizable songs. Jingle Bells and Aura Lee are two. That may not be much, but playing real songs is much more rewarding than isolated notes, for me anyway.
Playing from the sheet music was very hard at first. I marked most of the pages with the name of the note underneath the note on the staff. It is beginning to connect in my brain so I can look at the notes and know which fingers to put where! If I go several days without playing, it's a bit harder at first.
Lisa, 11, wants to learn to play too. She looked at it with me but got quickly frustrated, saying, "I can't read music!". I agreed that she couldn't, but that she *could* learn how, just as she learned to read words. I explained that I hadn't been able to read it at first either, but am figuring it out one note at a time. She doesn't pick it up as often as I do, but she has learned the first couple of songs.
One thing about playing guitar is that you need to keep your fingernails very short, at least on the left hand. I'd never noticed before how very fast fingernails can grow!
Mary Ellen
----- Original Message ----- But I think when beginners to reading music see the music, they balk and
freeze up, thinking "reading" is coming to a point where they just see it and it
comes out of their hands or mouth.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 11/1/04 9:12:32 AM, nellebelle@... writes:
<< Then I picked up an electric guitar and bought a "teach yourself" book.
I was surprised that it starts out with notes played with one finger on one
string at a time. I'd assumed guitars were only played in chords. >>
Folk guitar stuff is played in chords with occasional runs (little doodly
bass lines) from one chord to another. But lead guitar stuff is "solo voice"
music, and the rhythm guitar does the lead.
I've been listening to lots of old Beatles because of Marty's interests, and
it is so fun to hear it after years, and hear it differently.
When I was a kid, I just thought Paul McCartney was cute, and could
harmonize well. When I was a teen, I thought he was a good songwriter and good
businessman. Not until fairly recently did I really start listening to the bass
guitar lines. MY GOSH! Forget that singing, songwriting, business stuff. He's
a stunning bass player. (Another single-note instrument, not chord stuff.)
-=-playing real songs is much more rewarding than isolated notes, for me
anyway.-=-
Oh, definitely. Playing a single note is like phoneme practice in a phonics
class. "What sound does 'b' make?" "Buh." Bah.
-=- I marked most of the pages with the name of the note underneath the note
on the staff. -=-
I learned to play recorder with an alto recorder. Later when I started
playing soprano and tenor, I would write the note names underneath, especially if
there was a big jump, because I was way likely to jump to the alto fingering
for that note, and be way off in the wrong key then.
I was dressed as a mummy long ago for a Halloween party, and the rags started
coming off my hands. I was young and slimmer and had bound up and padded up
some so people didn't know for sure if I was male or female, either. I was
saying nothing at all, but I whimpered at someone I knew to fix my hand wraps
and held my hands out. She was wrapping them very nicely, but also said,
"Hmmm.... short fingernails on the left, and long on the right. Callouses. A
guitar player." And she smiled at me (or at the gauze on my face anyway).
Darn! I was busted. But she didn't tell anybody.
Sandra
<< Then I picked up an electric guitar and bought a "teach yourself" book.
I was surprised that it starts out with notes played with one finger on one
string at a time. I'd assumed guitars were only played in chords. >>
Folk guitar stuff is played in chords with occasional runs (little doodly
bass lines) from one chord to another. But lead guitar stuff is "solo voice"
music, and the rhythm guitar does the lead.
I've been listening to lots of old Beatles because of Marty's interests, and
it is so fun to hear it after years, and hear it differently.
When I was a kid, I just thought Paul McCartney was cute, and could
harmonize well. When I was a teen, I thought he was a good songwriter and good
businessman. Not until fairly recently did I really start listening to the bass
guitar lines. MY GOSH! Forget that singing, songwriting, business stuff. He's
a stunning bass player. (Another single-note instrument, not chord stuff.)
-=-playing real songs is much more rewarding than isolated notes, for me
anyway.-=-
Oh, definitely. Playing a single note is like phoneme practice in a phonics
class. "What sound does 'b' make?" "Buh." Bah.
-=- I marked most of the pages with the name of the note underneath the note
on the staff. -=-
I learned to play recorder with an alto recorder. Later when I started
playing soprano and tenor, I would write the note names underneath, especially if
there was a big jump, because I was way likely to jump to the alto fingering
for that note, and be way off in the wrong key then.
I was dressed as a mummy long ago for a Halloween party, and the rags started
coming off my hands. I was young and slimmer and had bound up and padded up
some so people didn't know for sure if I was male or female, either. I was
saying nothing at all, but I whimpered at someone I knew to fix my hand wraps
and held my hands out. She was wrapping them very nicely, but also said,
"Hmmm.... short fingernails on the left, and long on the right. Callouses. A
guitar player." And she smiled at me (or at the gauze on my face anyway).
Darn! I was busted. But she didn't tell anybody.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
On Monday I myself bought a video game, for myself. Well, for everyone. But
I had read about it a while back at unschooling.com, in something Anne
Ohman wrote, and asked Marty if he knew about it. Then the busy week
carried me away.
Monday a toy catalog came, and there it was: Donkey Konga, for GameCube.
I rushed upstairs, pointed at it, and asked Kirby if I gave him money would he
go and get me one.
Yes. He did. We played it. I wanted a second set of drums so we could do
the competitive mode. He said the store had had a used set for $20. Fifteen
minutes later, we're playing two-player. So $70 total for us, maybe you can
find it cheaper, but if you pay full price, $80 for two sets of (basically) bongos
and the game itself.
It's music reading, almost exactly, but not close enough that the music readers
(Keith and I) are at an advantage. But close enough that someone who
learns to play these drums will have a headstart on reading traditional
western musical notation.
There are different marks for left, right, both and clap (and a little microphone
between the drums knows you clapped).
Because it's not really a konga drum, I thought they should've called it Bongo
Kazooie. But it's too late for that. <g>
We've had tons of fun, and the boys' cousins and two of their friends came by
and ended up staying a long time.
With the points you earn playing one-player, you can buy options--different
drum sounds, "mini games," harder versions of songs, etc.
It's not set up to keep individual players' scores, but saves the overall high
scores of the game in general. So in that way it's "cooperative." Points
anyone makes are in the bank for anyone else to spend on upgrades and
levels.
I thought (and said) it would be like Dance, Dance Revolution, only for fingers.
Well... it's not for fingers. It's for arms, shoulders, and if you hold the bongos
between your legs, for other parts. The first long session Kirby played he
could hardly get up and walk afterwards, and was whining about his
shoulders hurting. <g> I sit close to the table and wedge my drums between
me and the edge of the table. Some hold them in laps (one dropped them
while clapping. Some leave them on the table.
Sandra
I had read about it a while back at unschooling.com, in something Anne
Ohman wrote, and asked Marty if he knew about it. Then the busy week
carried me away.
Monday a toy catalog came, and there it was: Donkey Konga, for GameCube.
I rushed upstairs, pointed at it, and asked Kirby if I gave him money would he
go and get me one.
Yes. He did. We played it. I wanted a second set of drums so we could do
the competitive mode. He said the store had had a used set for $20. Fifteen
minutes later, we're playing two-player. So $70 total for us, maybe you can
find it cheaper, but if you pay full price, $80 for two sets of (basically) bongos
and the game itself.
It's music reading, almost exactly, but not close enough that the music readers
(Keith and I) are at an advantage. But close enough that someone who
learns to play these drums will have a headstart on reading traditional
western musical notation.
There are different marks for left, right, both and clap (and a little microphone
between the drums knows you clapped).
Because it's not really a konga drum, I thought they should've called it Bongo
Kazooie. But it's too late for that. <g>
We've had tons of fun, and the boys' cousins and two of their friends came by
and ended up staying a long time.
With the points you earn playing one-player, you can buy options--different
drum sounds, "mini games," harder versions of songs, etc.
It's not set up to keep individual players' scores, but saves the overall high
scores of the game in general. So in that way it's "cooperative." Points
anyone makes are in the bank for anyone else to spend on upgrades and
levels.
I thought (and said) it would be like Dance, Dance Revolution, only for fingers.
Well... it's not for fingers. It's for arms, shoulders, and if you hold the bongos
between your legs, for other parts. The first long session Kirby played he
could hardly get up and walk afterwards, and was whining about his
shoulders hurting. <g> I sit close to the table and wedge my drums between
me and the edge of the table. Some hold them in laps (one dropped them
while clapping. Some leave them on the table.
Sandra
AnneO
Sandra ~ I'm so glad to see that you got Donkey Konga and are
enjoying it!
We were very sore when we first played it...mostly because it's so
much fun and you don't want to stop! Our hands were hurting from
clapping, and then Jake and Sam figured out that you could hit the
bongos instead of clapping...but that's too confusing for my brain (I
already trained it to *clap* at the asterisk, so I didn't feel like
changing it!).
We have learned that we do best when we stand up and play. We put
the bongos on a TV table in front of us. This gives our bodies the
most freedom for moving...and I've even started doing a
*dancing/bongo* thing where I add more groove to the music with my
legs and hips!
~ Anne
enjoying it!
We were very sore when we first played it...mostly because it's so
much fun and you don't want to stop! Our hands were hurting from
clapping, and then Jake and Sam figured out that you could hit the
bongos instead of clapping...but that's too confusing for my brain (I
already trained it to *clap* at the asterisk, so I didn't feel like
changing it!).
We have learned that we do best when we stand up and play. We put
the bongos on a TV table in front of us. This gives our bodies the
most freedom for moving...and I've even started doing a
*dancing/bongo* thing where I add more groove to the music with my
legs and hips!
~ Anne