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Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

999 replies

CoteDAzur · 07/11/2017 17:02

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another Smile

OP posts:
NeverEverAnythingEver · 07/11/2017 18:49

Hello!

clarrylove · 07/11/2017 19:07

Hi! My first time on this board. It appears I have joined a Brass Band - by mistake! I was dropping off my son to a new beginner's band but we arrived late. Someone thrust an instrunent at me and told me to sit and I didn't really get chance to argue!

So, really loved the first lesson but massive learning curve. I don't really read music and have never blown a cornet before. My son has his grade 1 so has been helping me. I have been practising a lot but not sure I am getting any better yet!

colleysmill · 07/11/2017 19:10

I keep seeing these threads and thinking I should post and never have (usually busy out rehearsing!) Hello :)

Babieseverywhere · 07/11/2017 19:57

clarrylove That is so funny :) What a fab way to start a new hobby.

We bought an digital piano for our eldest to learn on and I'm having a lot of fun trying to play it ! I had lessons 30 years ago but never got as far as exams so I am a complete beginner too.

Babieseverywhere · 07/11/2017 19:57

colleysmill Hello :)

clarrylove · 07/11/2017 20:35

It's just so hard!! I am in my 40s and think I must have memory loss as I keep forgetting the notes! Confused

CoteDAzur · 07/11/2017 20:41

Welcome clarry & colley Smile

clarry your accidental orcestra story is hilarious Grin

OP posts:
CoteDAzur · 07/11/2017 20:47

Babies - You are just like me, 2 years ago! Smile It's a lot of work to go back to playing an instrument in our 40s but it brings to much pleasure!

OP posts:
LooseAtTheSeams · 07/11/2017 21:12

Clarry that’s very funny- but I bet it’s fun!
Lovely to think we filled a whole thread and looking forward to hearing how everyone’s getting on in part 2!
I don’t like the way my teacher brightly commented at the end of last night’s lesson that we’d be doing scales, sight reading AND aural next time. She’s getting serious about me doing the grade 5 exam, I can sense it!

Babieseverywhere · 07/11/2017 22:01

CoteDAzur
If I could learn to play 10% as well as you can on the last thread, I would be so happy. I suspect that would take a lot longer than two years too, I might WANT to be musical but I have zero talent in this area.

Plus if I manage to play several bars of music well, I get excited that I am actually playing music and lose my place on the sheet music, lol. Hoping to be able to entertain or bore my children with christmas carols by christmas eve

Ps. That harspichord sounds so lovely, very different to a piano.

colleysmill · 07/11/2017 22:10

Talk about a baptism of fire!

Babieseverywhere · 08/11/2017 06:41

Q1. When you do scales with both hands together (Say Major C), do you start both thumbs on middle C or does the left hand go an octave down ?

Q2. I was taught a 3,5 And a 3,4,3,5 fingering patterns for C Major....I am assuming 3,4,3,5 is the 'two octave scale'

Q3. Do I need to practise the short and longer version of scales or just stick to the two octave version and how important is it to do them hands together? (As I can only do major C and major G scales hands together and a few more major scales with separate hands)

CoteDAzur · 08/11/2017 06:55

Thank you Babies but if my middle-aged sausage fingers could learn to play the piano, I’m sure you will, too Smile You just need to put in the hours!

I couldn’t read the notes when I started again 2 years ago, either. I only knew the position of Do on both Sol & Fa keys. So I would either play by ear or count the notes up or down from Do (or Sol & Fa in their respective keys) Blush

Trust me, it will come! Smile

OP posts:
colleysmill · 08/11/2017 07:06

Scales are my nemesis. The only thing I have found that helps me practise them is this funky app called smart Scales although I can only find it on the iPad and not android sadly

I did grade 6 as a teenager on the piano (so a long time ago) but in the piano the left hand plays an octave below. I pkay the violin mainly now and sometimes I just a mix of 2 and 3 octaves although really o need to practice 3 octaves.

I can't remember the answer about fingering sorry

CoteDAzur · 08/11/2017 07:20

Babies - I haven’t done scales in a long time but re Q1: Both hands move in the same direction (is my recollection).

I don’t understand what you mean by Q2, sorry.

OP posts:
NeverEverAnythingEver · 08/11/2017 07:39

Q1. You can do scales starting from the same note and going opposite ways ("contrary motion", if I remember correctly, is the ABRSM term), or you can go in the same direction, in which case usually you would do them one octave apart. For C major the advantage of going "contrary motion" is that you use the same finger on both hands on each note as you go along, so starting middle C with thumb, you go 12312345 and back again for both hands.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 08/11/2017 07:42

Q2 - I'm not sure what you mean either. Smile

Q3 - I would stick to 2 octaves until confident. Check out which scales use the same fingerings and once you've got them you've got them. I don't know why it's conventional to start with C major because I think it's the hardest one, not having "landmarks" Grin of black notes. Do D and A and E.

LooseAtTheSeams · 08/11/2017 08:00

I found that with C major as well - once you start doing that flats and sharps that fingering becomes quite ‘normal’, then you go back to C major and it feels really strange!
When you learn them stick to 2 octaves until confident, then do 3 for extra practice.
There’s a book called Scales Bootcamp that is good if you’re prepared to devote the time to it. (Fits and starts is more like it in my case!)

LooseAtTheSeams · 08/11/2017 08:06

Q2 yes in RH ascending

Babieseverywhere · 08/11/2017 09:11

If I did scales in the same direction an octave apart that would make it much easier.

I will get the book recommended.

Any recommendations for those other things...apprellies (sp) are they the same as 'broken chords' ?

Babieseverywhere · 08/11/2017 09:18

I can slowly read music...better for the triple clef than the bass clef. For the bass clef I am constantly saying ACEG and Good Boys Deserve Football to figure them out !

Pythonesque · 08/11/2017 09:28

Babies - your Q2 - essentially when we play piano scales we don't use the little finger (5) very much because it is shorter and generally weaker than the others. It is very convenient to use it at the end of a scale either to start (LH) or turn around (RH), as long as it is on a white key. You are then using it in place of the thumb if you were going on for another octave. When you get to doing scales that start on a black key we don't generally use 5 at all (generally all fingering, not just scales, aims to avoid putting the thumb on a black key if possible).

Hope that helps.

Just saw your next post - yes scales hands together in the same direction are normally played one octave apart.
Arpeggios and broken chords are closely related, yes, with arpeggios going straight up and down when "broken chords" often implies playing a pattern that goes back on itself before going on, if that makes any sense. The "standard" arpeggio that you will learn first, uses the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of a scale then repeats up the octave, finishing with the key note like a scale would.

A good scales book should be helpful, if you find one that starts close to your current level in terms of explanations.

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NeverEverAnythingEver · 08/11/2017 09:28

Arpeggios - same notes as broken chords, just going straight up and back down for ABRSM.

Beethoven Moonlight sonata 3rd movement sorts out your arpeggio in a rather fiery way ... Grin

There's the school of thought (or Daniel Barenboim) that you don't really need to endlessly repeat scales. Just learn to play Mozart. Plenty of scales in Mozart sonatas. If I understand correctly the Suzuki method is not obsessed with scales either.

CoteDAzur · 08/11/2017 09:35

“better for the triple clef than the bass clef”

Is Triple clef English for the Sol key (“clef de Sol”) —although the word Clef is French for Key—?

OP posts:
Babieseverywhere · 08/11/2017 09:42

Thanks for all the posts...I have forgotten so much (or didn't bother to learn it at 11yo)

Just checking ...Treble not triple Clef (G clef) usually for right hand.
Bass clef (F clef) usually for left hand

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