Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Thanks Cote, what a lovely person you are 😊

I've just taken delivery of some lovely Cashmere fingerless gloves from turtle-doves.co.uk they're made from recycled Cashmere and are lovely. For playing in the winter, as I have poor circulation and freezing hands! Just mentioning in case anyone else might find them useful x

Sounds good Raider. Out of interest, in the beginner course does he cover the 3-chord (or 4-chord) trick of just playing any basic song by ear? It's only since I came back to music in the last few months that I learned that. I only know a few chords on guitar and ukulele but I have a few beginner books and have been to a few sing-along-y beginner workshops and none of them even mention this which seems odd to me! It's easy and with it you can play so much. Instead the books I have all teach you a few chords and then you read the chord progression from the page for each song rather than encouraging you to hear what it should be and work it out for yourself. I don't get it.

The actual lessons are mostly technique but there is also quite a lot of useful theory on the site.

And there is some good stuff on the different barre chord shapes - although IMO for most purposes if you know the F (M/m) and A (M/m) shape barre chords and you know the names of the notes on the bottom two strings you can play literally anything. I don't have a great ear but I could work out the accompaniment to most simple songs just by sliding barre chords up and down the neck.

He also has some useful apps including a note finder app which will quickly improve your ability to find the notes on the neck. Once you know the bottom two strings you can find the other notes by using patterns anyway.

Fluke in those two chords I would use 5 and 4 on the top notes and the thumb on the bottom note, you can "slide" between notes to create the legato effect.

But as Cote says, check with other editions. I don't have book 2 so can't help.

Fluke - No worries. It will take me a couple of days to get back home, but I should have this Fugue

It's in fact a Fughetta. BWV 902 is called "Prelude & Fughetta in G Major"

Re fingerless gloves - I have Brora "wrist warmers" and they are an absolute delight to play with. There's nothing between the fingers. I bought a pair for my teacher and she uses them all the time, too

Yes mine are like that - with nothing between the fingers, wristwarmers is a better name for them. Mine are an exuberant shade of red 😊

I don’t think so Tintini. There are some ear training exercises so that you can build up to working out the chords for yourself, but he’s also trying to sell his song books and apps, so... ;)

Had a total brain fart yesterday when some tab was telling me to play A#m because I’m so used to seeing it written as Bbm, lol!

Just played through Teluga Rail on the piano, I think it might grow on me...

I also dug out the Platonov thirty studies for solo flute, to try and improve my dexterity again - I was surprised that some of the phrases flowed automatically, even though I haven't played them for twenty years. But generally I'm quite rusty on the flute, need to build in some daily practise. I need to be able to play something so I can try out flutes when I go to buy one!

If you don't mind saying, where did you get your flute from Tintini?

Sure Fluke, I went to Just Flutes in Croydon. There's also another specialist flute shop in central London - All Flutes Plus. Not sure if there are any others in the UK, but Just Flutes do tours apparently!

Hmm Raider A#minor is annoying. I've never quite understood why they sometimes use the one with 7 sharps rather than the one with 5 flats, but I guess there's always a reason...anyone know?

Interesting about Justinguitar. I guess it's true that he has to sell the song books! Similar to my beginner books...I suppose they need to fill the pages with something, otherwise it's not really a book. (I reckon they could still have a little page on the 3-chord trick though.)

Maybe it is just hard to teach people to play by ear...but I just can't help thinking most people can do it at that basic level! At least, the three people I've taught got it in an hour and were then merrily playing any tune that came into their heads. Or maybe it's that people prefer to learn lots of different chords and keys and tackle more complex stuff?

The amount of free material on justinguitar is extraordinary. Or do people think he should just do it for free?

I do agree though that people who turn to a website to learn guitar often have ambitions to do a lot more than play three chords.

Thanks Tintini, I'd been looking at Just Flutes but it's a fair distance away. I may well go there anyway as their range is so good.

Oh I agree Misti - the justinguitar website looks fantastic! I don't think he should make it all free as he certainly needs a viable business strategy. I'm just genuinely curious about why this aspect was missing from my many years of music education, when it feels now to me that it would have been helpful if it was the first, most basic thing I learnt. I feel like there must be some good reasons. Perhaps music teachers have found from experience that it's a poor way to start off. Maybe it's irrelevant to most learners / doesn't help them achieve their goals and I just need to get over myself!

Fluke I don't live anywhere near Croydon either, but I think it was worth the trip. If you do go it's probably worth booking in if you're coming from a distance (you can just send them an email) because they only have a certain number of practice rooms and you need a good hour or so. They have lots of good advice about how to approach testing flutes on their website too.

We went to Dawkes music in Maidenhead, recommended by DS1's teacher, and we've also had the flute serviced at All Flute Plus.

Forgive my sardonicism Misti, it’s just how I am. I’m planning to make a donation to the site because I’ve found it useful and I don’t need yet another book of songs and tab.

Signed up to the next covers contest, 80s themed this time so right up my street. Having trouble narrowing down a new song to learn though.

I'm the Midlands - I haven't found anywhere local yet that sells a good range of intermediate flutes. Apparently Just Flutes did a pop-up showroom in Birmingham a few weeks ago but I didn't know until afterwards.

Fluke - Here's the part of Fughetta from BWV 902 that you asked about. As I suspected, there are no slurs in the Urtext (original) version.

Which edition are you using? Maybe it's because my teacher insists that I only get Urtext, but I'm a bit of an Urtext snob and just don't understand why anyone would want to mess with Bach's music. Adding those slurs changes the music, as it means the repeating notes should just be held and not played again.

It's in Bach's Kleine Präludien une Fughetten (Little Preludes and Fughettas), if anyone wants to check theirs.

Thanks Cote. I'm using the edition published by the ABRSM in the grade 6 pieces publication. The slurs are editorial, so optional for exam purposes. I'm really enjoying playing it - I love Bach

On the subject of sheet music I sent DD down to the local thrift shop with some clothes to recycle, and she came back with the Henle edition of Schumann's Album for the Young that she bought for 2€ and which I have been enjoying sightreading my way through.

I am still without a teacher but DS has found one - he has blagged his way into the conservatoire and he has somehow persuaded them to allocate him the teacher who takes the most advanced students .

Well done your DD! Henle edition for 2 euros is a great bargain! And well done to your DS too. Are you still looking for a teacher yourself?

I'm not looking for a teacher right now as I am fairly sure there are no properly competent private teachers in the area and I don't have time to go into the city for lessons once a week. I could have tried to get lessons at the conservatoire but with work travel means I'd miss at least one lesson a month so it seemed a bit cheeky.

I was very spoilt by my last teacher who was far and away the best teacher I've ever had, and will be very hard to replace.