 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: trish24
Date: 2012-02-03 22:14
I have started my 4th yearof playing. I have posted previously about scales and received wonderful advice
I understand key signatures and how scales are constructed..just have trouble playing them from memory. For the next exam I have to prepare A, E, Eb and Ab with their harmonic minors and their arpeggios and melodic minors, F blues(3 octaves) F chromatic, Bb and D in thirds and some dominant sevenths. I have pracised as suggested from the page and sloooowly.
I am at the point where I can play from memory, still slowly, but they are not secure ie I don't get them right every time. I realise that it is now repetition,repetition
But....yesterday in my lesson, my teacher was showing me her new tablet computer and several apps that she had downloaded for use with younger students for note recognition, rhythms, etc. I wondered about something similar which would have scales so that you just tapped the screen and got say, F# melodic minor in 3 octaves, and you could set the metronome marking and put it on repeat. This would be a lot easier than a recording. I thought the benefit would be that you would be moving to playing by ear and matching the sound of tone/semitone steps with the feel of hands on the instrument. Does this make sense?Does such an app/program exist?
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Author: pewd
Date: 2012-02-04 01:40
smart music
http://www.smartmusic.com/default.aspx
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: bethmhil
Date: 2012-02-04 01:43
I understand and agree with your notion. Scales are great because they are so universal and fundamental, but at the same time, they can still be musical (hard to believe!). Being able to hear the different intervals will most certainly help with playing them 'by ear'. Keep in mind, I can understand and appreciate the notion of taking note of every single interval, but it can and will get a little tedious. This approach is similar to memorizing a piece one single note at a time... it works better to memorize the musical lines rather than just the notes.
A similar but less narrow approach is to play a scale and use certain intervals as reference points. I usually take note of the 3rd, the 7th, and the 6th <-- (in natural/harmonic minor scales), but this is just for me. Besides those intervals being unique to major and minor, there is a certain 'crunch' that I pay attention to and push into. Some of the intervals want to resolve, and it's fun for your ear to hold onto those notes ever so slightly and then finally resolve them. You would obviously do this at a slow tempo and not necessarily with a metronome, but it has always helped me make tremendous sense of scales in my fingers and ears.
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
Post Edited (2012-02-04 01:44)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-02-04 13:35
For me the thirds are the most important variation with the 'interrupted scales' (1234, 2345, 3456....etc.) following a close second.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Alexis
Date: 2012-02-04 14:13
You need to train your fingers (or rather, the brain that controls them) well enough that, for a given scale, there are no other options than those in the scale. During your very slow practice, watch out for your fingers moving towards other notes - other 'options' as these are your points of greatest doubt.
Then when you play again make sure you play them with no doubt.
You want to make sure you don't make the same mistake twice.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-02-05 03:58
trish24 wrote:
> I wondered about something similar which would have scales
> so that you just tapped the screen and got say, F# melodic
> minor in 3 octaves, and you could set the metronome marking and
> put it on repeat. This would be a lot easier than a recording.
> I thought the benefit would be that you would be moving to
> playing by ear and matching the sound of tone/semitone steps
> with the feel of hands on the instrument.
I'm sorry, Trish, but I don't really understand from this what you want the program to do. Do you want to play along with the scale as the computer generates it? Do you expect to memorize by ear the sound of each scale in each key as a separate entity, so that F# melodic minor in 3 octaves would make a different aural imprint on your inner ear from the imprint of D melodic minor or A melodic minor? What is the reason for the loop (the repeat feature)?
It may be a great idea or not. In case I'm not alone, describe for me a little more fully what you want to learn from a program that can do what you've described.
Karl
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Author: trish24
Date: 2012-02-05 06:37
Hi, Karl,
Always good to hear from you.
Do you want to play along with the scale as the computer generates it?
Yes
Do you expect to memorize by ear the sound of each scale in each key as a separate entity, so that F# melodic minor in 3 octaves would make a different aural imprint on your inner ear from the imprint of D melodic minor or A melodic minor?
No, because I can recognise the intervals but I don't have perfect pitch as far as the start notes go.
What is the reason for the loop (the repeat feature)?
Basically because I realise that repetition is really the key as far as finger memory goes and this would be just an adjunct to that kind of practice.
It may be a great idea or not. In case I'm not alone, describe for me a little more fully what you want to learn from a program that can do what you've described.
I have looked at the program recommended by Paul and I think it does the job. I haven't signed up yet but it has a library of many, many scales
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Author: Sean.Perrin
Date: 2012-02-05 23:35
> Scales are great because they are so universal and fundamental, but at the same time, they can still be musical (hard to believe!).
Hard to believe? Scalar melodic lines are the basis of tonal music... the last time I checked, music could be pretty musical! :P
Founder and host of the Clarineat Podcast: http://www.clarineat.com
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