How do you substitute notes that are too low or high?

[David Audette]

I have an Elise Duet. I want to play a lot of pieces but They all have notes that are too low or high even if I change the octave I play the rest of the song at. Does anybody have any methods of substituting said notes that they have been successful with, or any suggestions for sources of music?

 

Thanks,

   David Audette

[Don Taylor]

Maybe I am misunderstanding the question, but the beauty of the Hayden system is that it is  easy to transpose the key of a tune and not just by an octave.  You can shift your hand to the left,  right,  up or down for the starting note and then play the same pattern of fingering as you would if you had the missing notes.

 

Now the Elise has a limited number of buttons (34) so this only works for a few keys but for simple tunes there is usually something that works OK.

 

If it is just the occasional low melody note that is missing then you can always play that note on the left hand and not the right hand.

 

If you need to have the 'dots' in a usable key then you will probably have to enter the score into a music notation program and ask it to transcribe it up or down for you. If you are smarter than I am then you may be able to get your brain-finger connection to do it for you 'on the fly'.  That is to say, fake your fingers into playing in F while reading in G, the fingering patterns are the same so once you start off then stick to the same relative finger movements.

 

I find that once I have a tune in my 'fingers' then I can easily transpose it into different keys to see which I like the best.

[David Colpitts]

More experienced and knowledgeable folks have more to add, for sure, but my simple take (as an Elise owner who also added a 46 button Hayden to the fleet) is that Don's suggestion about the left hand is the only  way to get the 3-octave range.  Personally, I can easily get lost on those odd notes, since the octave overlap means it's usually not the bottom row I need to find with my left.  But they are there (save for the key of A?) and the Elise remains, IMHO, an excellent "mini-chromatic-accordion" for a great price.  I play the 46 button more now, and the right hand has a larger compass that minimizes the need to switch sides.

 

Do I remember you from the NESI Squeeze-In?