Mix And Match

[RiverHamble]

Hi All.

 

I have started another thread as that last one was getting too crazy!

 

I have just had a practice where I played through some carols from the book. I played one from start to finish, after which I went back to the bits where I had had trouble (e.g. the long bit in Ding Dong Merrily On High) and I then played those bits through several times until I was happy with them. I included a couple of bars either side for good measure, after which I played the whole thing again.

 

This seemed to work for me rather well, though my learning strategy may change as I go along. I do get rather bored playing the same few bars over and over and over and over again. For though I may have learnt those few bars off pat, I feel, haven't really learnt that much. I think that if I can play a tune, complete with bad bits I am at least learning something, and I can work on the bad bits later.

 

While this may not work for all, it certainly concentrates my "playing" on the bars that need more attention and lets me enjoy playing the bars that don't.

[Samantha]

That's the way to do it, for me, too. I think you'll find that you are learning more than the tricky bits when you go over and over them, too, because there will be bits of other tunes that use the same notes and require the same sort of dexterity.

"Getting bored" with going over the same short phrase is part of the process too - eventually you get past that to feeling so confident about the notes that you can add something (decoration, harmony notes?) because the tune is now second nature.

Hope this helps

Samantha

[gzeg]

That's the way to do it, for me, too. I think you'll find that you are learning more than the tricky bits when you go over and over them, too, because there will be bits of other tunes that use the same notes and require the same sort of dexterity.

"Getting bored" with going over the same short phrase is part of the process too - eventually you get past that to feeling so confident about the notes that you can add something (decoration, harmony notes?) because the tune is now second nature.

Hope this helps

Samantha

 

I suggest to my students - flute & whistle, but I used the same technique myself when learning the concertina - that they spend some time learning to play some of the tunes they already have in their heads. For example, children's songs, hymns, Beatles medleys, Christmas carols, whatever. The idea is that you already know how the tune goes, and once you figure out the fingering it's all gravy. This gives you an opportunity to enjoy playing, listen to how your instrument sounds, have a bit of fun pushing the tune in different directions on the concertina (these all might amount to the same thing).

 

If you get really bored, try inventing exercises based on the scales you already know...