Bad Habit List For Beginner

[Rod]

Like Dave, I can't relate the dots to the buttons on the concertina, and like him I have to count up from the primary key buttons if I want to find a particular note.

 

I don't think this is dyslexia in any technical sense. As a child I learned to play recorder, and learned the dots along with the fingering. Consequently I can play (badly) from music on the recorder. The concertina I learned by ear, and never needed to know the names of the notes I was playing. I've made a few efforts to learn since, but frankly they've been rather half-hearted because I still don't really need to know. It would be a nice-to-have - it does get a bit frustrating that I have to first get a tune into my head, either by playing it on the recorder or by copying it into ABC, but I've got more useful things to do with my time than learn a skill I don't really need.

 

But with hindsight, I wish I'd made more of an effort when I was learning, because then I'd be able to play the tunes straight from the music.

 

But whether you learn a tune from the dots or by ear, that's only part of it. You then have to learn how to play it

 

As a bandsman I had little or no option but to follow the 'dots', but for relaxed solo practice nothing beats the pleasure of transmitting a tune in the head directly to the fingers. By comparison, reading the 'dots' turns a relaxing pleasure into a chore. Sometimes an exhausting and unpleasant chore !

[m3838]

Now, all of us here in the forum can obviously write, which is more difficult than reading, so I assume we are all fully literate.

BUT how many of us could play a convincing Hamlet or Richard III on stage?

If we have the acting talent, training and experience, we can take the text of a play we've never seen before and make a pretty good stab at it. If we're not actors, just being able to read and understand the text won't help us.

 

I think one should focus on drama rather than on novels or technical manuals. "Performance" is the key word!

 

Simple truth.