Submission for LOA 4
Hi again David.
I am practising the scale of C Major (on an A harp, which makes it A Major) over the entire 3 octaves. You ask for the entire scale ascending and descending. My question is, 'how good do the bends have to be on holes 2 & 3?'
As I'm doing LOA 4, I am classed as an intermediate player which could mean that the bends need to be OK but not perfect. I seem to be getting the bent notes fairly accurately but the tone is not as good as the pure notes.
Thanks,
Mark.
Thanks David.
Hi David,
Another question about the major scale. You advise for LOA 4 that the 3 octaves should be played without using the sheet music and only as fast as the notes can be visualised. Not a problem for pure notes but what about bent notes?
Specifically, how do you visualise moving from 2" to 2 and from 3" to 3. All these notes would be 'downward arrows' in my head but how to distiguish between the visualised bent and pure notes?
Any tips?
Thanks,
Mark.
Mark:
Butting in as a novice here. A plus of getting away from sheet music, TABs, etc., is that it helps a player get to the important place of actually hearing the music. Do you have another instrument on which you can play a major scale? E.g., guitar, keyboard, or whatever? Or just practice singing or humming a major scale, upward and downward. Until it's literally fixed in your brain's ear.
Then play that scale up and down on your harp. After a while, instead of visualizing things like "hey, this note is the 2''," you'll be playing by the pitch you hear. It'll pay dividends down the road.
It doesn't hurt, also, to hum or sing David's study songs. Then when you work on them on the harp, you'll be working on how they sound, not how they look on a piece paper.
This sort of thing works for me, and may not work for you. But give it a try.
Hello Mark. I personally visualize my bending chart, so the 2" would be on the second hole, two squares down for example. In the end, it's what makes most sense for you, and then stick with it.
Thanks Rob. That sounds like good advice but at the moment I want to stick to trying to visualise the notes. I have a guitar but involving that may add a level of complication I don't need.
David...I'll give the visualisation using squares a go. The problem I had visualising arrows was that I was getting confused trying to see 2 different types of down arrow when the scale requires a draw note and then a bent draw note on the same hole.
Mark.
Hello Mark. We're going for correct pitch now... tone will develop over time.