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Workshop
Article - Last updated November 2002 |
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Developing your playing skills
by
Jenny Coxon & Sally Whytehead
This is the first part of the write-up of the workshops that Jenny and
Sally gave at Launde in 1999. Part 2 will follow later in the year.
We have thought about our own playing and tried to analyse some of
the skills we have developed an the hammered dulcimer through trial
and error, and some of the skills we have brought to the instrument
because of our earlier musical training.
We have divided these into three areas which are useful to remember
when playing any instrument, but the ones in italics are very
important for hammered dulcimer players.
3 SKILLS TO CONSIDER:
A) Listening:
B) Looking:
C) Not Looking:
A) LISTENING
- training memory - can you sing bits of a tune?
- knowledge of a tunes usual key - leads to a `feel’ for a particular key;
- locating key of a tune during a session, or on a recording; learning to recognise
the difference between major and minor keys; starting to listen for modes or
unusual scales (eg Kletzmer or ragas);
- how to work out a tune you hear.
B) LOOKING
- familiarity with instrument layout - builds up the awareness of position of notes
and keys on your instrument;
- hand to eye co-ordination - placing the strike accurately.
C) NOT LOOKING - spatial awareness
- realise that there is no need to look at every note
- good spatial awareness helps build up speed - you
can't look at every note - you don't have time!
- playing without looking at certain wires - eg. In 2 part harmony playing;
- playing without looking at current notes because of looking
ahead to see the next few - eg. Where difficult leaps occur;
- playing from music
- there can be reasons why you need to look elsewhere whilst playing
- eg. At other musicians in a band, at your audienoe, to communicate
effectively if singing and playing, good posture leads to relaxed
playing.
ACTIVITIES/EXERCISES
LISTENING
- training memory: (by yourself) - take a tune you know, - try
singing/whistling/humming phrases of it; try to work out the notes by
using sol fa:
(with group, or in pairs), - other members of the group, or partner,
have a go at playing phrases you have sung or played;
- (ONE AT A TIME - because you need
to be able to hear your actual voice and the sounds in your
immediate memory); to help you do this, try singing/whistling/humming
the phrase - this is good practice because if you can sing it,
you've already learnt it and just have to transfer it to the dulcimer.
- working out a tune yau have heard: try a variety of strategies,
eg. - sol fa singing,
singing up or down to the next note, listening for scales or
arpeggios (or parts of them within the tune, remembering phrases
or `hooks', listening to the rhythm and working
out the time signature, hearing rhythm motifs and playing them softly
on one note - dah or soh usually works with most tunes;
Solo exercise - sing a tune you have heard, then try to play it:
(with group or in pairs), - using scales and arpeggios -
copy sequence played, take turns - the person who is listening can try
firstly by looking and listening, and secondly by not looking and listening;
`duelling dulcimers' - improvise and copy;
- knowledge of a tune's usual key: get the music for tunes you know
- OR - check the usually accepted key for playing tunes that you know
- IF YOU AREN'T PLAYING IN THE USUAL KEY - CHANGE!!
- locating the key of a tune: listen to tunes on CDs
if possible and try to guess the key (CDs are better than tapes
because pitch and therefore key will be truer), - check
with your own instrument and try and find the key if your guess was wrong.
- learning a tune by ear in a session: simplify the tune by trying
to get the bare bones of it and then folling in the detail slowly.
The next article will cover looking and not looking and some general points.
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Workshop
Article - Last updated November 2002 |
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