[musictlk] strategies for learning mountain dulcimer??

Sun Sep 22 19:35:20 UTC 2013

Hi Brenda,

I am a current music major in my second year of collegiate study.  I
primarily play the clarinet, but study voice, piano, and guitar as
well.  I do a lot of playing and learning by ear and have found some
helpful strategies.

If you have a Victor Stream or a BookSense you will be able to use
that to record pieces and play them back.  I really like using my
BookSense because I have the option of slowing down the recording,
which works great when trying to pick out notes in fast runs.

I have used the voice recorder app that comes standard on an IPhone
and have had pretty good success with it.  I agree that the slider for
the file playback can be annoying, but for me not going back to start
exactly where I want has actually been beneficial because it forces me
to start a few bars away from the part I want to work on and go into
it.  I have found that this has been helpful because when I usud to
use my BookSense for learning any and all recordings and could use
percentages to navigate to the specific point in the file I wanted to
go, I tended to have the piece memorized in chunks and had to smooth
out transitions between those chunks to get the whole thing sounding
fluid.

Asking your teacher to play under tempo is great for learning.  If
you're doing something that requires melody and chords ask the teacher
to play both parts separately so you can hear each, then have them
play the whole thing together so you can see how the parts mesh.  I
found this really beneficial for learning piano pieces and guitar
pieces with simultaneous melody and chords.

Practice on your own.  the more you hear yourself play different
chords, notes, and intervals, the more trained your ear will become
and the easier it will get for you to learn by ear.  Try practicing
common chord progressions like I, IV, V, I (1, 4, 5, 1).  And while
you can't really train yourself to have perfect pitch, you can train
your ear to recognize certain tuning pitches like A 440.  I use a
pitch pipe app that is free to check my tuning, but it will give your
ear a chance to hear and learn certain helpful tuning pitches which
will be beneficial in tuning and learning melodies by ear.

Also, studies have found that it is actually more beneficial for a
beginning music student to learn braille music alongside their
instrument, even if they're still working on the literary braille
code.  I can see why you'd want to get the grade 2 stuff down first,
but this same principle is what often keeps young music students from
ever learning the code.  speaking as someone who had to self-teach the
code several years after she started playing, it is much easier to
learn music as you learn your instrument so that you don't run into
the problem of trying to learn music that is not too difficult for you
to play, but is too difficult for you to read as a beginning braille
music reader.  E.G, it is much easier to learn how to read Twinkle
Twinkle at the same time you learn how to play it than to jump into
trying to read a concerto that you're playing when you're still at
Twinkle Twinkle level.  The Braille music code is actually a separate
entity from the literary code as well, so it would probably be a
worthwhile investment in your playing to start learning now.

Great questions.

On 9/21/13, Linda Mentink <mentink at frontiernet.net> wrote:
> Hi Brenda,
>
> Welcome. I'm a music teacher in Nebraska, and I play a lot by ear.
> However, I am proficient in the Braille Music Code, and often write
> out melodies and parts when I need them.
>
> You might record your lessons with your instructor, if you have a way
> to do that.
>
> I don't use any aps because I don't have an iPhone. Others here will
> have to help you with that.
>
> Blessings,
>
> Linda
>
> At 07:48 AM 9/21/2013, you wrote:
>>Hi Joshua
>>thank you for your quick response and welcome.
>>
>>I'm looking forward to finding out how other people learn songs for
>>their instruments (dulcimer, guitar, etc).  Does anyone use
>>iPad/iPhone apps to learn music for recording or rereading music
>>that you find on the internet?  Do most people who are blind simply
>>learn by ear?  Are there any suggestions for learning by ear (what I
>>can do, what my instructor can do to help me).  What other ways do
>>blind people learn their instruments?
>>Thanks
>>brenda
>>Thanks
>>Brenda
>>
>>On 9/20/2013 2:09 PM, Joshua Lester wrote:
>>>Ms. Brenda!
>>>First of all, welcome to the list!
>>>You just key the dulcimer like you would key a guitar.
>>>It's the same hand positioning!
>>>Blessings, Joshua
>>>________________________________________
>>>From: musictlk [musictlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Brenda
>>>[bjnite at windstream.net]
>>>Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 1:05 PM
>>>To: musictlk at nfbnet.org
>>>Subject: [musictlk] strategies for learning mountain dulcimer??
>>>
>>>Hello list
>>>
>>>I am a beginning mountain dulcimer player.  I cannot read print (which
>>>was never practical for reading music) , and I can't see hand
>>>positions.  I can see my instrument, but don't really process visually
>>>what I see.  I'm learning grade 2 Braille so am no where near ready for
>>>music Braille which may not be real efficient for me.  I have an iPad
>>>and iPhone and use Window Eyes on my Win7 pc.  I have been taking
>>>lessons from an awesome instructor who has helped me to
>>>become very familiar with my dulcimer despite my being unable to read
>>>music or see
>>>much of hand movements.  I play songs and cords using all the strings.
>>>
>>>Does anyone know of any accessible iDevice apps they would recommend for
>>>recording music.  I'm looking for something that will allow me to easily
>>>speed up/slow down and rewind/fast forward.  I find sliders don't work
>>>real well.  I hate buying apps only to find they do not work with
>>> voiceover.
>>>
>>>Any tips, websites, etc that would help me as a blind mountain dulcimer
>>>player to learn by ear or in general would be appreciated.
>>>
>>>Finally, are there any mountain dulcimer players out there that would be
>>>willing to communicate with me?
>>>
>>>Thanks for any help you can provide.
>>>B renda
>>>_______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>
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-- 
Kaiti