[musictlk] strategies for learning mountain dulcimer??
Brenda
bjnite at windstream.net
Mon Sep 23 18:07:16 UTC 2013
Hi Kaiti
Thank you for replying with some valuable info and some info that
confirms what I'm doing. I like the speed-up/slow-down feature on my
Victor. My instructor uses audacity and is going to record some stuff
for me but he has no idea what an mp3 file is. I will have to take the
file in whatever format he gives and try to save it in something my
Victor will play. I had several recordings of songs he made during our
lessons, but I had to erase my iPad because of an IOS 7 install gone
wrong and I lost them. I will try to record future stuff with my Victor
(this will save him from spending a lot of time recording and saving to
disk). He has already got me doing chords and various scales and
intervals. I'm still looking for an app that has buttons instead of a
slider bar. I don't mind going back too far, but I use audio memos and
often I have to keep swiping to get anywhere. I agree about learning
Braille music, but I have so much going on having too much new will make
me crazy. Besides I would have to teach myself as Hadley won't let me
take Braille music until I complete grade 2.
FYI, my background is that I tried learning piano and violin (4th grade)
as a child when I had partial sight and they expected me to read print
music. Actually I tried guitar and piano as an adult relying on my
vision. My instructor is awesome and is working with me without print
music although I think he was hoping I could use music to help
learning. I was hoping to find some apps that would work with voiceover
where I could read the music notes and tabliture, but that kind of thing
is not set up as a txt file.
I will reread your email a few times to totally absorb it. Thank you so
much for sending it. I am kind of surprised that I haven't gotten many
responses and your's was the only one with real information.
I may contact yu again with more questions as time goes on.
thanks again.
Brenda
On 9/22/2013 3:35 PM, Kaiti Shelton wrote:
> 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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>>
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