February 1998:Using your ear

Unit Two: Playing By Ear

Suppose that there is a tune you know and love. A tune is also called a melody. You can hear the melody in your head, you can hum or sing it and you would like to play it on your harp. Following are some steps that might assist you.

Melodies consist of notes that move up, down, skip (up or down) or stay the same. Start by humming the tune and listen to the movement of the notes. As you hum or sing, take your hand and move it as the notes move.

Next you have to find the starting note and the key in which you will play on the harp so hunt around until you find the same pitch that you are singing at the start of the tune. All music has a "tonal center", a place at which the music seems to settle and end. This is the root (name note) of the key you are in and you will have to do some experimenting with various tunes until you can find the tonal center or each one.

Let's use the Ode to Joy theme as an example:

E E F G G F E D C C D E E - D D

Play it, sing it and decide on which of the notes could you stop and feel settled. The rest of the tune will give you the answer:

E E F G G F E D C C D E D - C C

The last note is the tonal center or root of the key.

In the tune you want to play, the pitch you start to sing may be inappropriate, e.g. you might find that you are singing a Db which would be unreasonable to use on a lever harp. So try singing the tune a note or two higher or lower than the one you chose first. Another idea is to sing it until you have decided on the note that is tonal center (root), then determine how the first note of the piece relates to the root note. In the Ode to Joy the first note (E) is a third above the root (C). Now you can start your piece on the harp in any key you wish by setting the levers for the key you want to play in and starting on the note that is a third above the root of that key.

So now you have determined what key you are in and where the melody starts. Next you have to track the notes of the melody by direction. In the Ode, the first two notes are the same (they do not move up or down), the next ones begin to move:

start - same - up - up - same - down - down - down - down - same - up - up -same(wait) - down - same and so one for the rest of the tune.

The hard part occurs when there is a skip in the melody. We will address this problem next month.

See you next month for Unit 3.

Stephanie

Music/Supplies || Sounds || Bio || Links || Home || Contact

Site designed by Duncan Watt for Kanuba. E-mail to: kanuba@comcast.net