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"SCRUFFY EAGLE"
"MUSICAL TIPS"
Copyright (C) 2006 thru 2009, by: scruffyeagle.com
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Revised Include re. visitor counting (of any & all areas) at website : scruffyeagle.com website
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----- INTRO -----
The purpose of this page is to share the concepts which have led me to practice several different instruments, and
the tid-bits of knowledge I've gained for making better use of those various instruments.
NOTE: This page is a work in progress; likely to take a very long time to be anywhere near comprehensive, on its
way to being huge. As such, I'll be posting updates whenever I get more done; i.e., what you see here is just
the stuff I've managed to get done so far. The page's current contents include:
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1 ) "ORCHESTRATING PRACTICE",
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3 ) "TIPS FOR BOWED INSTRUMENTS".
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2 ) "WOODEN INSTRUMENTS IN GENERAL", and
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----- ORCHESTRATING PRACTICE -----
The focus of this section, is on musicianship in general - so, I'm going to discuss what I do to promoted my own development
as a musician. I have what I think of as a "four-pronged" approach, toward enhancing the quality of my
musicianship. The first "prong" of my musical tuning fork is focused on improving my sense of rhythmic phrasing.
This includes tempo, beat, rhythmic patterns, and rhythmic accent. In order to achieve that goal, I practice some
percussion instruments. The second "prong" is focused on improving my sense of melodic phrasing. This
includes control of pitch, and increasing my sense of scale(s), chord(s), tonal qualities, and phrasing of notes.
The most useful tool I've found toward this goal, is the usage of bowed (unfretted) instruments. The third
"prong" is focused on improving my sense of single-note and interval melodic progressions. To work on
this, I use both bowed and picked instruments (6-string guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, violin, viola, cello, etc.).
The fourth "prong" is primarily focused on simply maintaining my current levels of knowledge and skill.
As an accessory to this goal, I attempt to transfer skills and knowledge I've acquired on one instrument to other
instruments; for example, converting a song I've learned on violin for usage on mandolin. The two most important,
which I'll elaborate on here, are the percussion practice and the bowed (unfretted) instruments practice.
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1)
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Percussion
My percussion practice is almost entirely hand-drumming. I use Bongos, Djembes, tambourine, egg shakers,
and clapping - but, Bongos are the primary instrument. I almost always do my percussion practice to
recordings of professional bands. This allows me the opportunity to "study at the foot of the
masters", so to speak. It lets me listen to what highly skilled, talented percussionists do, and try
to learn to do something similar myself.
Percussion practice causes me to focus on issues of metronomic tempo, rhythm patterns, and tonal quality.
Although issues of pitch still arise, the issues of scale and melody become secondary. Whatever weakness I
might possess as a musician, re. tempo and rhythm patterns, gets brought to the forefront during percussion
practice. Mastering percussion skills will address any such shortcomings of musicianship, and diminish them.
That improvement translates directly into improvement in the playing of every other instrument I use.
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2)
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Unfretted (bowed) instruments
Playing bowed instruments makes me focus on issues of melody, scales, tonal qualities, control of pitch, and
inflection. Although issues of tempo and rhythm patterns still arise, they become secondary. Whatever
weakness I might possess as a musician, re. melody, scales, tonal qualities, and control of pitch, gets
brought to the forefront during bowed instrument practice. As an extra aspect of this work re. pitch, I
attempt to figure out how to perform the melodies of music I've only heard but never seen sheet music for;
i.e., figuring things out "by ear". This works on the intuitive approach toward melody; what I
frequently think of as being the "Zen" of musicianship - the ability to simply be in the
right place at the right time, doing the right thing to accomplish the result. Mastering any bowed
instrument will address pitch-related shortcomings of musicianship, and diminish them. Mastering the musical
elements of melody, scales, and tonal qualities dove-tails back to enhance the quality of performance on
every other instrument I play, including improvement of my singing voice.
Playing bowed instruments both to accompany CD and to perform melodies I've memorized causes me to practice
both an intuitive approach to melody (accompanying by ear, music I haven't mastered), and a logistic
approach (practicing already-memorized sequences). Both of these approaches to performance of music are
valid and useful; each has its proponents, and masters. In pursuit of a balanced musicianship, I attempt to
work with both.
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----- WOODEN INSTRUMENTS IN GENERAL -----
There are certain common-sense principles which apply to wooden musical instruments in general; i.e., principles
which are just common-sense considerations for maintenance of any relatively delicate wooden item. Knowing and
consistently applying those basic principles is an advantage, if you want your wooden instrument to remain in
good shape. I like to think of it as being smart - that, if you don't break it, you won't have to shell out the
bucks to replace it. Here's a short list (3 items, so far) of what I consider to be the basic principles of
maintaining wooden instruments:
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1)
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Manage the moisture.
If wood gets wet, the wood fibers absorb water and swell. Different parts of the wood will absorb different
amounts of water, even within the same piece. That makes the shape change uneven. If you don't want the wood
to warp, then don't let it get wet.
If wood gets dry, the wood fibers shrink. That makes them start to separate from each other. If the wood
gets dry enough, the shrinking of the wood fibers makes the wood crack; i.e., it's like this bunch of
fibers over here, and that bunch of fibers over there, all shrink so much that the bunches can't maintain
contact with each other any more. If you don't want the wood to crack, then don't let it get too dry.
Regardless of whether the wood gets too wet or too dry, uneven change of the size & shape of the
wooden pieces that make up the instrument is hard on the glue bonds. Glue bonds have a slight elasticity,
but only to a point - beyond that point, the glue bonds will break, which makes the pieces come apart.
Not good. Wooden instruments are more useful, if they don't fall apart.
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2)
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Manage the temperature.
The same basic logic applies to temperature, as applies to moisture. Wood expands when it gets hot, and
shrinks when it gets cold. The expansion & shrinking are uneven, even within a single piece of wood.
The risks of getting too hot or too cold, are warpage & cracking - just like with moisture levels.
Beyond the need for the glue bonds to maintain physical contact with the pieces that are glued together,
there's also a change in the quality of the glue when the temperature changes. Hot glue gets gooey, and cold
glue gets brittle. Neither is good for maintaining contact with the pieces that are glued together.
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3)
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Avoid physical shocks
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This is really just common sense, but this section would be incomplete unless this gets specified: Beware
of physical shocks on the instrument. Put another way, don't let the instrument get banged up! Most
wooden instruments are held together with glue, and glue bonds can break if they get banged around. If
you drop the instrument, or knock it into things, you risk having the glue bonds break. And, even if the
glue bonds don't break, there's still the likelihood of the wood getting dented. Dented wood doesn't fix
itself - once dented, it stays dented forever. Places where the wood is dented will have the wood fibers
compressed within the dent. Places where the wood fibers are compressed don't vibrate properly; that makes
the instrument sound bad.
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----- TIPS FOR BOWED INSTRUMENTS -----
The focus of this section, is on tips that apply to bowed instruments such as violin, viola, cello, and bowed bass.
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Maintaining the bow
An important tip you'll find everyone agrees on, is don't touch the hairs with your fingers. The hairs
of the bow will absorb oil from your fingers. That oil makes the hairs more slippery, and then they
won't gather rosin properly. It's true that it's almost impossible to never touch the hairs - especially,
when maneuvering the bow in & out of it's holding place in the case. But, I've found that if you're
careful, you can plan it so the contact between your fingers and the hairs happens on the side of the
hairs that's closest to the bow's wood; i.e., on the underside of the hairs, instead of the surface that
will be rosined.
When I rosin my bow, I use the edge of the round rosin cake instead of the flat surface. The reason I
do that, is because the hairs of the bow scrape rosin off the cake unevenly. If you're not careful, this
causes grooves to eventually be cut into the rosin surface via the bow always scraping at the same places.
Using the edge, that effect can be minimized, and the rosin cake will last longer. As a matter of fact,
I've never had to replace a rosin cake; never used one up entirely. The groove-cutting effect can
be further minimized if you always rub the rosin over the hairs with the rosin cake held at a 45-degree
angle instead of squarely vertical or horizontal, and every other swipe or so, change to the opposite
45-degree angle.
Tensioning the bow: When I tension my bow, I start with a very low tension level and adjust it tighter from
there. Visually, that very low tension level shows by the hairs being about 1/8" off the surface of the
rod's wood. To check and see if I have it tight enough yet, I place the bow against a string at a mid-point
along the hairs, and press with the bow. My goal is to get the hairs just tight enough that I need to
press slightly harder than I would need to use while playing, in order to make the hairs contact the wood
of the bow. If the hairs contact the wood of the bow while I'm pressing more lightly than I would need for
a loud strong bowing, then I need to tighten them more. If the hairs don't contact the wood when I'm
pressing as hard as I would ever actually use, then they're tight enough.
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IN CONCLUSION
I hope you've enjoyed my little presentation re. "Musical Tips".
As a work in progress, it's far from finished... More will be added as time passes.
~~~
Scruffy Eagle
~~~
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