At 10:47 AM 5/13/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi Guys!,
>
>Has anyone got any tips or opinions on developing the skill of
>reading and dictating melody lines by ear alone?, ie.
>
> Is this a skill worth developing? (have you done it and found it
beneficial).
> Is the use of numbers, solfege or some other 'pitch handle' useful?.
> Has anyone developed exercises or a strategy for learning this skill?.
>
Like anything else, you'll get good at this if you do alot of it.
If you are a band director or conductor it would be a pretty essential
skill unless you are just playing your own charts all the time.
I would say that for a practicing jazz musician you'll get alot more
out of doing transcriptions, learning new tunes, composing,
improvising, etc.
If you are working on these kind of skills and arent transcribing
then I say you have your priorities backwards.
Thought certainly it's a skill worth having if you have the time
to work on it. When you have to read a chart for the first time it's
nice to know how it's supposed to sound before you actually play it.
My ability to do this is marginal and I frankly use it mostly when
I'm teaching . I work on it from time to time. When I have time
I'll try sight singing the parts of the Bach Chorales somtimes.
To put things in perspective, I doubt that Miles Davis, Cannonball
Adderly, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, John COltrane, Wes Mongtgomery,
Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, .... could do this at all!
>Background to this request:
>
> I recently got a book out of the library on practical
>harmony. The author emphasized the need to learn information that can
>be put into practice rather than theoretical knowledge.
>The author of this book stated two requirements before his book could be
>studied effectively:
>
>1/ A knowledge of the rudiments of music.
>
>2/ The ability to read a simple melody from sheet music and be able to
> hear it in the mind.
>
Just because the author says the book is for practical harmony doesnt
mean it is. He might not have been able to play his way out of paper
bag. There are people with PhDs in composition that can't even write
their name let alone anything resembling beautiful music.
I would say that #2 is pretty optional. If you want to learn how to
do that it's okay but it's not a prerequisite.
I know as much about practical harmony, jazz or classical, than most likely
anyone you will ever meet and I'm not very good at #2.
If I followed those prequisites then I would have prevented myself from
learning alot of the things I know.
> I thought about this for a while and decide that the ability to read and
>write down melodies with out the benefit of an instrument was a reasonable
>goal for any musician to have. So I searched the internet for any information
>or tips on how to develop this skill, to my surprise I found almost nothing.
>
>Thanks for any ideas or information
>
>---------- John
>
>
>
>
>
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com