Solving puzzles

The last couple days of practicing have been bits and pieces of time here and there, not long stretches, but I'm practicing. One thing I am struggling with is (in my head) what is the best way to remember bellow direction.

The music, pretty universally that I have seen so far, is written on staff with button number with the underline or no underline and basses either written in on its own line or like with guitar chords, written in over the staff. But there is no universal. Here I was trying to force myself to do something that is actually quite unnatural to me. I was trying to look at the notes on a staff and just remember what direction the bellows go. Well, this is somewhat unnatural because bellows switch based on key of instrument (I think?) and which row/button they land on. I cannot explain it well, but it is a thing either memorizing a song or written notation makes it easier.

So, the notes for the GC melodeon are these. Each button is two notes - both treble and bass side. Here's the keyboard layout.

And this is how the method book I'm using writes out music. Top section of music shows the notes written on a staff with fingering help noted just below the notes (the bad habit I've been forming is following those because it's telling me which finger to play and which direction of bellows - Underline is pull, not underlined is push.

Below that is C row - it's empty because everything in this piece is written on G row. 

Directly below the C row is the G row, and then you see different fingerings with some being underlined and some not. This is precisely telling me which button to push or pull. So, you see the first two measures it's 3 4 5 4. That means I should play the third button on the G row, then the 4 and then the 5 - all on pull, and then next measure back to 4th button on the push.

Directly below the G line on the top section of music (first 6 measures) the basses are written in with the rhythm of what to play being the bottom most thing shown. The second section of music is the same, but this time they took out the bass line. I was first confused by this because I didn't know what that meant. Do I not play basses? or was I supposed to just figure it out? But, I figured out that they were giving me bass information above the staff line for the first time. 

But there are other ways of notating music for the meldeon too. Here are some (found publicly on a google search). And I probably didn't capture them all.

All of them I now can figure out what they are implying, but there isn't a standard. And then I had a super "aha!" moment. This is for me. Not to please a teacher or to play while sight reading with no help. I am doing this for me, so if I want to scribble all over the music, or rewrite things to work for how my brain processes the music, then I just need to do what works for me. Even in my son's piano lessons and my years in band, we would make our own notes to remind ourselves of what to do. So, why have I been limiting myself and getting mad at myself for needing the fingering guides? Reality is, once the piece is in my head better, I will only be using the staff to remind myself of going up or down in notes and to remember the rhythm. Later, I can just ditch the music altogether. 

So, if, for now, it feels better to pay attention to fingering guides, fine. And if I know the rhythm in my head and just want to know fingering, then use fingering, or button guides. It's just notes for myself. It's not cheating! I can have crutches. I am not training in classical piano. Just like as a teen I would rewrite Eb music to F because I could never transcribe music in my head to play along at speed. 

Two steps forward, one step back?

That is what it felt like today - a disaster of some sort. Like I took a step back. I played better two days ago than I did today! Wah! I couldn't untie my hands well with 3/4 time. I was mis-remembering all the push-pull and where the buttons were. I was totally relying on the fingering help row - the one thing that I shouldn't look at as I'm learning as those will disappear soon. ACK! It may be Valentine's Day, but the melodeon wasn't showing me much love today. Wah!

But I stuck with it for almost an hour. That is the way it goes sometimes. Though, I didn't have it in me to go back to stumble so terribly through things I did 4-5 days ago, so I stuck with things mostly I got to a couple days ago in the G row, but a couple in the C row too. Maybe I'm just tired today. I don't know.

But, I'm not feeling overly satisfied. I'm having to remind myself that today is only day 9 or so and I missed two days of practice, so it's only day 7 - 7 hours is not a lot of time to master anything! Even simple little tunes.

I did play (right hand only) twinkle twinkle from my head and that came instantly, so there is progress, but man is it slow.

Here is a march that isn't very marchy that I got to a 3 days ago. And following that is waltz that I got to today. So, I've gone through this, stumbling and falling, a couple of times before recording it. Learning something new and it shows the painful process. Yes, it's that bad! I post it because one day, I'll see, "Wow, look how far you've come!" I hope!

A breakthrough of sorts? A leap forward!

And grrr... I had completed my entire blog post last night and lost it completely when I went to add in a photo. I had forgotten my Chromebook at work and was using my iPad. Ipad and Google don't always play nicely together and Blogger is one of them that has problems. I had such a nice, timely, as it was happening, post... that disappeared and no "back button", refresh, close and re-open could retrieve the body of the post. It still shows as an empty draft post on the iPad, but not even that on my Chromebook. Sigh...

So, what I was posting about last night was a significant leap in playing last night. I started with how I find the learning process quite fascinating. I remember how fascinated I was when my boys were young at how they couldn't do something one day and the next day they could. I told a story of how my son "chose" his right hand one day. It was such an obvious thinking process. His whole infancy his left side seemed dominant. He kicked harder with his left leg. All skills he acquired began with left side and then he would switch to right side. This included using his spoon. My son had been using the spoon for a few months with his left hand. Then one day while sitting in his high chair he looked at the spoon in his left hand. He looked at his spoon-less right hand. He transferred the spoon to his right hand, looked back and forth at his two hands, and then started eating with his right hand and from then on out, he favored his right side for everything. That process is forever etched in my brain.

Learning to read is a great example of how a switch in the brain just happens. Until that switch happens, natural, smooth reading will not occur. Our oldest son was "reading" sight words and sound it out words when he two years old - self-taught. We never forced it. He could sound out books, but that was sounding out words, not reading. Then one day around  4 1/2 he just got it and started reading books for meaning and it just took off quickly from there.

My younger son knew all his letters, upper and lower case by 20 months (self-taught), and was learning sight words (never by sound it out) when he was two. He learned how to truly read by 4.5 by linking sight words together in a story making, meaningful way. 

Neither of them did anything to make it happen. We didn't practice anything to make it happen. It just needed a brain development connection to happen, even with two different approaches of learning how to read.

That is kind what I felt like with last night's practicing on the melodeon. Something in my brain just clicked last night. Of course, I had been practicing, so it wasn't just a growth developmental change, but a brain connection was made last night because of the practicing I had been doing and overnight something clicked in my brain to make the next day easier.

Now, it's still plain dreadful playing. Just ask my 11 year old. He'll gladly tell you it's awful, but something clicked when I picked up the instrument this Sunday. Mindful of a bad habit I was forming (of reading fingering hints for the notes to play), I discovered, that while I still wanted to do that, I was beginning to sense where the note would be on the box and if it were push or pull. It's hard to describe, but I was beginning to fully realize, "Oh, that's a half step, so it's going to be pull pull when in this key and octave". Of course, this is at super rudimentary stage and while I'm practicing/learning different parts of the box piece by piece, but I just moved to G Row yesterday and it clicked almost immediately.

Another, more significant change was that I am beginning to move my hands independently. When I tried a week ago when I first got the box I could not disconnect the two hands at all. (When I was typing this up yesterday I thought it had been two weeks of learning already, when it had only been a week. Man, last week was long!)

The first week it had me playing Gg or Cc. When I went to G row it started me with Dd or Gg either in 2/4 or 4/4 time. It sort of makes you play your hands separately, but not really as it's a simple back and forth between the two fingers at the same tempo either Cc/Gg or CcCc/GgGg while treble had quarter, half, and eighth notes following a similar pattern on both hands - if a treble note changed, so did a bass note. Only difference being if a treble note were sustained in the right hand but continued in the same pattern in the left hand.

Last night they introduced 3/4 time which is not a simple back and forth in the basses, but Ggg and Ddd, while in the right hand it continued the same pattern of quarter, half note, or all quarter notes or all eighth notes. Anyway, I had tried to do an Oompa pah pattern on the first day I got the box and no way Jose could I do that! But a week in and I could with no problem at all with these exercises.

As I said, it's all rudimentary, but so far, everything I've had to do, it was slow everything down to snail's pace and just work it through with no seeming moments of, "I got it!". Until last night.

I didn't really "need" to know that E was push or pull and played by my 4th finger, I could sense it could be. It made learning the exercises a bit faster.

With that said, everything is full of mistakes and hesitation, but with far less feeling of "What is this new thing they are throwing at me" feel to it. I still go back through most of the exercise to try to master them all better so that they get cleaner, but whereas the first day I used the book I did 3 exercises, last night I did 8! I stopped because of time and realizing I was mastering none, but it is beginning to click... which is great.

I didn't record anything because of leaving my computer and phone at work, and the changes I feel are probably not hearable, but it felt like something bigger was happening. Now it is keeping my pace and not trying to move on too quickly before I really master anything. Though, maybe that isn't as relevant for this instrument as I think.

A work day Saturday - but a couple nice surprises

I had two work engagements to day. Both were quite enjoyable, but still took a significant portion of the day. The first nice thing was that my husband and younger son were with me for the second event of the day and we had lunch afterward. We haven't had a nice and slow lunch out in ages.

I came home to a pile of dishes (left from yesterday where my husband and I had a super busy day.) and learning to do with my son, and prep for Sunday and after the last few days of nonstop go I wasn't feeling to happy about all of it. Balance of work/home/homeschooling these last few days.

So, this was my mindset late this afternoon. Just then my mother in law who lives with us was heading out to meet up with some friends and she found a package in the door. I wasn't expecting anything, but it said it was for me. I opened it and I was so confused. It was two new books from Amazon.

Now I had ordered two things yesterday for my son and mother in law, but that package had already arrived. Did I accidentally order something else. Impossible because I have never even seen or heard of these books before! But they would be something I would get exactly because just a day  before I had asked about recommendations about for such books on the melnet forum. Someone had gotten it for me!?!?!

What a very pleasant surprise! I love my husband to pieces, but he doesn't get me gifts - partly because he's lousy at it and feels too pressured. As I said, I love the guy, but that is not a strong suit! I get gifts from my mother in law for Christmas, but they are never thoughtful.They are gifts for the sake of saying she gave me a gift. I really cannot remember the last time I got a thoughtful gift and definitely not one from a stranger!

I know it's a melnetter from this side of the pond as it says so on the note. Just wow! I was a recipient of a random act of kindness. Super nice. I will definitely put them to use once I learn a bit more about G row. I started on G row today too! And, when I have "got it" and mastered things with these books, I will pass it on to another beginner.

But now back to learning/practicing today. I see, though, that I'm falling into a terrible habit. I actually did the exact same thing when I was 6 years old learning piano. I remember it! The book for learning piano,( I think I learned from Miss Adeline?)  Had fingering written under the notes. I paid more attention to the fingering that I did the notes! Then one day the fingering help was gone and there I was clueless.

In this beginning method book, written in small letters is fingering guides with bellow direction guide. See below. Now, there are so many things I could be looking at instead of the fingering guides to know what to play. Things that will never go away for notation, but those fingering guides will, so why am I looking at them!

I tried to start look at the notes above or the C and G lines below, but of course, it's easier to play with the fingering guides! ACK!!! Even though I'm not trying to take the easy way out, my brain can't be quite convinced of that!

I didn't get as much practice in as I wanted today too as I said it was a working day, but I did get some in! Now off to read to my son before bed and to then watch the rest of the movie I started watching with my husband, Sven, last night.

Not much to add

I ran out of spare posts long ago. I only had 10 minutes to practice from all day yesterday. In the evening (from 10 pm to 11:30) I opted to watch half a movie with my husband in the evening versus practicing after my son went to bed.

I just started logging where my time goes on toggl, and yesterday it says I spent 8 hours doing things I log. This means I must be forgetting to put things in for my time because I was working, with just super brief interruptions from 10:00 am to 10 pm. I used 9-10 am for pleasure - reading, catching up on news, asking a question on melnet, etc. Then it was work for both my jobs. Oh well.

Only thing I will add is that for some reason, learning the second octave of the C row seems harder to get in my head. I have no idea why;perhaps because some of the same letter notes have different push/pull, but I think what it really is, I can "get" through them a little faster with left hand and so the right hand isn't getting as much practice of repetition before I try a new exercise. Last night in the ten minutes I had, I went through all the same exercises as the day before and I'll probably keep doing that for today (and maybe) tomorrow depending on how much time I have to practice.

I don't even have a nice photo/link for anything today! So, I'll just attach an art piece with a melodeon today. Though it might be a concertina - not sure.

I don't like high notes and they don't like me

I have started taking a 15 minute break mid-day when I'm at work and during that time I piddle around on the Liliput with tunes I know in my head. Which means, I am trying to play new tunes and it's a mess. Today in those fifteen minutes I was playing the melody only for Home on the Range and Three Blind Mice. I found most of the notes, but haven't added in bass yet. So, at work it will be just trying to find melodies and get used to the back/forth of bellows and placement of notes for each tune.

At home I have the burl Hohner and I'm trying to practice from the book. Today I did lessons 4, 5, and 6 fairly well. It's slow. It's not perfect, but I'm picking up speed. Then I added in 7, 8, and 9 which are exercises. 9 is giving me a lot of troubles because I'm looking at fingering instead of the notes. I do not want to get in the habit of looking at the fingering. I want to see the note and know what to do. Or is that even a bad idea? Like, a middle C is push. An octave higher the C is a pull. This is in the key of C on a GC melodeon. I'm almost afraid to look at the book to see that it's all different in the key of G.

Yes, of course it's opposite. Middle C is pull and the octave above is push. Yes, that is going to be brain overload for me! This is how I'm beginning to feel!

I want to read the music on a staff because that is what is already the most comfortable for me, and it will make it easier to take other music to play. I also wonder if it will make playing cross row easier too? Possibly? I am probably full of it, but if I know it's a C and where the Cs are and in what direction of the bellows, perhaps more fluid play without tons of back and forth of the bellows will happen. I don't know. I'm just trying to figure it all out!

So, the last exercise I tried was 10. And that was an actual piece of music! I can do the first line (which repeats) somewhat OK, but then the rest of the tune escapes me as I can't get it in my ear because the phrasing feels like it's landing in the wrong rhythm or something. I kept plunking it on the piano to see if I could get it in my head better.

So about the title of this post - high notes... Yesterday and today the method book is introducing and working with the rest of the C row - the higher end. I have to give the bellows much more forced air to play the upper notes. This is true on both the melodeons I have. To get the higher notes loud enough to play and hear, the bass notes get too loud. As a novice, I do not want to be playing loud. If I could, I would play with them mostly silenced so only I could hear my playing. For me it's all like worst combination - high and squeaky treble voice - hate it. Lots of mistakes - hate it. And I have to play loud, announcing my horribleness to everyone in the house - hate it.

One good thing, is that playing the basses is getting easier. Of course, they make it easier by always having it be the same rhythm and same note and chord each time, but that's actually smart, because it's teaching me to separate my hands - to have them do things independently without adding in more complications (yet) while I learn where all the notes are in the right hand. 

I did practice for almost an hour today (53 minutes according to my handy dandy time keeper I just started), but my brain is just fried for the day. I was doing a lot of creative think paired with tedious work for my job today. It's funny, I like what I do, and lesson planning is fun/fulfilling, but it's a lot of detail to keep hold of in my head and it tires me after hours of it.

But, this is the good part... when I was driving home at 7 pm, I was thinking, "I just want to get home and practice a little bit." I knew, I felt/sensed that stepping away from the computer, the work, the homeschooling, etc would clear my head. I cannot think about anything else while I'm practicing. It uses my whole brain. Nothing else I do can do that for me - nothing that I enjoy, anyway.

With that said, I'm just too wiped out/tired to record anything today. Most important thing is that I practice, and that I did. So, I'm calling it good. No one needs or wants to hear another horrible day of a beginner playing anyhow!

Day 5 - and I definitely hear and feel improvement

Today I went back to the diatonic GC Method Book. I hadn't looked at it for 2 days while I was working on Twinkle and Twinkle variation. I went back to lesson 4 which is the one I was working, but didn't even record 3 days agom  because it gave me a LOT of trouble - especially with switching basses. Now, it's still a mess, but I can play it slowly and now I'm working on speeding it up (which means adding in mistakes!) That is improvement.

I then went to Lesson 5 which introduces a new "problem". The half step landing between buttons.

So far it has gone like this. Underline meaning PULL the bellows. Without underline means PUSH the bellows to get a note. So, for one key it is C on push and D on pull. So, the keys are:

C/D, E/F, G/A - See, back and forth. BUT... then it changes. 
C/D, E/F, G/A, B/C, D/E, F/G

See that: 
C/D, E/F, G/A, B/C, D/E, F/G

Now, when I look at the staff, I can't just go back and forth with the bellows to play CDEFGABC. In the middle of that is a half step between buttons. I now have to turn off my brain about push, pull, push pull to go up the scale and work harder on recognizing Push/Push or Pull/pull. Exercise 4 had me do Pull/Pull before with an A to an F, but they aren't notes next to each other, so it's less troublesome (though troublesome enough!)

Then it had me do lesson 6 which is a repeat of Lesson 2 except in a higher octave. I messed up at the very end because I ran out of bellow room/air.

On each exercise, I recorded it exactly one time instead of take after take after take to try to get something resembling what it should be. That in itself is an improvement.

Going forward I won't show everything I do as even I'll get bored with that, but for the first week I will. Then, it will probably be once a week. Who knows. Maybe not. I'm still figuring it out.