Simpedia

Sheri R., California

They get to know the notes with varying degrees of ease if you use the note names sometimes, mostly sort of in passing, kind of like, yes, that note is up a fifth, it’s an F. Once they’ve gone through the reading notes book strictly using the intervals, I wonder if it would be okay to have students go back through it as they are progressing in TFMM at the same time, but this time, do the streams by saying up a 2nd C, down a 4th G, down a second F, up a third A, and so on. Seems like for those who would like to work on the names this could help.

Amy Y., New Mexico

Just a couple of thoughts. For violin, when you start getting into the stratosphere of ledger lines (they don’t seem to use the octave symbol but uses instead what seems sometimes like a gazillion ledger lines) the comfort with using interval instead of counting up to the note each time is extremely useful.

Another one is that I just started playing the alto sax a little over a year ago. It is a transposing instrument so if I’m playing along with the notes for the piano, I have to transpose on the fly. I found that my transition to the SM approach to reading has been invaluable for me. Sorry, as I think, I’m not sure that I can articulate what I mean with this one though I know that I would not have been able to do it as well if I hadn’t learned SM approach.  Maybe it’s because for the first time I’ve actually looked at the piano keys long enough to internalize much of the information about scales or now that I’ve been freed from being locked into exact positions (FACE/EGBDF etc) that I am more capable of transposing the notes. I just looked at some music to try to figure out how I transpose, here’s the thing, yes, I do keep track of the location of each note of the scale, but they are all in reference to where I initially set “C” so come to think of it, keying everything off of C is a great idea if you ever want to transpose. Just need to know where each key is relative to C, but you sort of get that kind of practice anyway when finding starting position on the keyboard.

Sorry, I’m rambling a little, but the short answer is I think intervallic approach is quite applicable for playing other instruments.

Ginny W., Australia

So far my only experience with transferring some of the principles of SM to other instruments have been with guitar and ukulele (which I also teach now). It might be worth remembering that SM is about patterns and shapes, and ‘learning a way of learning’, as much as it can be said to be intervallic, and that much of this learning-by-doing approach can be transferred to any second instrument.

I’ve had positive experiences in both learning and teaching by memorizing using shapes, with chordal stringed instruments. Just as we don’t have to memorize scales and chords to be able to find and play them on the piano, we can find notes and intervals spatially, aurally and visually, using some of the SM strategies and ditching the (multi thought process environment) of notation and tablature, at least initially (I have personally done this as a student in finger picking guitar workshops, with good results ie faster learning). I now play the ukulele solo and in a band and have found that, although no one has taught me scale, it came quite naturally and quickly once I had enough patterns and a sense of intervals in my fingers. Also, a great deal of what I have learned about chords, chord progressions and chord variations through SM piano has proven very useful on the uke.

Shanta H., Minnesota

I agree, and I can speak to how the Simply Music Intervallic approach has improved my own sight reading as a singer. I learned sight singing with a Solfege method, which still helps me maintain my harmonic anchor points, such as Do (1) Fa (4) and Sol (5). However, in a complex melodic line, I find that an intervallic approach plus a few useful harmonic anchors are very powerful.  I think of it like knowing where the “C’s” are on the piano (anchor points) and using intervals to find notes around them. I find that I can do the same thing with a couple Solfege anchors and intervals.

I really do think that learning an intervallic approach like this aids, improves, and synthesizes with whatever other instrument someone might play. My rhythm reading has also improved so far beyond where it has ever been I can hardly believe it. Separating out Rhythm for a few months made me focus and really learn how to do it. Rhythm is a universal language in western music, and it applies equally to all instruments.