Paul Hirsh
jazz panpipe pioneer and designerRecent Comments
Monthly Archives: December 2014
An Enharmonic Experiment
I trust you are all familiar with Irving Berlin’s masterpiece Cheek to Cheek, made popular by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and recently given a new lease of life by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. This week I am working … Continue reading
Posted in Interval Training, Moves notation
Tagged Cheek to cheek, Enharmonic, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Irving Berlin, Lady Gaga, My Way, Sinatra, Tony Bennett
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A Christmas carol game for two
Here’s a game for two players that you can use to improve your intervallic awareness, develop your melodic reflexes on clarinet or piano or just as a fun way to get into the Christmas mood. You can play it in … Continue reading
Posted in Interval Training, Moves notation
Tagged christmas carols, Christmas game, MOVES notation, musical game, Party game, Xmas game
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Rubinstein loved it. Liszt loved it. Now you can buy it!
Black Future For Piano Teachers? What will we do with all our used piano teachers when logical keyboards finally take over? Well, they could be recycled. After all, some of them have a lot to offer on a purely musical … Continue reading
Posted in Intuitive Instruments
Tagged alternative keyboards, Chromatone, wholetone revolution
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Wagner’s Ring, Short Scales and Musical LEGO
Musical composition is commonly taught through analysis of standard works. A piece is broken down into a hierarchy of elements, chunking down from whole movements to subjects and developments, and breaking down themes into sub-units variously called motifs, or cells. … Continue reading
Why can’t music learning be as simple as LEGO?
The other day my 6-year-old son decided he wanted to get rid of all his toys, except his LEGO. Not quite. When the moment came to pack them up, he decided he couldn’t part with his Bakugan brawlers either. You … Continue reading
Posted in Intuitive Instruments, Music Education
Tagged frere Jacques, LEGO bricks, music learning, piano lessons, scale practice
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The least practiced interval and why you should practice it
If I were to ask you the commonest melodic interval in today’s commercial music what would you guess? Well, with just listening to the radio for 10 minutes, I declare the clear winner to be: nothing. Or in MOVES notation: =0. The word “unison” is the … Continue reading
How to work a lick
So you can’t get that lick or turnaround out of your head. You wonder how anyone can just come up with something that cool – just like that! – in the middle of a solo. You realize it’s time to … Continue reading
Posted in Interval Training, Moves notation
Tagged giant steps, improvisation method, intervallic improvising, intuitive improvising, jazz viola, jazz violin, John Coltrane, learning improv, licks, melodic improvising., turnarounds, tweetable, viola exercise, viola practice, violin exercise, violin practice
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