Paul Hirsh
jazz panpipe pioneer and designerRecent Comments
Category Archives: Intuitive Instruments
Serious noodling
The whole point of having an intuitive instrument is to be able to follow the promptings of your Inner Ear without having to stop and think. Which scale is this? What note am I starting from? And much less: which … Continue reading
The Philosophy of Fingering
Many moons have passed since I was last on speaking terms with film composers, so I was unable to ask John Williams if he was aware that his Imperial March for the latest Star Wars movie uses one of those … Continue reading
The elephant in the music room
This is a rant that I wrote some fifteen years ago, so some of the technological references are somewhat dated. But the rest still applies. Stop the ivories trade! Many young people who begin piano studies or who just fool around … Continue reading
Posted in Intuitive Instruments, Music Education, Scale Practice
Tagged Daskin keyboard, Janko keyboard, janko piano
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Get your first scale free?
Remember all those collections they use to sell at the newsagents, offering you a free binder with the first instalment? As if you wouldn’t end up paying for it in the end! The idea was that once it was in … Continue reading
Weightlessness
Jazz education generally does its best to keep up with the latest trends in music, with thousands of teachers worldwide analysing classic performances and attempting to reverse-engineer them into exercises that you can try at home. Working always on the … Continue reading
Lines of Least Resistance and Trusting to Chance
I once asked South African jazz harmonica player Adam Glasser if it wouldn’t be more practical to have an isomorphic chromatic harmonica laid out around the two whole tone scales, to make intervallic improvising intuitive and everything you play freely transposable. … Continue reading
Playing like singing in the shower
In my ongoing research into finding the best instrument for learning to “play like singing in the shower”, and in the process helping you, the gentle reader, to do the same, one instrument I have placed near the top of … Continue reading
Why Montessori Bells Get it Wrong (2)
“Why are those ones black?” The little girl was four years old and had asked the one question I couldn’t answer in a way she could understand. I wanted to see how children used these Montessori bells and what could … Continue reading
Posted in Intuitive Instruments, Music Education
Tagged K4-ed, Montessori, musical education
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Violin Mind and Guitar Mind or Why You Should Learn Two Instruments
Here is an exercise that builds on a fragment from John Coltrane’s solo on Giant Steps that gets you through all the major triads (4 3) and half diminished arpeggios (3 3 4). In the original context the half diminished is actually … Continue reading
Posted in Intuitive Instruments, Musicianship
Tagged diminished, guitar tab, half diminished, major, minor, Saxophone, triads, violin, wholetone panflute
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Intervallic Awareness for Improvisers 