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Topic: Playing Both Clefs at once  (Read 1413 times)

Offline thehumbletuba

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Playing Both Clefs at once
on: December 25, 2016, 06:59:49 PM
I can read Bass clef fluently (I am a tuba, after all!) and there's still wiggle-room for improvement with my Treble skills but I can read on the staff and a little bit above it. However, my problem is playing on both sides of the piano at once. Any good techniques out there for playing both clefs? Currently I'm only really playing Treble.

(I got my Keyboard for Christmas, so i'm relatively new!)

Offline keypeg

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Re: Playing Both Clefs at once
Reply #1 on: December 25, 2016, 07:24:26 PM
One step at a time, and watch it grow.  :)  Different instruments have different challenges. I imagine that the challenges of tuba might have been breath control and getting the pitch out of the instrument that you want.  In the beginning you'd only be able to coordinate a few simple things.  With piano, reading and notes is one major challenge, because there are so many notes everywhere, and you could theoretically play 10 of them at once.  Break it down into smaller steps.  Are you using any material that introduces things one at a time, or are you trying to launch straight into music since you "can already read" (from your other instrument)?

Offline j_tour

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Re: Playing Both Clefs at once
Reply #2 on: December 26, 2016, 12:52:23 AM
One step at a time, and watch it grow.  :)

Nice advice.  Yeah, not much to add, except that I've been playing for a long time, and I'm still more often than I should admit shocked when trying to sight-read something simple out of graded kids' books by Scarlatti, or Mozart, or whatever, that it doesn't always come out perfectly right at a brisk tempo.  One of those things that seems like you should be able to do without thinking, but sometimes you can lose focus for a half a beat and have to slow down and look at the notes.

Just something you keep doing until ....... well, actually, I'm not sure most people ever stop learning and practicing it, except for maybe the very élite technicians.

Could be worse -- you could have to deal with the C-clef as well as the G and F clefs at the same time.  I still don't know how people find the time or energy to get good at sight-reading from orchestral scores at the keyboard.
My name is Nellie, and I take pride in helping protect the children of my community through active leadership roles in my local church and in the Boy Scouts of America.  Bad word make me sad.
 

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