AS music joys and frustrations

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

I tell my 'history' regarding music - so that to tell

what could be neurologically based in the Spectrum

to personal variations...

As a kid (considered bright-to-wonder) I had:

- Memory for melodies: very good

- Hearing words in songs: quite bad even in Romanian

(Generally, I have hard to tell overlapping discussions

in party settings etc.)

- Voice: accurate in pitch and tempo

- Interest in repetitive catchy songs, tendency to play

them in loops (mostly ABBA ;-) still love them now...)

- Interest in most technical devices

My parents tried to make me learn piano at 8-9 years

of age; I learned quickly elements from a very nice

children's method with 'Dwarves' (now I identify as

's Easiest Piano Course from 1955).

Found out the following varying qualities of 'links':

- Melody memory to Right-hand: quite good

- Musical note reading: possible but quite slow.

Then the old lady teaching (really from the old nobility,

formally trained to play as ladies befit at the times - but

not pedagogically as music teacher) switched me to the

Pro exercises of her time: Pischna, Czerny etc. I bogged

down quickly both with technical difficulty and

frustration and anti-motivation, after enough tries I

(and parents) gave up. " Links " having difficulties:

- Note reading (even with training) - still slow

- Chords or other parallel fingering - awkward,

would make it even slower

- Left hand coordination: poor and/or slow

- Left hand as a separate melody together with

right hand: almost impossible

- Joining mentally the # and b's near key (called a

Key signature) with later notes to play black keys:

Almost impossible in real time.

Yes, I learned some theory and reformulated

it 'my way'... knew a major chord is 0+4+7 and

a minor chord 0+3+7 in semitones above basis...

still impossible to execute in real time in any position

required.

Some years ago I got a small keyboard which

frankly, sounded better and way more varied than

that upright piano.

Loved the parametric tinkering of FM synthesis...

When I tried again to just *play*, without any

Must-Factor, the same technical limitations reappeared.

I could improvise some melodies I heard, but not

the full sound with arrangements, chords etc.

- Multi-note hearing: enough to tell when a complex

arrangement 'fits' or not what I heard, but not enough

to know what missing keys to press ;-)

I sort of rediscovered some 'automatic finger

positions' instead: C+E+G, B+D+G and C+F+A

being Tonic, (inverted) Dominant and Subdominant

chords... and resorted to shifting the melody instead

some odd semitones to fit the bass I could play along ;-)

In time, I had grown to like organ sounds: pipe organs

(quite rare here), Hammond, Vermona East German

electronic organ - used in some former bands here

- and researched a lot into their technical bases.

I discussed with at least one organist on this list ;-)

[Anyone else interested ?]

Recently I found a lot of websites with Sheet Music

and feel really humbled by the complexity needed...

Pop, rock, some simple classical etc.

An interesting site of a teacher (but still too Work

oriented for my tastes now ;-)

jeanies_home_studio.tripod.com/

She also says teaching Spectrum people...

maybe I write her in the NZ ?

I'm still having moderate recreational interest in

making music, but stumble as maybe someone liking

stories but having dyslexia problems in reading ;-)

Fortunately, the domain isn't as life-important...

Thank you for thinking about this,

Mircea Pauca, Bucuresti, Romania