Making it easier to play an instrument.
Prologue:
In the past, I learned a little piano---barely---before stopping at something like level 1 I think (is there a level 0?). It was only recently during a trip to Taiwan that I decided to try out a different instrument. An ocarina. An ocarina is a wind instrument that works basically like a recorder (remember learning those in elementary?), but made from clay. Once I saw it, I decided to try out learning how to play it. Why? It reminded me of Link's Ocarina of Time from the Zelda video games*. :) Imagine playing mysterious melodies and being all deep and "mystically-like"...
Anyways, while learning to play it, I discovered that the way just to play different notes is not straightforward.
Problem:
The instructions were not intuitive. At least to me. Something like: "1st Right, 2nd Right, 1st+2nd Right, Add 1st Left, Add 2nd Left...???" (more on this later on). This is way different from how the notes on a piano are arranged "linearly", like a number line. Remembering the notes in the instructions was like trying to memorize how to play different notes on a recorder, which is much more complicated, and is like a jumbled-up number line. Or like learning notes on a guitar, which--if you also know how the keys on a piano work--is like having the line of keys of a piano folded over each other at seemingly random intervals and places (like a number line folded at strange intervals). This is besides the fact that any words in the instructions were in Chinese.
Solution:
So once upon a time, I decided to hack my ocarina. No, not chop it into smithereens. No ragequit here. What I did was I started experimenting making notes. Simple. After a little time, I found that I could make the notes "linear", just like how higher notes are raised "higher up" towards the right of a piano, and lower notes are "lower down" towards the left. By just trying to make it "linear", the notes just happened to work themselves out, and I could start playing tunes right away.
Explanation:
Why/how does it work? From my limited music knowledge, I think it has something to do with a shift in musical key signature. That means I might not be playing the exact same notes as the next person, but at least playing solo I can have an internally consistent set of notes for a song, and---here's the payoff---I can now have an intuitive sense of how to play the next note, just because I visually re-mapped the notes and finger positions so that "up" = "up", and that "down" = "down" (mostly). How's that for experimenting? It's just play.
Mapping Details:
In order from left to right, from the point of view of the person playing:
I have recently been tweaking the higher notes for accuracy, but this is pretty much a stable
set for my ocarina.
Compare this to the original instructions' fingering for notes:
Something like
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*P.S.: I've never played the game myself, but somehow I remember seeing some walk-through guidebooks over 5 years ago at a friend's house. I actually don't really play video games that much, only when I'm with friends who actually play or have game consoles. By the way, my ocarina model I have isn't exactly the same as the model in the game, which looks like this:
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LINKS TO OTHER STUFF:
Prologue:
In the past, I learned a little piano---barely---before stopping at something like level 1 I think (is there a level 0?). It was only recently during a trip to Taiwan that I decided to try out a different instrument. An ocarina. An ocarina is a wind instrument that works basically like a recorder (remember learning those in elementary?), but made from clay. Once I saw it, I decided to try out learning how to play it. Why? It reminded me of Link's Ocarina of Time from the Zelda video games*. :) Imagine playing mysterious melodies and being all deep and "mystically-like"...
 |
| Hey ocarina, ocarina, ocarina |
 |
| Ocarina front: 3 left-hand holes + 3 right-hand holes. Ocarina back right: 2 holes. |
The instructions were not intuitive. At least to me. Something like: "1st Right, 2nd Right, 1st+2nd Right, Add 1st Left, Add 2nd Left...???" (more on this later on). This is way different from how the notes on a piano are arranged "linearly", like a number line. Remembering the notes in the instructions was like trying to memorize how to play different notes on a recorder, which is much more complicated, and is like a jumbled-up number line. Or like learning notes on a guitar, which--if you also know how the keys on a piano work--is like having the line of keys of a piano folded over each other at seemingly random intervals and places (like a number line folded at strange intervals). This is besides the fact that any words in the instructions were in Chinese.
 |
| The instructions that reminded me of recorders and guitars. |
So once upon a time, I decided to hack my ocarina. No, not chop it into smithereens. No ragequit here. What I did was I started experimenting making notes. Simple. After a little time, I found that I could make the notes "linear", just like how higher notes are raised "higher up" towards the right of a piano, and lower notes are "lower down" towards the left. By just trying to make it "linear", the notes just happened to work themselves out, and I could start playing tunes right away.
 |
| Number line. Linear row. Bigger numbers to the right. Simple. Linear intuition. |
Explanation:
Why/how does it work? From my limited music knowledge, I think it has something to do with a shift in musical key signature. That means I might not be playing the exact same notes as the next person, but at least playing solo I can have an internally consistent set of notes for a song, and---here's the payoff---I can now have an intuitive sense of how to play the next note, just because I visually re-mapped the notes and finger positions so that "up" = "up", and that "down" = "down" (mostly). How's that for experimenting? It's just play.
Mapping Details:
In order from left to right, from the point of view of the person playing:
Left: 1, 2, 3,
|
Right: 4, 5, 7
|
Back: 6, 8
|
set for my ocarina.
Compare this to the original instructions' fingering for notes:
Something like
Left: 6, 5, 4,
|
Right: 1/3, 2/3, 7
|
Back: 8
|
Back: 9, 10
|
The idea is that it's not neat/linear, some use "half-coverings", the 3rd note is a combination of 1 and 2. All of which is just complicated. I like my version better; it's much simpler to remember, and I can get to playing songs faster instead of memorizing strange finger configurations.
-
*P.S.: I've never played the game myself, but somehow I remember seeing some walk-through guidebooks over 5 years ago at a friend's house. I actually don't really play video games that much, only when I'm with friends who actually play or have game consoles. By the way, my ocarina model I have isn't exactly the same as the model in the game, which looks like this:
 |
| The actual Ocarina of Time |
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LINKS TO OTHER STUFF:
