Enharmonic Choices
Winslow,
I'm working on my scales, learning to play the chromatic chromatically. Currently I'm working on D major. Do you have guidelines or rules for making enharmonic choices, when there are more then one way to play the same note (F/F#, C/C#)? For example let's saying I'm playing a D major scale up and down from draw 1 to draw 5. Which hole would you use for the C#, 4 or 5? Would you play one hole going up the scale and another going down?
I realize that the answer might be 'it depends', but I'm spending too much mental energy and hesitating for a split second deciding which hole to use. So I'm looking for some general rules so that I no longer have to think about it.
Thanks!
Steve
Thanks Winslow I appreciate the reply. Sorry you're so tired. Get some rest! No need to reply right away!!
I was dithering on which C# to play on a D major scale. Picking the note on the right (hole 5 in this case) is the kind of simple advice I was looking for, thanks.
How would you play an F major scale? Right now I'm using draw 2, 6 etc. for F, and draw 4 (slide in) for C. Logically though I guess it would be smoother to use blow 2, 6 etc slide in for F.
(Yeah I know there's only one F# - mistake on my part.)
Thanks!
Steve
PS I'm getting fairly comfortable playing out of both sides of my mouth and tongue switching so any advice on that subject would be appreciated too.
For playing the F major scale up and down, I use the Blow F and the Draw C. The blow F is surrounded on both sides by BLow E and Blow G. The Draw C is surrounded on both sides by Draw Bb and Draw C.
Thanks Winslow.
Generally for the double Cs and double C#s:
When playing a scale, stick to the same one. The usual advice is to stick with the one on the right, going both up and down.
When you're not playing up or down the scale, though, pick whichever one makes more sense. For instance, if you were playing G-C-G, the leftmost C is the one right next to G, so that's the one to use.
You mention F# enharmonics. On a C chromatic, there is only one F#, so there is no choice to make.
You do need to choose between the side-by-side blow C and C#s, as mentioned above.
The other enharmonics are blow C vs. Draw C (same as B#) and Draw F vs. Blow F (same as E#).
These don't come up in major scales with more than two sharps, because the first two notes to get sharped are F and then C, So D, A, E, and B major don't offer the F/E# or C/B# choices.
However, G major includes the C/B# choice and Gb major (same as F# major) offers the F/E# choice.
You get both choices (C/B# and F/E#) in the major scales of C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db. In those keys, the choice you make can help reduce the number of breath changes in a scale (for smoother, faster execution), and can also offer some cool same-breath aarpeggios. They can also give you some chromatically moving harmonies.
Sorry not to go into any depth; I'm very tired at the moment and there's a lot I could outline on this subject.