BEFORE NOW

    I can still remember the first time someone tried to teach me to read music.  At the age of three, I anticipated Sunday school with excitement and joy.  Singing Do, Re, Mi, Mi, Mi.  It sounded like scat and reminded me of an Ella Fitzgerald record my mother played at home, but the singing was painfully slow.

    Some five years later in grammar school, I was presented with the musical alphabet: "A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A."  Although it sounded like Do, Re, Mi, it was easier to say and see going up the scale.  Going backwards it was harder: "G,F,E,D,C,B,A."  Why, even "Do, Ti, La, So, Fa, Mi, Re, Do" was easier to say in reverse.  You can see the confusion can't you?  My eye learned to see the interval in one language and my ear had learned to hear it in a different language.  Often I found myself thinking, "A,B,C,D,E,F,G"; "Do, Ti, La, So, Fa, Mi, Re, Do."

    In High School I moved away from playing keyboards by studying the French Horn.  Starting all over from scratch, I forgot everything else.  I was able to read music quite fluently once I learned the French Horn fingering patterns.  While looking at a printed page of music, the notes became patterns for my fingers to follow.  I could add and subtract these in my head based on some simple rules.  Each valve made the horn 1/2 step longer and this lowered the pitch by 1/2 step.

Middle Finger  = ( 1 half-step  DOWN)   
Index Finger  = ( 2 half-steps DOWN)
Ring Finger  = ( 3 half-steps DOWN)
M + I  also is  = ( 3 half-steps DOWN)
M + R also is  = ( 4 half-steps DOWN)
I + R  also is  = ( 5 half-steps DOWN)
I + M + R  is  = ( 6 half-steps DOWN)
   
    Looks weird doesn't it!  Well, just count the number of half-steps between any two notes and you can invent a fingering pattern.  For example: play any open tone on any horn, press the middle valve and the pitch will drop one 1/2 step.  Now, play a tone holding down the first valve; pressing down the middle valve will still move you down one 1/2 step.  Soon I was inventing fingering patterns to create the "Do, Re, Mi" scale starting from any note using simple mechanical rules. This approach had some benefits and problems.  It took a long time and a lot of counting before I could swing with this method.  I began marking up all of my sheet music with the valve pattern numbers that I then had to memorize.