EWI Tutorials
I'm hoping that someone here can give me some advice. I have been messing around with my EWI for a while and think that in theory I should be able to get fantastic results. However, as a novice recorder player from way back, I spend far too much effort trying to remember fingerings than actually playing.
I would be grateful if someone could give me some advice as to which fingering chart is easier to learn, and some primer books that I can use to teach myself. I have no problem practising every day, but would just like an efficient way to do it.
D
I would be grateful if someone could give me some advice as to which fingering chart is easier to learn, and some primer books that I can use to teach myself. I have no problem practising every day, but would just like an efficient way to do it.
D
Comments
I use the default fingering. Prior to using wind controllers I had played recorder, flute, and saxophone (in that order) and the EWI fingering was very similar so I had very little trouble transferring to the EWI. Other than a few notes everything seemed to work fine.
I don't remember ever changing the fingering style, so it is most certainly the default fingering, meaning whatever it is programmed from the factory was what I used.
What style of music do you play? How good are your recorder fingering skills? Obviously if you are not very proficient with the recorder, you cannot expect to be any better with the EWI, but somewhat less proficient. The better you are with your instrument the faster and better you will be with the EWI, with the understanding that since the capacitive touch sensitive fingering technology is a bit different from any wind instrument.
I can't recommend any practice books I'm afraid. It's just a matter of practicing the most common scales, until your fingers move automatically (without thinking) to the note that you read on a score. At the same time I recommend playing lots of easy pieces in order to facilitate learning to move from any one note to any other note, rather than just sequentially the way you would for playing scales.
I hope this helps even a little bit.
Dan
Anyway, i shall follow your advice and just practice my scales and arpeggios every day, just as I did on the other instruments I play. not sure that I want to spend 8 hours a day on this though.
D
Since playing scales can be quite boring, be sure to find and play easy pieces in whatever genre you enjoy.
If you enjoy Classical music, I'm sure you can find some easy classical flute pieces. The Garritan flute sound is quite decent so you should have fun. There are easy play along book + CD combos you can buy from Hal Leonard Publishing (find them on Amazon) as well as Music Minus One.
If you like Jazz, there are tons of easy things to play. In fact you might enjoy Band in a Box (pgmusic.com), a program which allows you to play accompaniment in a large variety of styles (including pop styles other than jazz) with choice of tempo and key. You can find a ton of ready to use Band in a Box format music on the web ready to play on your computer. Playing along with accompaniment is much more fun than playing solo.
Dan