I'm diddling around with the song memory from Cats which i snagged the first page preview off of musicnotes, not the easy piano one that comes up as a default if you google it but the more standard p/v/g version. I hit the transcribe to the key of C button before printin up that first page; anyway, my question is about how to play the ties that occur right from the start in the bass. Maybe i'm having some kind of mental block because I'm wondering if there are instances when you play both notes in the tie...it just makes sense to me to play all these notes 1 2 3- 1 2 3 and so on instead of omitting that second '1'. When the melody starts that note is somewhat omitted because it coincides with a melody note on the right hand but in the intro the bass is played alone and again i want to play all the notes even though something in my head saysdon't play the tied note, twice that is. In other words i'm confused and would appreciate some advice on the pretty simple but confounding issue to my 'adult beginner' brain!

The correct way to play tied notes is to hold the previous note right through the tied note.

Rhythmically it's still in 3/4 time as you've shown in your example, I counted silently, or out loud when learning, the tied over beat for example, counting 123-(1)23 where the (1) is held from the 3rd beat, but counted as a 1.

So that little something in your mind was correct. Don't play the tied note seperately.

John

John, Thank you for that clarification.

I want to work on this as written...that said i must admit that I may also try to modify the arrangement I'm reading to make it a tad easier for my relative beginner status. Even on the 'easy piano 'version they have on musicnotes the bass does a C G c e c G (the e being the apex note so to speak) and on this version no ties are involved but what i'm possibly inclined to try is a simpler C E G c G E bass pattern not involving any fingers over or under for that high e...the easy piano version only has single melody notes so that's a little too simple but for the bass i may dumb it down, the LH that is, for purposes of getting it on a level I can handle a little better...but I'd also like to work on it correctly as written, that is in that arrangement....so thanks again for the feedback!

You're welcom,limavady.

You're gut feelings are going in the right direction again. The best thing is to do things the right way from the beginning even if it takes more work to get it down. Cheating the music is like cheating yourself out of a good treat.

Sometimes though you need to compromise. There were times when I couldn't reach a full chord so I played the middle and left out the top or bottom notes. This helped until my hands were able to reach the real thing.

Good luck with the piece and always remember to have fun.

John