This is a simple follow up on my previous article. I had demonstrated how to approach each section of the practice plan, but I thought some further clarification is necessary on how to develop the plans for upcoming sessions. I have also made a print-out copy of the practice plan ready to fill in for your next practice session(s) which you can download here or use as a reference to make your own by hand.
Each category in the main practice plan is divided into sub-categories listed numerically, alphabetically, and in roman numerals.
For example, the section on arpeggio exercises is 4-D-II. 4 is Technique/theory, D is the sub-category of technical exercises, and II is the sub-sub-category of arpeggios.
So, to develop your upcoming plans. It helps to maintain this convention. So here is an example of the plan I have written for today's upcoming practice session:
1. Repertoire:
A) Classical - Prelude in C Major, Solfeggietto in C minor.
2. Composition:
A) Melody - Write a melody in D Major.
B) Harmony - Write harmonies according to a 2-5-1 progression.
C) Rhythm - Practice writing with tied and dotted notes.
3. Aural:
A) Chord progressions - Egao by Ikimonogakari, and Girlfriend by The Pillows.
B) Melodies - Same as A.
C) Riffs/phrases - The interlude riff from Vortex by Megadeth.
D) Transcription - The intro melody to Rainmaker by Iron Maiden.
4. Technique and theory:
A) Transposition and modulation - Solfeggietto in C minor, transposed to F minor.
B) Harmonic analysis - Write the chord degrees of The Other Half by Within Temptation.
C) Etudes - Czerny's School of Velocity exercise 1.
D) Technical exercises
i. Scales - Write an exercise in D harmonic minor
ii. Arpeggios - Write an arpeggio exercise using a DminMaj7 arpeggio.
E) Sight-Reading - Pieces from Mikrokosmos by Bela Bartok.
F) Metronome:
i. Tempo - 75 BPM.
ii. Time signature - 5/4.
iii. Subdivision - Quavers.
5. Mental exercises:
A) Visualisation.
i. Instrument - Visualise the music in my mind on piano and guitar.
ii. Notation - Visualise the music in my mind being transcribed, extra emphasis on tied and dotted notes.
iii. Performance - Visualise myself busking.
iv. Career - Visualise myself teaching one-on-one lessons.
B) Hearing music in your mind - Allow any music to come to mind. Visualise it on piano, guitar, and being transcribed to notation.
C) Positive affirmation - Remind yourself: "I love transcription, it is fun and easy", "Practice makes everything fun and easy".
D) Journaling:
i. Reflection - Write whatever is necessary post-practice.
ii. Goals - Write thoughts on achieving fluency in reading, writing, and transcribing in musical notation.
E) Imaginary practice - Imagine, visualise, and hear myself fluently reading, writing, and transcribing music.
I recently devised a general practice plan, not only for myself but for others. You can download it here. This may not seem like much at first glance, but it is really something special when it is used as a framework to develop more specific practice plans adapted for each practice session.
In this article, I will demonstrate how to use this practice plan to optimise your individual practice sessions. It's pretty simple, as it essentially just boils down to writing down what you plan on practicing for your next session, and notating anything relevant.
Section 1 "Repertoire":
For repertoire, four categories are listed: Classical, jazz, music you like, and your original compositions. You can add or remove what ever style of music you prefer to work on, these are just suggestions that promote well-rounded musicianship.
An example of repertoire choices for an upcoming practice session could look like this:
- Classical:
- Solfeggietto in C minor by C.P.E Bach.
- Prelude in C major from The Well Tempered Clavier.
- Music I like:
- Plastic Love by Takeuchi Mariya.
- The End of This Chapter by Sonata Arctica.
- Originals:
- The Young Boy and the Little Muse.
- I'll Be Your Friend
- Happily Ever After
Here are some examples of what one might compose for the three compositional categories of melody, harmony, and rhythm:Example of melodic composition:Example of composing harmony:CMaj7 - - - | Am7 - - - | Dm - - - | F - - - |
Example of composing rhythm:
Transposition examples:
- Play a minor 7th chord in all keys.
- Transpose the Prelude in C Major to D Major and F# Major.
Harmonic analysis example:
- Find the respective chord degrees for your original compositions.
Etude practice:
- School of Virtuosity Op 365 by Czerny - Exercise 3.
Sight-reading practice:
- Mikrokosmos by Bartok.
Metronome practice is also quite straight forward. Just choose a piece you have some familiarity with and alter the tempo. Faster is not necessarily better, as slowing down a piece may often reveal passages in which you have poor technique or excess tension which may then be resolved in order to play it more comfortably and with greater speed when it is appropriate.Here are some examples:A scale exercise in C Major:An arpeggio exercise in C Major:
In the digital copy of Schumann's "Album for the Young", it introduces the pieces with a selection of quotes from Schumann.
For the sake of sharing these great insights, I have decided to post them here. My favourite quotes at the time of posting this are in bold text.
ADVICE TO YOUNG MUSICIANS
BY
ROBERT SCHUMANN
In music, context is more important than the individual notes, phrases or other musical concepts. As musicians, it is vital that we are able to imagine and produce music that fits within the context of familiar and unfamiliar forms.
Take this note for example, a semibreve of middle C within a 4/4 bar.
Allow me to introduce my secret weapon for discovering and utilising the stave.
I call it "The Table of Musical Elements" (or "TOME" for short). It is a concise, yet thorough, categorised reference of basic musical elements such as:
Continuing from where we left off in part 2a of this four-part series about music notation, I have three more visualisation techniques to share. With some thinking and some practice, you may find yourself doing these things quite naturally and instinctively, deepening the relationship you have with music.
Technique #4 - Aim high, exaggerate and get it wrong.
I liken this to a baby babbling. Before an infant can speak, it just makes noises that feel right. In conjunction with their babbling, regular exposure to other people's voices, their inflections, and the situational context of the language they hear, young children learn how to create words, sentences and eventually have conversations with others in growing complexity.
Now let's imagine ourselves in a similar situation, as children learning the language of music - Writing music with little inhibition, with regular exposure and attention to the rhythmic and intervallic patterns in quality music (both audible and written), progressing naturally into creating musical phrases, motifs, movements and the ability to communicate with other musicians.
Simple exercise 1:
Compose music with little inhibition. Lower your guard and allow yourself to just write notes with no worry about how they will sound, just as an infant would make noises with no concern if the words are coming out right.
Just as the proverbial infant absorbs and recreates the phonetics and context of the language around them, identify patterns within the music you hear, read, write and perform. Later to be freely transformed and channeled into written, musical form.
Attempt to play what you have written and accept what you have created. Take note of the sounds and patterns in your composition that you like, grow in confidence as you witness your pure musical voice shining through the void of the unfamiliar. With practice this will inevitably manifest in greater detail, granting you the ability to write what you hear and hear what you read.
Simple exercise 2:
When playing or listening to music, imagine seeing the notes being transcribed onto manuscript before your eyes.
Even if the vision is a bit faint and blurry or other evidence (such as practical abilities in transcription) suggest that the pitches and note duration being visualised may be largely incorrect, remain confident that it will inevitably evolve into greater skills of aural and visual recognition of music as you actively combine this practice with other foundational musical skills such as listening, reading and composition.
Even if you are unsure of the correct notation, attempt to see the manuscript in your minds eye with increasingly vivid and lively detail.
Technique #5 - Cultivating synesthesia.
Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which the experience of one sense is associated with another. In my case, when I hear sounds I associate them with shapes and colours. Not until my teenage years did I learn that not everybody experiences synesthesia.
A concert pianist friend of mine who experiences very vivid synesthesia told me that he believes synesthesia can be cultivated. I believe this to be true based on the results I have witnessed in being able to experience my own synesthesia becoming more vivid.
Simple exercise:
Write a short passage of music. Think of your favourite colour, imagine that you can hear the passage and see the colour as you hear it.
Try to see the colour more clearly. As you continue to hear the passage and see the colour, ask yourself what shapes could represent the sound, imagine the shapes accordingly.
Examine the notes, intervals, chords, scales, melodies and rhythms in isolation. Use your imagination to hear and see them represented with the choices of shapes and colours that you see fit.
Examining the same passage and its elements, begin to imagine different shapes and colours to the ones you have already thought of.
There are no objective standards on what to imagine these sounds look like. A G major chord could look like a large purple cloud one day, the next day you may see it as a gravelly texture of navy blue, and to another person it may seem like a stream of white and red streaks.
Technique #6 - Imagery, symbolism and fantasy.
It was the same concert pianist that I previously mentioned who suggested to "look past the notes, see what story the composer is trying to tell". This is what really transforms what might initially seem to be just a song into a captivating story and insight into one's imagination and creativity.
Symbolism can be very personal, intangible and mysterious. It is a powerful, insightful, and creative tool in developing understanding and expression of particular concepts in any given art form. Understanding somebody else's use of symbols and imagery helps to decipher thoughts and intentions they may otherwise find difficulty in expressing by other means.
Whenever I am creating, reading or listening to music I am always seeking to experience more than just mere sounds. I need to discover things about myself that I haven't yet discovered, revealed by examining and reflecting on the thoughts and emotions I have in reaction to music being created, studied and enjoyed.
Simple exercise 1:
This is similar to exercise 1 in cultivating synaesthesia but instead of imagining shapes and colours we will imagine themes like objects, scenarios, memories, words or characters.
Write a short musical passage, and imagine anything that seems meaningful to you. Ask yourself "what does this mean to me?". Particular objects might represent a particular use, or you may find that you attach particular depth of meaning and context or emotion into a given word. Reflect and explore your conscience.
Isolate and examine the elements of the passage and conjour more ideas to mentally assign to the various rhythms, intervals, chords etc. Think about how these new ideas may relate to the passage's primary theme.
This creative process can lead to very deep introspection and creative output. It is worthwhile to maintain a dedicated journal to record your thoughts in handwriting, and speak with your artistically-inclined peers about the fruits and endeavours of your creative process.
While we are on the topic of symbolism and fantasy, I'll have you know I've been working on a concept album. It is my musical representation of a series of short stories I am writing. The project is called "Everlasting". Each track of the album will musically correlate with each successive chapter in the story. The first chapter "The Young Boy and the Little Muse" has been written along with the majority of composition related to it. You can read chapter one here.
I use very simple and common symbolic, situational and character archetypes in Everlasting, in the hopes that even a casual reader may relate and reflect on parallels they may see between the story and their own way of thinking. It is a story meant to inspire creativity and introspection.
That is the end of part 2 in my 4 part series on music notation.
The emphasis of part 2 was to develop useful mental habits that augment skills and engagement in the expression and interpretation of music notation. Part 3 will cover practical composition methods in which you can integrate the techniques you learned about in part 2.
What if I told you, that you could significantly improve your abilities to read notation and play your instrument without actually doing either?
Now don't get me wrong, actually reading notation and playing your instrument are still vital if you want to, you know, read notation and play your instrument. But in those moments where you have no access to sheet music or musical instruments it is still possible to engage in highly beneficial practice. This technique isn't limited to musical practice either, even professional athletes also utilise this skill.
I hope that many who are reading this already know what technique I'm talking about and that they may be even more mindful and motivated to use it. But for those who are unaware, the technique I am talking about is visualisation.
Now, I apologise that this article lacks citation of relevant essays, medical journals and other evidence that back up this claim as I haven't bothered to research them. I believe there are more than enough available studies that are readily available to support this theory, let alone plenty of anecdotal evidence from musicians, athletes, and highly successful people.
As this series is focused on notation, the focus of this article will be on various visualisation techniques and exercises that will aid your understanding and progress in reading notation. These techniques and exercises are in no particular order of importance or effectiveness, and it is by no means an exhaustive list. I do believe that these do lay a decent foundation for you to get the gist of how to use visualisation to pursue your musical goals. You may find these techniques work best in conjunction with one another.
Technique #1 - Reading sheet music without an instrument.
I could argue that this helps bridge the mental connection between notation and your instrument more efficiently than actually playing your instrument with the sheet music - not that one should forsake one for the other as both are vital and even synergistic.
My reasoning behind this is because without the visual and physical aid of your instrument you are forced to use your imagination. Seeing your instrument while it isn't really there eliminates distraction and makes the process purely mental, what ever bad playing or thinking habits you may have attached to the instrument (such as those formed by dependence on tablature) are less present.
Simple exercise:
Get some blank manuscript. Write your clef of choice, a time signature of 4/4 and a bar containing four crotchets of middle C. Now without touching your instrument, pretend you are playing that bar. Although a bit dorky, it is also a useful practice to employ physical action such as air guitar.
Technique #2 - Reading sheet music without... sheet music...
As I wrote the above exercise, I was actually practicing this technique - Reading sheet music without sheet music.
As I typed up "Get some blank manuscript" I could see myself getting off my chair, walking over to pick up some imaginary sheet music, returning to the desk and sitting down. As I typed "write your clef of choice" I could see a treble clef. As I continued writing I saw all of these things. I'm hoping that as I write these things that you can see them too.
Just like the previous technique, this one improves your ability to do the real thing by eliminating distraction and working purely on the mental connections behind the action so that you are more prepared to do the actual task. This is great when you are lacking motivation, it may not be an instant fix but continuously thinking and visualising yourself doing any task is a great way to kind of trick yourself into eventually taking action.
Simple exercise:
Imagine you are at your desk with some blank manuscript. See a mental image of the paper and your hand holding a pen. See your hand writing a grand stave, a key signature of G major and a time signature of 3/4. Imagine the first bar has three crotchets of G below middle C placed in the bass clef, now imagine the second bar has three crotchets of G above middle C.
Technique #3 - Hearing music without... music...
Hearing and seeing are two different things so if we are being specific with our definitions this isn't exactly visualisation. It is however similar to visualisation and is very conducive when used in conjunction with visualisation.
Whether reading or writing music, we can have greater confidence in our work knowing that we are correctly interpreting or expressing the notes given. Even outside the realm of composition, being able to imagine and hear music you have never heard before is absolutely vital as a musician.
Simple exercise 1:
Many people do this without thinking much about it. Hum or whistle a made up tune, it's so easy. Now, stop making noise and continue that action in your mind. Imagine the melodies are not made by your mouth and vocal cords but by a violin.
Simple exercise 2:
Visualise some blank sheet music again. Visualise your hand holding a pen, writing a grand stave, a key signature of D minor (F major) and a time signature of 6/8. Now as you imagine writing these notes, imagine you can hear them being played on a piano. Imagine in the first bar you are writing three quavers of D beamed together above middle C in the treble clef, followed by a dotted crotchet rest. And in the bass clef imagine a dotted crotchet rest followed by three quavers of D below middle C beamed together. Now that you have imagined completing the first bar, imagine hearing the bar being played in its entirety.
I have a few more ways to use skills in visualisation in musical settings but this post is getting a bit large and I need a break from typing. Stay tuned for part 2b.
