Increase your musical vocabulary at least 168 times more effectively (I'm not kidding).

Hanon. Charles-Louis Hanon's "The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises".

Stop right there, don't run away. I agree that Hanon has some severe drawbacks and limitations, I am here to explain how to overcome those limitations and draw on Hanon's method to develop what is objectively the most comprehensive way to develop not only your musical dexterity as Hanon intended, but also your musical vocabulary and fluency.

By objective standards, this method has the potential to increase your musical vocabulary by a factor of 168 or even more.

Now, let's look at Hanon for a second, the bane of every pianist. The first twenty exercises in The Virtuoso Pianist follow a particular method which has a surprising quality to it that is often overlooked. The method that the first twenty exercises follows goes something like this:

1. Begin with a fingering pattern of semiquavers in 2/4 with two hands in unison starting in C major an octave apart.
2. Ascend the diatonic modes of C major using the same fingering pattern for two octaves.
3. Reverse the fingering pattern and descend the modes for two octaves.

What Hanon has effectively made every pianist do with this exercise is multiply a basic phrase by:

1. Playing it through seven modes
2. Across two octaves.
3. Altering the phrase.
4. Playing the altered phrase through seven modes
5. Across two octaves.

So, he has given you one phrase that has been multiplied by 7 modes x 2 octaves = 14 new phrases, and then provided you with another 14 phrases, giving you a total of 28 phrases for the price of one! This may seem trivial but ask yourself this, when was the last time you seriously studied a phrase and played it in a different mode, different octave, different key, rhythm, scale, wait... Hanon didn't change keys, rhythm or scale in his first twenty exercises, his strict use of semiquavers in 2/4 in the key of C is precisely one of the reasons his method warrants so much criticism, along with the claim that 60 exercises total is all it takes to develop a virtuoso technique.

What I am getting at here is that Hanon had something right all along, and because us musicians tend to avoid critical thinking in favour of being opinionated egotists we never noticed! What Hanon has laid the foundation for is for us to effectively remove the limitations of Hanon's method and replace them with methods that make them theoretically limitless.

Let's focus on those limitations and systematically improve on them:

Hanon only provides sixty exercises.

There is no way that only sixty exercises are going to make anybody a virtuoso. That's like saying you can be fluent in a language by mastering just sixty phrases. Anybody who practices Hanon or any other technical exercises will use it as a supplement to learning and creating real music. So by learning Bach or composing your own music you're already increasing and improving your musical vocabulary. There is an innate problem with this though that most musicians are neglecting which I have mentioned in this article, which is the fact that when most of us learn or create a phrase we tend to ignore that it has at least seven times more value if we play it in all seven modes.

Hanon's exercises are limited to only a few scales.

To my immediate recollection, Hanon only uses the diatonic, melodic minor, harmonic minor, and chromatic scales. Most of the exercises he provides aren't even mentioned to be played in other scales.

You can go beyond this by changing the scale. Using Hanon's exercises that are in C major for an example, we could take that first exercise and once it has been played as it is written, play it in harmonic minor instead. Now we have taken a phrase, played it in 7 modes x 2 scales = 14 exercises.

Hanon's exercises use only one key per exercise (with a few exceptions).

So, Hanon has already given us a method that can effectively increase our musical vocabulary and musical dexterity by a factor of seven. But for the most part, his method avoids playing each exercise in all twelve keys.

By doing so, we can effectively multiply one phrase or exercise by 7 modes x 12 keys = 84 new phrases!

If we change the scale, then we can further multiply those eighty-four phrases by each scale that we use. So a phrase that is usually diatonic that can provide us with 84 phrases/exercises, provides us with another 84 for each new scale we assign to it. Playing a phrase this way just across two scales will yield us 168 ways to play just one phrase.

Hanon's exercises may possibly restrict hand independence.

Most of Hanon's exercises utilise both hands in a way that they will play the exact same notes at the exact same rhythm one octave apart. Honestly, I think this is a bad practice and may restrict the musician's independence of each hand. This is simply remedied by playing the exercise with one hand of your choice, and then providing accompaniment with the other hand. This accompaniment could be improvised, it could be pre-arranged and notated, the world is your oyster.

Hanon's exercises are rhythmically unimaginative.

Now, I can see why Hanon may have chosen the first twenty exercises to all be a set of eight semiquavers in bars of 2/4. It does provide uniformity but in my opinion that's kind of like training wheels.

Whether you are using Hanon's exercises, a Bach melody, or your own phrases, it is worthwhile to use rhythmic variation so music doesn't always feel like it's being experienced through the same rhythmic lens. I imagine somebody who played Hanon the way he intended (all sixty exercises in one sitting every day) would suffer from perceiving all music as being slurred and modified variations of the sixty exercises. To be clear, I don't simply mean to just slur your phrases and play them rubato or staccato, I mean use completely different rhythms such as various time signatures and subdivisions. It could be interesting to add subdivisions or even omit or extend some notes.

It's called The Virtuoso "Pianist".

The music police (I hate those guys) will not arrest you for playing these exercises on your guitar, clarinet, trumpet, cello or whatever. I have had a serious talk with the chief at the music police station and he said it is completely acceptable by all standards of the music law to compose technical exercises for one instrument and arrange them for any other instrument.

This can yield some very powerful results, playing a phrase across twelve keys on guitar is significantly easier than on piano, but playing it across seven modes is significantly more intricate and thus will benefit your dexterity and musical abilities profoundly.

Hanon emphasises finger dexterity over musicality.

Dexterity is required to be an able musician, but the emphasis should be on creating and enjoying music, or else you're proverbially stuck riding with training wheels.

Trying to attain virtuosity just by increasing dexterity is like trying to be a better speaker just by practicing mouth movements, or trying to be a better writer by practicing correct pen-holding technique and writing out the alphabet with attention to form. These can be useful exercises, but the context and expression that accompanies the exercise is really what is at the heart of any practice whether it be music, painting, sports etc.

Moving on:

Improving your musical vocabulary by playing it in the multitude of various modal and tonal contexts is more than meets the eye. By practicing this way, we are not merely adding to a memory bank of musical phrases. More importantly, we are actually exercising our ability to perceive music in fresh new ways. I encourage you to consider that you aren't just increasing your vocabulary and dexterity, but you are expanding and developing your understanding of musical relationships in ways that transcend the idea of boosting your musical vocabulary. More important than having a large vocabulary is knowing how to use it, and this should innately occur through quality practice and reflection.

As I'm a big fan of thinking and getting other people to think, I thought of something new to introduce in my articles to encourage musicians to improve their music by thinking while also giving me more material for future articles. I thought I could end each article with relevant thought exercises such as considerations/questions and visualisation exercises to stimulate musician's abilities in navigating and creating musical possibilities. I am also considering making posts solely on visualisation exercises. Gee, I've got so much to work on.

Consider and question:

• In the future, when I learn a piece, I will practice particular phrases across across seven modes, twelve keys, and in various scales. Potentially multiplying my musical vocabulary by a factor of 168 or more.
• What would learning a major piece in harmonic minor or another mode be like? What new musical ideas, contexts, and patterns will I absorb? How can I use this new knowledge?
• What scales am I unfamiliar with? I will practice those.
• Let's make phrases in new time signatures and rhythmic patterns, and then play them through modes, keys, and scales.

Visualise and imagine:

• Hear and visualise your hands playing a simple phrase in C major. Imagine the same phrase across all the modes of C major. Try this for all 12 keys.
• Hear and visualise that same phrase but in harmonic minor. Imagine it through all seven modes of harmonic minor across all twelve keys.
• Imagine this with different phrases and scales.

Make Your Music Evolve.

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.

What I want to show you, is that by altering this single note ad infinitum, we can discover and create different ways to relate to it, increasing our understanding of its potential context as we witness how just this one note can relate to other musical concepts. 

The first step I will take in the evolution of this note is duplicating it. This will allow me to demonstrate how the same note can work in two different ways.

We can give each of these two notes some harmonic information.

So for the first bar, I stuck with C as the root note and voiced it as a Sus4 in the root position. But the second bar actually isn't a textbook C chord at all, It's an inverted F major. I did this to show that adding harmony to C doesn't necessarily require C to be the root interval. But what if I removed the C entirely?

In these two bars, I removed the C and replaced it with the respective Major 7th interval of each chord. So the first chord has a B in the higher octave, making it something like a 7-1-3 voicing of a G7. The second chord replaces the C with an E in the higher octave, so it's like a 1-3-7 voicing of Fmaj7.

So. The formula I used to create these variations went something like this:

1. Start with a simple musical concept (in this case, middle C)
2. Alter it rhythmically (duplicate the bar).
3. Alter it harmonically.

I'll provide three more examples of running music through formulas similar to previous example.

This is a Major second interval in the key of D minor, expressed as minims. I will do something similar to the first example, which was expanded to fit over two bars.

This gives us a bit more breathing space to create further alterations. Lets turn each of these notes into arpeggios.

So as the first bar was D, and the second bar was E, I've transformed each one into their respective arpeggios within the key of D minor. D minor and E minor. I could make these arpeggios a bit spicier though.

The arpeggios now contain their respective 7th and 9th intervals within the key. So D minor now contains C and E, making a Dm9 arpeggio. E minor now contains D and F, making a Em7b9 arpeggio. And all of this came out just from two minims! On to the next one.

This is just a simple, ascending G major triad in crotchets. I have an interesting idea on how to alter its rhythm.

I've introduced a new time signature, and as a consequence, the rhythmic values of the crotchets had to be altered by dotting them and distributing them over two bars. The 6/8 time signature works great with two pairs of three quavers so I would like to take advantage of that classic form.

In this case, I have turned the G and B notes of the first bar into ascending G major and B minor chords respectively. As for the second bar, the D returns to B and then D (descending and ascending minor 3rd interval) followed by another G major arpeggio, this time inverted and descending. Let's make one more variation.

I've turned each note into chords. Just like the F major chord in the first example, I decided not to use the existing note as the root interval. Instead, I opted to use it as a 3rd in a bunch of 3-5-1 triad voicings. Let's do just one more example.

For this last example, I have chosen an ascending G harmonic minor scale in 4/4 as crotchets. Let's do something crazy about changing the rhythm though.

I've taken the exact same notes, but split them across a bar of 5/4 and one of 3/4 instead of two bars of 4/4. Distinguishing them as uneven sets of 5 and 3 notes should greatly contribute to further alterations.

I continued to alter the rhythm by making the crotchets in 5/4 into quaver triplets, and the crotchets in the 3/4 bar into semiquavers. For the triplets, I added each note its respective 6th interval within the key of G minor and its octave. And for the semiquavers I just did some descending scale runs. Now for the last alteration.

The first quaver of each triplet has now been split into semiquavers, with the second semiquaver being a diatonic 3rd above the previous note. And for the semiquavers in bar two, I also divided the last semiquaver of each beat to add one more note to the descending pattern.

I highly encourage musicians to try these kinds of exercises in evolving musical ideas as a powerful and effective way to continually evolve their musical understanding, expression and ability. 

Immerse yourself in notation - part 4/4

This is the fourth, and final part of this series on immersing yourself in the practice of music notation. In the future I will surely provide even more insight, opinions and information regarding notation but there were some specific points I wanted to get across in a four-part series.

This article will conclude the series with some simple advice on composition and interpretation.

Sight-reading:

A great way to improve your familiarity in reading and writing on the stave is to combine both sight-reading and composition by developing your own sight-reading exercises.

This somewhat relates to the "Aim high, exaggerate and get it wrong" section of Part 2b in the sense that the sight-reading exercises you produce do not have to be the most thought-out and musically pleasing. As sight-reading is a practice in impromptu interpretation and performance, writing with little inhibition also requires the ability to process musical ideas in an impromptu fashion. So combining these two practices is very powerful when it comes to improving your ability to act fast.

In my opinion, it is such an obvious and easy way to develop your musical fluency that I'm surprised and disappointed that this is rarely mentioned. The aim is to identify what is holding you back in sight-reading to create exercises featuring the qualities that make you stumble. Are minor sixth intervals difficult to identify? Are particular rhythms catching you off guard? Are accidentals in the key of F# tricky to interpret? I don't think I need to write any more here because as I said, it's just so obvious what to do that you should do it!

Re-interpretation:

All musicians who read music will come across passages that are technically challenging and mind-boggling. It is easy to assume that the difficulty of a passage is just a technical issue, that the challenge is conquered by dividing its sections, playing them slowly, and building speed with the metronome. This is beneficial but there is a better way that will simultaneously familiarise yourself with the passage with greater depth and efficiency, and develop your musicianship beyond what is written.

The method here is to identify key elements of the passage and notate your own variations.

For example, if a passage features four-voice counterpoint, don't just stop at practicing the individual voices. Isolate and write one of the melodic lines, add your own harmonies or counterpoint, alter the rhythmic elements, or do any kind of musical alteration that allows you to examine and perform the passage from different lenses and perspectives.

Another example, lets say a passage contains some complex chords. You could re-write the chords in a different voicing, omit or alter some chord tones, or remove all but the root notes and develop some jazzy walking-bass.

The key is to notate it though. Of course there are no police to arrest you for experimenting and playing these alterations in the moment without notating it, but if it isn't notated you are more or less just playing around with fleeting ideas rather than thoughtfully calculating the possibilities and refining your musicianship.

Thank you for reading this article. If you haven't read the preceding parts of the series then give it a go if you so desire.

Immerse yourself in notation - Part 3/4

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: 

• Key signatures.
• Rhythms.
• Scales and modes.
• Chord types.
• Intervals.
• Chord voicings and inversions.
• Polyphonic qualities.

The name is inspired by the periodic table of elements used in the field of chemistry. Although my table is by no means an exhaustive or perfect categorisation of all the elements that music is comprised of, I do believe it is more than sufficient for its intended purpose.

Immerse yourself in notation - Part 2b/4

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.