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.