Some Secrets to Effective Practice (part 1)

                Everyone is looking for quick fixes to their problems.  A diet pill that will let you eat what you want and still lose weight or an easy way to make good money by working at home.  In the case of musicians, we search for a practice secret that will grant us instant improvement.  Kenny Werner wrote a book entitled Effortless Mastery that tricked me into thinking I had found the solution.  Upon reading this book I quickly realized that the title can be taken two ways, and I (along with many other people) had taken it the wrong way.  You are a tricky guy Mr. Werner.  However, I happily continued to read because the book confirmed some truths that I already knew and laid out new strategies that were extremely helpful.  Although I am not into meditation, I would recommend Effortless Mastery to any musician who wants to take their performance ability to another level.  The concepts I am about to discuss come from both this book and my own experience as a musician and music educator.  

                The truth is that there is no “effortless” way to achieve “mastery” of instrumental or vocal performance.  Mr. Werner was actually referring to the fact that we are not really ready to publicly perform a piece of music until we have obtained the ability to perform it effortlessly.  It takes consistent, focused and diligent work to achieve mastery in the field of musical performance.  I spent most of my childhood assuming that I did not possess the ability to achieve mastery on my instruments.  I loved music, but my ability to understand theory seemed to far exceed my physical ability to perform.  It wasn’t until I grew older that a realized the level of practice I was investing was not equal to the result I was hoping to achieve.

                This leads me to the first secret to effective practice which is to set realistic and reachable goals.  Kenny Werner discusses one aspect of this concept by suggesting that we not set out to practice for a long period of time.  Instead he tells himself that he is going to practice for five minutes.  Sometimes his practice session does only last for this amount of time.  On other occasions, he is swept up in the moment and a much longer period of time goes by.  The idea is he got over the hump of bringing himself to practice. 

               I would take this concept even further.  Mr. Werner was addressing professional (or at least extremely serious) musicians in his book.  We are not all at that level, but this does not mean we cannot pursue musical performance as a hobby.  We just need to set realistic goals for what we want to achieve.  Many top level professionals practice 4-8 hours every day.  Many public school music students practice 15-30 minutes a week (out of those who even practice).  Where do you fall within that range?  How much time do you have to devote to the study of musical performance?  What level do you wish to achieve?  If you answer these questions honestly, it will help you to set more realistic and achievable practice goals. 

              Once we have set our practice goals, there are ways to ensure that we achieve them in the most efficient and effective manner.  One is to regulate the amount of time spent in any one sitting.  Studies have shown that we retain information most effectively during the first and last ten minutes of any study session or lecture.  Some practice technicians use this information to suggest that the most effective form of practice is to break one’s time into twenty minute segments throughout the day.  A lower “hobby” level musician may have just one twenty minute session per day.  More serious musician will have multiple practice sessions per day.

             I have personally experienced practice sessions that have extended beyond twenty minutes in which I was totally engrossed in the task at hand.  For this reason I do not apply this twenty minuet concept as a hard and fast rule, but I do use it as a guideline.  If I am in the middle of a very productive practice session, I will continue until the current thought has concluded.  However, even during productive moments I do find it helpful to stop for a brief water break and relax my mind.  We must learn to both focus on our practice material and be mindful of our state of mental fatigue.  Eventually it becomes easier to judge when to continue and when to take a break. 

            With that said, I have already extended this post to my normal weekly limit.  I do not want to cram too much information into one week and lose your attention in the process.  Instead, I will end here and continue with this topic next week.

Consonance & Dissonance

                One of the key components to good music is the proper use of consonance and dissonance.  To understand the use of consonance and dissonance we first need to understand what these terms mean.  Webster's defines consonant as: being in agreement or harmony : free from elements making for discord.  It defines dissonant as: mingling of discordant sounds; especially : a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord.

                The unit of measure used to determine the distance between musical pitches is the interval.  Since there are seven letters in the musical alphabet, there are seven basic musical intervals.  Each interval can be lowered or raised by a half step (flat or sharp) to create alterations, but there are seven basic labels as seen below.

Interval numbers do go beyond seven, but they are basically repeats of the first seven intervals displaced by one (or several) octave. 

                There are two types of consonant intervals, perfect and imperfect.  Perfect intervals portray the purest form of musical consonance.  Imperfect intervals still sound harmonious, but they are not as pure as perfect intervals.  The unison, fourth, fifth and octave are perfect intervals.  The third and sixth are imperfect intervals.  This leaves the second and seventh as the dissonant intervals. 

                You may think that music which contains only consonance would be ideal since the harmonies all blend well with each other.  However, a key element of all forms of entertainment is conflict and resolution.  Great books, television shows, plays, movies and sporting events all contain this.  A question or challenge is presented and the characters struggle to conquer that challenge.  There is usually a climactic moment toward the end of the event where the conflict reaches a peak and is finally resolved.  Whether it is a murder mystery in which the killer if finally found or a football game that ends with the winning field goal, all people look for this element of conflict and resolution in entertainment. 

                In music, dissonance is used to create conflict.  Harmonies and chord can be combined in ways that build tension.  The tension is then released with consonant harmonies.  Too much dissonance can be considered distasteful by the audience.  In the same way, too much consonance can be considered boring.  Of course there is no absolute solution since music appreciation is subjective.  However, the majority of listeners within a given genre of music will agree on the general boundaries of good and bad music.  The key to great composition is knowing those boundaries and knowing how to utilize consonance and dissonance in a way that is tasteful and interesting. 

                Understanding this concept is advantageous for performers as well as composers.  While performing music, it is important to know how the conflict and resolution unfolds throughout the piece.  This better enables the performer to express these aspects of the music.  A composer uses conflict and resolution to gain the audience's attention.  A performer can either accentuate or diminish this component through his or her performance.    

Enharmonic Equivalence

               This is one of those topics that sound advanced, but is actually simple.  If you have a basic understanding of half steps, whole steps, sharps and flats, then the topic of enharmonic equivalence is the next link in the chain.  If you would like to gain a better understanding of these topics, I am in the process of producing educational videos on YouTube.  One of the videos discusses the whole and half steps in depth (along with enharmonic equivalence).  Once I complete them I will announce their release, and add links to my blogs. 

     

               When a sharp is applied to a pitch it raises the pitch by a half step.  When a flat is applied the pitch is lowered by a half step.  This creates an interesting dilemma as is seen by the graphic below.

In this example, the pitches C# and Db end up residing on the same key of the piano keyboard.  These two names actually lable the same pitch. 

                This concept can be confusing at first.  How can one pitch have two different names?  When I am teaching my public school students I describe it this way.  I also have two names (a first and last name).  At home, my wife calls me Ray, but at work my students call me Mr. Melograne.

                                               

               I am the same person, but it is more appropriate to use my first name in some settings and my last name in other settings. 

                The same is true of musical pitches.  If you are raising a C it is more appropriate to call that pitch a C#.  If you are lowering a D the resulting pitch is the same.  However, in this case it is more appropriate to call that pitch a Db. 

                This graphic shows the various enharmonic equivalences that exist across one octave of the piano keyboard.

               Notice that the dilemma also occurs in the places on the keyboard where there are no black keys.  The distance between the pitches B and C is a half step.  The same is true for the pitches E and F.  Therefore, each of these pitches can also be named as the flat or sharp version of their neighboring pitch.  If you want to really get technical, the other white keys can also be named as a double flat or double sharp pitch.  When the term double is added to a flat or sharp it simply means that the pitch has been raised two half steps (a whole step) instead of one.  I decided to omit these names from the graphic to avoid too much clutter.   

The Circle of Fifths (part 2)

As I mentioned last week, more complex forms of music use this circle of fifths relationship to temporarily travel to other key centers.  These are the types of progressions that are found in soul, gospel and jazz music.  This type of harmonic movement adds variety and interest in comparison to predictable diatonic movement. 

For example, when traveling to the IV chord, some progressions may temporarily treat the IV as a I and travel to it using a ii-V-I progression within that temporary key.  In the key of C, this would consist of using a Gm7 – C7 – F progression to travel to a F chord.  There is a Bb within the Gm7 chord and the C7 chord.  This pitch does not exist in the key of C, but is utilized as a temporary excursion while traveling to the F chord (as if we are moving to the key of F). 

Another example is used when traveling to the vi chord.  If we temporarily treat vi as i we can use a minor ii-V-i progression to travel to the vi chord.  In minor ii-V-i progressions, the ii chord is a minor seven flat five chord.  In the key of C, this would consist of using a Bm7b5 – E7 – Am7 progression to travel to an Am7 chord.  The E7 chord contains a G# which does not exist in the key of C, but is utilized as a temporary excursion while traveling to the Am7 chord.

The concept of triton substitution allows us to further modify the two examples listed above.  The third and seventh of a dominant seventh chord are the interval of a triton.  Since a triton is the symmetrical bisect of an octave, those pitches will also be the seventh and third of the dominant seventh chord that is a triton away.  For example, the third of a C7 chord is E and the seventh is Bb.  If we travel up a triton from C to Gb, the third of a Gb7 chord is Bb and the seventh is Fb (or E). 

This shared third and seventh relationship between dominant seventh chords that are a triton apart causes them to be interchangeable harmonically.  Therefore, in the examples above, the dominant seventh chords can be interchanged for their triton substitution chords.  When we are traveling to F (in the key of C) this would result in a Gm7 – Gb7 – F progression.  When we are traveling to Am7 (in the key of C) this would result in a Bm7b5 – Bb7 – Am7 progression.  Notice that this option allows for a chromatically descending bass line. 

These are just some of the chromatic excursions possible due to the circle of fifths.  Trying to write about every possibility in every musical style would result in a book as opposed to a blog entry.  Understanding the examples listed above will give you the understanding to be able to explore and discover additional harmonic options.