Effective Musical Practice Tips

            This blog post is a recap of the information covered in my two part series titled Some Secrets to Effective Practice, posted on 6/25/14 and 7/2/14.  I had a recent question from a Learning Music With Ray You Tube subscriber that illustrated the value in revisiting this topic.  I have added some information since the last posts, and also created an accompanying You Tube video.

  

The truth is that there is no quick fix to instrumental or vocal 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.

Time Management

               This leads me to the first secret to effective practice which is to set realistic and reachable goals.  We are not all professional musicians, 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. 

Have A Plan      

                It is easy to get lost in minutes or hours of meaningless practice when we approach our sessions without a plan.  A practice plan usually is centered around a musical piece (or pieces) that we are studying and the concepts that we are currently striving to master within that piece.  We should start with warm-ups that develop tone, dexterity and flexibility.  Incorporating warm-ups that are related to the difficult concepts of the main piece helps to center our practice.  Finding warm-ups that relate to the focus concepts of the piece is surprisingly easy, but implementing that focus while playing the warm-ups is often difficult to remember.

                Scales, for example, can be used to reinforce tone, intonation, knowledge of key signature, dexterity and many other skills.  However, scales can easily turn into rote exercises that we run through thoughtlessly.  To maintain effectiveness we must concentrate on the desired skill and deliberately develop it while playing the scales. 

Keeping A Journal

                Keeping a journal is a huge aid in maintaining focus.  Seeing the warm-ups and practice goals written down helps us to remember what we did last session and what we should do now.  We can monitor progress in each area of practice and easily determine when a concept is mastered.  Within the piece, we can remember which sections we were focusing on last time and keep a record of further progress.

Work In Sections

                Breaking the piece into sections gives us a logical format for progressing to completion.  The human brain retains small chunks of information much more effectively than large strings of data.  This is the reason why we separate seven digit phone numbers into a group of three and a group of four digits.  Separating a musical piece into sections aids us in developing a clear practice strategy for mastering the piece.  The progress within each section can be monitored within one's journal.  Smaller sections can be eventually combined into larger sections until the piece is finally performed as a whole. 

                When studying a piece of music in this way it is important to understand the form and musical patterns contained within the music.  All music is composed of patterns.  This is the fundamental element that causes music to be so memorable.  Breaking the piece into sections that correspond to the musical patterns will aid us in understanding, learning and remembering the music.  While practicing this way we will often find patterns that repeat throughout the music.  Identifying these repeated patterns will further aid in efficiency.      

Tempo 

               Another key to effective practice is the careful monitoring of tempo.  We will perform whatever we practice.  Many people (including myself at times) practice difficult passages at a tempo that is too fast.  This prevents them from achieving true mastery of the passage.  It is important to practice difficult passages at a slow enough tempo to allow yourself to achieve mastery of the passage.  It is easier to play the pitches, rhythms, dynamics, articulations, etc. correctly at a slow tempo and then gradually increase the tempo.  Once those other elements are practiced incorrectly, the mistake becomes ingrained in our mind and is difficult to remove.  Journaling metronome settings helps us to achieve this gradual increase. 

Section Size      

                The other variable (beside tempo) that can be manipulated while practicing is section size.  Difficult passages are already examples of this, since they are isolated sections within a larger section of the piece.  Isolating these passages in our practice helps to gain mastery more efficiently since repetition is not wasted on measures that we have already mastered.  Breaking these passages down into smaller sections can make them more accessible (or digestible).  Once mastered, these smaller sections can be combined into larger ones, and then the entire passage.  The correct combination of tempo variation and section size can make any passage learnable. 

Be Willing To Vary The Routine

With any activity (working out, studying, practicing) repeating the same routine over and over can become counter productive.  Rehearsing the same material in a different way can keep you interested, alert and more effective in your practice.  Here are some suggestions for varying your routine.  If you worked in sections from the top down last time, try starting at the end of the piece and moving backward in sections today.  If you worked in smaller sections with a faster tempo last time, try working in larger sections with a slower tempo today.  Also, you can vary your warm-up and warm-down material.

Balancing Practice And Performance

                Many of the things mentioned above (sectional work, tempo, ...) pertain to learning new pieces of music.  We must also practice performing in order to become good performers.  Once we have learned the sections of a piece of music, brought them up to performance tempo and combined them, we need to practice performing the piece straight through.  This step is where most beginning students start.  They play through every piece without breaking it up and employing the practice strategies we have discussed.  However, one can also error on the other side of things and get caught up with focusing only on sectional work.  It is important to work toward an end goal and take the time to apply the final polish to our performance.  Playing through a piece (after it has been correctly rehearsed) presents its own problems of flow, continuity and endurance.  Once these elements are mastered, the piece is ready for public performance.

Balancing Work And Fun

                This topic is somewhat related to the last one since performance is usually the fun element of our studies.  The feeling one gets when comfortably and expressively performing a beautiful piece of music in front of an audience is extremely rewarding.  This reward is what pushes us through the daily grind of diligent practice.  Maintaining a balance between the grind and the reward is important.  If our schedule consists of mostly performance and little practice we will not advance in our skill (and my even lose some skill).  If our schedule is skewed in the opposite direction, we may become burnt out.  To quote The Shining, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."  One way to prevent this is to mix the review of finished pieces in with the study of new ones.  Another is to look for an ample amount of opportunities for public performance (even if it is house concerts for friends and family).  Finally, work some straight fun time into your musical schedule.  This could consist of fooling around and exploring sounds on your instrument.  It could also be playing along with recordings of your favorite songs, or getting together with some friends or family members and jamming.  These are the moments that inspire us to continue in our practice.     

This Learning Music With Ray video discusses some tips for effective musical practice.  We have all had unproductive practice sessions where we lose track of what we are doing and feel that we haven’t gained much in the end.  These tips are meant to help us stay focused and get the most out of each practice session. 

Verse/Chorus Song Form

            In the past, we discussed Ternary Form and the fact that it is also called song form.  This is due to the fact that many arias (operatic songs) are written in ternary form.  However, we should not confuse this form with the modern forms used to compose contemporary pop (not meaning the specific genre of pop, but modern genres that use this form such as rock, pop, country, folk, etc.) songs.  These types of songs can be written in a few different forms, but the most common is the verse/chorus song form. 

            Verse/chorus song form is a popular (modern day) song form consisting of a least two musical sections (the verse and the chorus).  This is not the only pop song form, but it is the most common.  There are additional sections that can be utilized (such as a bridge and/or a pre-chorus), but these sections are not required.  The simplest example of this form would be a song containing one verse and one chorus.                

            A verse/chorus song form can contain either one or multiple verses.  Additional verses will consist of new lyrics being set to the same music (chords and melody line) as the first verse.  A verse typically contains more words than a chorus.  Verses are used to tell the story of the song.  They are also typically are set to a melody that is lower in pitch when compared to the chorus.

            There is usually only one chorus in this form.  Although it may be repeated several times throughout the song, each repeat usually consists of the same lyrics and music.  The chorus usually consists of fewer words in an attempt to make it catchy and memorable.  The main idea or hook of the song is usually found in the chorus.  Also, this section of the song is usually set to a melody that is higher in pitch when compared to the verse.

            The natural flow of this form is to state a verse and then lead to the chorus.  The music may return for a second (or third) verse, but that will lead back to the chorus.  There are exceptions that start with the chorus, but even in those songs the natural verse to chorus flow exists (they just have a different starting point). 

            Some songs contain verses that do not clearly lead to the chorus.  In these cases an additional section called a pre-chorus can be used to lead to the chorus.  These sections are usually shorter in length when compared to the verse or the chorus.  They allow for the restatement of important ideas, summery of verse material and exploration of new harmonic areas. 

            Some songs also require an additional section in order to provide an even greater climax.  This is referred to as a bridge section.  The bridge usually occurs just before the final chorus (after all of the verses).  It can be used to lead into a modulation, or just to transition to a different musical idea that provides an even greater climax upon reaching the return of the final chorus.

            The musical examples provided in this video help to demonstrate the application of this type of musical form.  Understanding the use of verse/chorus song form will help us to be able to identify this technique when it occurs in everyday music.      

This Learning Music With Ray video discusses verse/chorus song form.  In it, I discuss the meaning and aspects of this modern song form as they relate to musical form.  I then analyze two pieces of music that are written in verse/chorus song form.  In this stage of the lesson I review the components of this type of form, and the ways to identify them in the musical example. 

Modulation Part 2

Review From Last Week:
          

          Wikipedia defines musical modulation as the act or process of changing from one key (tonic or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. So, any time the tonal center or key of a piece of music changes, a modulation has occurred. Sometimes composers clearly label this change by changing the key signature in the sheet music at the point of modulation. Other times composers will retain the original key signature and use accidentals to achieve the modulation. Modulations achieved by use of accidentals may require more detailed analysis to discover.

            The two main categories of musical modulation are diatonic and chromatic modulation.  In diatonic modulation, the transitional device (chord or pitch) used to modulate is diatonic to both the old and new key.  In chromatic modulation the transitional device (chord or pitch) used to modulate is chromatic to the old key and leads to the new key.  Since both chords and pitches can be used as transitional devices, there are two types of diatonic modulation called common (or pivot) chord and common tone modulation.  I discussed these two types of modulation in detail last week.  There is also another type of modulation called enharmonic modulation which involves the enharmonic respelling of pitches.  This type of modulation can be categorized as either diatonic or chromatic depending on how we view the respelled pitch.  I will cover this and chromatic modulation in today’s lesson.

            The two most common uses of enharmonic modulation are dominant seventh / German +6 and fully diminished seventh chord modulation.  With the fist type, a dominant seventh chord is respelled so that the seventh is now an augmented sixth.  This transforms the chord into a German +6 which resolves to the V of the key one half step below the original key. 

            The other type involves the use of a fully diminished seventh chord.  If we remember the sequence of diatonic seventh chords in a minor key, the vii is normally a fully diminished seventh chord (due to the raised leading tone).  Diminished seventh chords can be respelled 3 other ways because every pitch can be seen as the root.  Every root can resolve up (as a leading tone) to a minor or major chord a half step above.  This means that there are 8 possible resolutions to every diminished seventh chord (7 of which are new keys).

            Please realize that the methods for modulation extend beyond those listed in the beginning of this (and last week’s) lesson.  That list was aimed at discussing methods of modulation in which the transition is smoothed out through harmonic or melodic methods. There are several methods of modulation which result in abrupt and dramatic changes in key.  For example, phrase modulation is a method in which a musical phrase is ended in the original key and then the next phrase just begins in the new key.  In sequential modulation, a repeating musical sequence is stated in the original key and then in the new key.  In chain modulation people cycle through harmonic patterns (circle of fifths is most common method) until they reach the new destination key.  Finally, in parallel key modulation people suddenly shift from a major key to its parallel minor (or from minor to major).  The existence of the same tonic between the major and minor keys helps to solidify this type of transition.

Any time a chromatic inflection (one or more altered pitches – chromatic to the original key) is used to lead to the new key, this is chromatic modulation.  There are too many examples of chromatic modulation to list them all.  Technically, all of the modulations listed above are examples of chromatic modulation.  Another example would be the use of a fully diminished seventh chord that is outside of the original key.  This process is very similar to the one we covered under enharmonic modulation, except the diminished seventh chord would not be the vii of the key (different chord).  Often times, common tones and/or parallel major/minor relationships are used to smooth things out when using this type of modulation. 

Another example of chromatic modulation is the use of parallel shifts within chord progressions.  While traveling to a chord that is normally major (within the given key signature), we could shift that chord to the parallel minor and then continue the progression to a new key.  This shift can also be done on minor chords (shifting to major).  In addition, chords can be shifted to diminished harmonies which lead to other keys.    

          Understanding the use of enharmonic and chromatic modulation techniques will help us to be able to identify these techniques when they occur in everyday musical examples.  Knowledge of these techniques can also be used in musical performance when playing open styles of music (jazz, rock, pop, gospel or worship) from lead sheets.  In these styles, musicians often throw in modulations in order to increase the intensity of the song, or smoothly transition from one song to the next in a set list.

This Learning Music With Ray video discusses musical modulation.  In it, I review the meaning and aspects of modulation as they relate to harmonic structure and key center.  I list the various types of modulation found in music.  I then continue our discussion from last week, covering the other two types of modulation in detail.  I provide musical examples throughout the discussion. 

Modulation

             Wikipedia defines musical modulation as the act or process of changing from one key (tonic or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. So, any time the tonal center or key of a piece of music changes, a modulation has occurred. Sometimes composers clearly label this change by changing the key signature in the sheet music at the point of modulation. Other times composers will retain the original key signature and use accidentals to achieve the modulation. Modulations achieved by use of accidentals may require more detailed analysis to discover.

            The two main categories of musical modulation are diatonic and chromatic modulation.  In diatonic modulation, the transitional device (chord or pitch) used to modulate is diatonic to both the old and new key.  In chromatic modulation the transitional device (chord or pitch) used to modulate is chromatic to the old key and leads to the new key.  Since both chords and pitches can be used as transitional devices, there are two types of diatonic modulation called common (or pivot) chord and common tone modulation.  There is also another type of modulation called enharmonic modulation which involves the enharmonic respelling of pitches.  This type of modulation can be categorized as either diatonic or chromatic depending on how we view the respelled pitch.  I will cover this and chromatic modulation in more detail next week.

            Common (or pivot) chord modulation utilizes a chord that is common to both keys as a device to modulate from one key to the next.  When utilizing this technique, the composer (or musician) travels through a chord progression until arriving at the common chord.  He/she then instantly shifts his/her analysis of that chord by relating it to the new key and finishing the progression in the new key.  The included video provides several musical examples of this.

            Common tone modulation utilizes a pitch that is common to both keys.  This pitch is either sustained or sounded repeatedly, allowing the harmonic structure to change from a chord in the original key to a chord in the new key.  Since both chords share the common tone, the transition is perceived as smooth. The included video provides a musical example of this.

            Understanding the use of common chord and common tone modulation will help us to be able to identify these techniques when they occur in everyday musical examples.  Knowledge of these techniques can also be used in musical performance when playing open styles of music (jazz, rock, pop, gospel or worship) from lead sheets.  In these styles, musicians often throw in modulations in order to increase the intensity of the song, or smoothly transition from one song to the next in a set list.

This Learning Music With Ray video discusses musical modulation.  In it, I explain the meaning and aspects of modulation as they relate to harmonic structure and key center.  I list the various types of modulation found in music.  I then discuss two types of modulation in detail, providing musical examples throughout the discussion.