Tool kits

When we make music there are many different mechanisms all going on at once, many different skills we need. Since I've been teaching I've been thinking about these as "tool kits", I want to give my pupils the tools to make music for themselves as well as see what I am missing. This is as far as I've got with identifying the different elements and what you can use to develop those skills. This is unashamedly biased towards learning traditional music.





Musical toolkit
immersing yourself and becoming incredibly familiar with the music you wish to make


Learn how the music you want to play works by immersing yourself:

Sources:

• Recordings
• Score
• Live music (gigs, sessions, playing with friends)

Passive learning / absorption

• Listen listen listen - on in the background
  
• Mp3 player for convenience
• Carefully managed set lists

Active Involvement

• Active listening - observe details
• Diddle along with it
  
• Clapping rhythm of it
  
• Dance to it (ceilidhs, your living room, the session)
• Practise

Mental toolkit
attitudes, hearing and reading clearly, recall,

Hearing music in detail and clarity:

• Practising listening and identifying elements by ear
• Listening to slowed down audio files to hear more detail, then listening at full speed again
• Recalling the music in great detail
• Transcription - make yourself notate all the detail
• Imagining how you want pieces to sound
• Being able to tell where the home note is and what note in a scale is being played at any given time
  

Retaining music and being able to recall it at will:

• memorising
• practise starting sets
• learn it more than one way - by ear, then in hands
• categorise what you know - mental filing

For any improvised art form:

Pre-set ideas

• Rhythms
• Harmonic sequences
• Melodic fragments
• Hand shapes

Knowing where the notes map on your instrument - i.e. scales, arpeggios

Performance:

• sense of drama
• presence
• communication with audience
  

Understand the mechanics of playing your instrument intimately - as much a mental skill as a physical one

• Fingering patterns
• How your hands work
• Ergonomic postures!!!
• Know the potential injury trouble spots and what to do
  

Attitudes:

Focus

• Being able to play under pressure
• Paying attention to other people
• Focusing on the music, blocking anxieties

Expectations

• Find out and set realistic expectations

If it's not fun then have a rethink - music has no other purpose than for us to enjoy it.


Physical toolkit

Condition

• Warm ups
• Relaxation exercises (so you recover from all the playing!)
• Stretches
• General exercise, rest, food - be generally well

Coordination

• Practise
• Mental practise
• Always look for unknown / unexplored shapes
• Improvisation
• Rhythm and accent practise
  

Mental interface - ears to fingers

• Improvisation

Hand shapes

• practising hand shapes, learning feel of each
• chunked practise - practising within placement groups

Touch

• Physical feedback
• Contact with harp
• Slow still practise
• Improvising with dynamics
  

Speed

• Clarity of movements (mental practice, aiming for beautiful movements at a slow pace first)
• Gradually building up speed 2bpm at a time
• Remember: the fastest safe speed is determined by how relaxed you can remain whilst playing

Anymore ideas are very welcome! This is just a start.