Wednesday 8 July 2009

Life cycle of learning a tune...

1, Figure out notes and rhythm
2, Explore physical side - hand shapes , bowing patterns...
3, Make physical bits easy (play games with it - see below)
4, Re imagine music - add something new (left hand?)

Section 3 is the bit we really think of as "practice". All the normal rules apply - learn what you repeatedly do so you want to sort out small bits and get them right first time. However if you're really exploring the movement then little games are helpful to prevent the boredom:

Treacle practice - like you're moving through treacle - how slow can you play?
Taking a specific movement or pattern and playing with it - rhythm, accent, different expressions...
Re: harps you have block practice, practice finding where your fingers need to go in clumps

The main thing is play with it, improvise, explore through games. When you can mess about with and return to a data set you can understand it in a much more intuitive way, whether a movement or a pattern of notes. It's a great state to learn in and fun too.

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