Study Flow

Listen (Entire Track)
- What makes it cool? Some students like to follow along with the sheet music after listening to it a couple of times to see the arc of the song.

Chunk (Loop each lick at slow tempo)
- Listen
- Pause music and learn lick from notation for: notes, technique, and basic rhythm (as you remember it)
- Play music and "Listen Once, Play Once" until you get the lick (don’t always play on top of the music, you’ll miss details and ingrain mistakes)

Chain Phrases
- As you learn each lick, progressively chain learned licks together until you can play the entire chorus (still slow tempo, ~30%)

Dynamics (notate if you find it useful)
- Volume
- Hand Usage
- Head Tone

Record
- As you get close to finishing each chorus, record yourself playing that chorus slowly to the original track and listen back (with sheet music in hand) for errors. Playing to the song with headphones will capture only you on the recording, making assessment easier. Your phone’s voice memo app is great for this (you don’t need to use an elaborate recording setup). Recording is the BEST was to self-asses your progress and uncover errors that you’re not aware of.

Full Song (once you’ve done the above for each chorus, then play the entire song)
@ ~30% Slow (Record for self-assessment)
@ ~15% Slow (Record for self-assessment)
@ Full Tempo (Record for self-assessment)
Jam Track (Original… Rrecord for self-assessment)
Jam Tracks (Other tracks that are not the original… slightly too fast, too slow, too bluesy, too light, etc.) Again, record for self-assessment.

Performance
Mock Performance - Stand, play through mic, speech, and all hand signals (Video record for self-assessment)

***Chorus Form Work***
At the end of each practice session take your favorite lick from that day and apply the chorus form practice approach. Play the lick as: AAA; Af Af At; AAB; Af Af B; A B/A contrast; A B/A C slight change; A B/A C sequence; with different textures; using fragmentation; an octave above and below (if possible).