Study Flow
Happy Thanksgiving Winslow. Anything you would add to this study flow of learning a song?
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).
Thank you very much Winslow...all great comments. I always appreciate YOUR "thoroughness, clarity, method, and organization!"
From two masters of the art! Once again, proof that 1 + 1 = a whole lot more than 2.
Great plan, David!
A few things I might observe:
The learn it slow first advice is golden. If you can’t play it slowly, you can’t play it fast.
When first listening to learn, it can be good to chunk each section first at regular speed, just to see how much you can pick up without slowing the track. Then try slowing it to see what you might have been unable to pick up at regular speed, or even that you might have missed or misapprehended.
The sheet music part is great to have - if you have it. Only a tiny fraction of desirable harmonica solos or parts have been notated or tabbed. That should never stop you from trying to figure out by ear just what it is you’re hearing - sometimes that can lead to new discoveries about techniques or possibilities. If you do have a transcription, of course, use it.
Playing on top of the music can *sometimes* reveal mistakes, as you'll hear notes or licks that you thought you were hearing, only to find that the original player is making different sounds as you play along (or as you listen back after recording your playalong). But yes, playing can also obscure important subtleties.
The idea of putting the favorite lick in different contexts is excellent. A lick can change character completely depending on where you place it in the verse and in the flow of other licks or riffs. Rhythmic displacement (starting the lick a beat earlier or later, etc.) can also yield a lot of ideas, but that may be too sophisticated to attempt at the level we're dealing with here. Another idea at a higher level of sophistication is to play a shuffle lick in straight-8 rumba rhythm, or vice versa.
The procedure of learning the first lick, then the second, chaining them together, etc., is often used in teach-tunes-by-ear sessions in trad music and it works equally well here. However, one problem that can arise is that by the time you get halfway through the tune, your mind is already saturated and your ear is fatigued, making you less effective and receptive to the latter part. To ensure effective learning of the latter parts of a melody, verse, or entire solo or song, it’s a good idea to start at least half your sessions by working on the later chunks instead of the earlier ones.
Maybe I'll think of other things to observe, but, as always, your thoroughness, clarity, method, and organization lay it out berautifully for the student. (Sorry, it sounds like I'm grading a paper, which not my intent!)