Mid boot camp thoughts
I'm not quite done with the Musicianship Boot Camp testing, but everyone is doing very well on the average. Two areas that are coming out consistently as things to improve are technical skills and music reading speed. I'll cover technical skills recommendations in a future post, but let me elaborate on music reading speed.Since musictheory.net has yet again made revisions to its website, I need to revise my tutorial for the Note Identification exercise. It's an exercise everyone can use. If you've mastered your notes, you can stretch your upper and lower ranges, increase your speed as much as possible and incorporate the key signatures you've learned. Really, everyone should play around with the settings to learn and practice this exercise frequently.
However, remember that the primary purpose is not just accuracy, but speed AND accuracy. The goal for you needs to be to acquire instant recognition of notes on the staff. Why? It is because you don't have the luxury to take your time IF you want to sightread well and spend less time in practice. So here are a few rules when working with the Note Identification exercise.
1. Challenge yourself, but don't overwhelm yourself. If you're struggling with all notes, focus on just 5 or 6 to get started. Exhaust those and then add on to them, or switch to a new group of notes before you add them all together. It should never feel too easy, but should never be so difficult that you aren't improving quickly.
2. Ignore the percentage. If you get 10 correct in 20 attempts, it will tell you that you are getting 50%. If you're working for speed, this or worse may occur, especially early on. Don't worry about wrong attempts. If you're following rule 1, you're going to see the same notes over and over and over. You'll not be able to help but eventually get them right more often than not.
3. Focus on the number correct AND the timer. There is a timer that keeps track of your game. Play the exercise in one of the following two ways.
(A) Time yourself and see how quickly you can correctly name 100 notes. Don't be discouraged if you're really high the first few attempts, even above 10 minutes. Your ultimate goal, regardless of level, is to be able to do it in 3 minutes or less. You can do this if all you have to do is see the note, recognize it right away, point the mouse to the correct letter and click. Answer 100 correct notes in 3 minutes or less, and you're nailing it.
(B) Only recommended if Goal A seems overwhelming for where you are with learning your notes, this would be to watch the timer and observe when you hit the 5 minute mark of the exercise. See how many you can correctly name by that point. Keep doing this until you get at least 75 in 5 minutes. Then go with goal A and see how quickly you can answer 100.
As always, remember the first part of rule 1 and that is to challenge yourself. If it's getting too easy, how can you make it a little harder? Add more notes, mix your clefs, add sharps and flats in the key signatures (if you've learned them in your lessons already). Note reading isn't an infinite skill. You can reach a ceiling in how well you can do, but that ceiling is very high. Keep stepping up until you reach it.
Facebook Page Recommendations
If you have a Facebook account, please take a moment if you haven't already and "like" the page for:
The Winston-Salem Piano Teachers' Association (a group I belong to and a page I admin.)
And
My own personal page for my composing and performing at David M Lane - Composer, Musician. Thanks for your support.
