🎵 You Can Improve Your Music in 10 Minutes
And you don't even need to know more than what you know now for it.
As a guitar teacher I meet many students on different levels. And not just technically, but their understanding of music theory, musicality and expression can differ too. So I’m always on the lookout for simple methods and exercises that can benefit a wide range of musicians, musical templates that don’t require very specific knowledge or skill set, but can help you immediately.
Let me tell you a little story…
When I was 20, I played Variations on a Theme by Scriabin written by Aleksandre Tansman in a masterclass for a great teacher. I was suffering with the piece technically, I was barely able to play it, and even if I found the notes, it didn’t sound quite alright.
The man asked why I was playing this piece. I said because it’s fascinating. It’s true, I love that piece. He said, it may be fascinating, but what he hears is not beautiful. (I was like, okay, this is why I’m here man. I play badly and you make it good. That’s the deal.) I obviously said that to me, this piece is beautiful. So he asked, what makes it beautiful to me?
I paused. Then I pointed out the theme melody at the very beginning, saying how nicely connected that line was, a long legato line with nice intervals. He said, okay, but you don’t play legato. I was confused. I was so sure I played the melody legato, but when he told me to play it again, I realized I was sloppy to hold certain notes long, I lifted some fingers too early, making the melody tear up into smaller chunks here and there. But on the next try, I was able to connect the melody notes just fine, nearly perfectly.
I didn’t become a better player in under a minute, I didn’t learn anything new about music theory either. The only difference was that I named a thing I loved about that music, and I was focusing on that feature. I simply found what I found beautiful in it, and I did whatever it took to show that.
So I came up with a little exercise for you. It’s only 2 questions.
First, pick a piece or a song and answer the first very simple question: “What’s beautiful about this to me?” Or you can alternatively ask “What do I find interesting in this?”. You don’t need to use any formal analysis or music theory terms to phrase thoughts about a song. I like it because this and that, it makes me feel this and that. Just use your own words.
After that comes your second question: “How can I bring more attention to it?” First, you need to know what the musical goal is, by finding what you find interesting in the song. Then you need to figure out how you can show that to people, how you can prioritize that value over other, less relevant details without damaging the music.
I talk about this exercise in my latest video which you can find on my channel, aaaand I also show how this works in practice through a very popular piece: Spanish Romance.
Oh and btw, I recorded that piece by Tansman a few years after that experience, and it turned out quite well. If you want to listen to some early 20th century guitar pieces, here’s my interpretation. This was probably my very first professional recording ever.
Podcast
This afternoon I’m gonna have a chat with Stephanie Jones (@StephanieJones) about her key moments in her musical journey, the struggles she faces as a musician and what it is actually like to be a performing concert artist. Come and hang out in the live chat – I’ll be there too!
Patreon
I always enjoy experimenting with new ideas in my videos or more recently in my podcasts, but it takes a lot of effort and time to make them. If you like them too, please consider supporting me on Patreon so that I can share more artistic value with you and worry less about the little things in life. 🍔
Thank you, and see you next week!
Hugs,
Beatrix