Adrian's Blog.

The Life and Times of a Classical Guitar Studio.

 

To sit and cogitate.

Summer has passed, those beautiful warm days where life feels good and as my father used to say, one can just sit and cogitate.

This summer I have been guilty of cogitating perhaps just a little too much and I do occasionally ask myself if I should have spent more time practicing my guitar and the answer to this accusatory question would usually have been, yes you should, but then had I spent the time in practicing I would not now be enjoying the benefits of cogitating.

I realised many years ago that a performers life for me was not to be; for many reasons my ability on the guitar fell well short of that enjoyed by today’s or even yesterday’s performing elite. No, for me the challenge, interest, desire to seek out and solve the problems of life were clearly focussed on the teaching of the guitar.

Teaching and cogitating happily live in the same neighbourhood and so maybe my summer away from the day to day practice of the guitar has not been a complete waste.

Cogitating is something one does over a period of time with no real intense drive to find a solution. I think of it more like letting the brain relax and have time to make use of all the information taken in and stored over a period of time and at some point in the future you may experience a eureka moment.

A eureka moment does not have to be World changing, it can be something quite small or very grand, mostly it will alter your perspective in some way and offer you the option to move forward.

My eureka moment occurred with a young student who was with me for just a few lessons prior to entering music college at the end of September. I knew I only had a small number of lessons within which to impart a few pearls of wisdom and so decided to focus on music performance rather than what we loosely term as technique. As we talked I quickly became aware of the lack of feeling being imparted by the music to the student and this lack of feeling made the music feel a little uninteresting despite the high standard of playing.

During the summer months I had taken to reading fictional historical books, too put it bluntly I love a good battle especially when it is loosely based on actual events. In this one particular book, the author had taken great care in visually mapping out the story, not with pretty pictures but with a method of navigation with the writing.

Now we all know about starting a sentence with a capital letter and ending with a full stop; if we really try hard we can remember from school the use of sentences, paragraphs and chapters even if we are not quite sure why they are there.

By the way excuse the way I write this blog, I do it this way because I feel it is visually less tiring; reading a computer screen is not as easy as words written on paper so more space in the presentation can be helpful.

Back to writing-

All the fancy stuff we learn in writing is there to help ensure the meaning of what is written is transferred to the reader, after all the reader does not have the advantage of visual  and emotional indicators as we do when talking face to face with another person.
My author had all the traditional arsenal available to the written word and had added to this a few extras of his own to spice up the story line, for example-
To show a passage of time, let’s say the character is asked to travel from A to B a distance of several hours travel time to be by his mother's bedside but the author does not feel writing about the journey would add to the story a diamond shape is inserted into the writing visually breaking up the written words and implying a passage of time.

A chapter in writing is a group of events which link together and a new chapter is generally shown by staring on a new page even though there was still room to write on the previous page. 

With my author some chapters had started on the next page, as is traditional yet with others an extra blank page had been inserted before the start of the next chapter and for a small number of chapters there was this extra blank page and the addition of a title for the chapter.

So why do all this extra work?

Not to make the printing of the book less expensive nor was it to make binding of the book easier, no, I feel it was to add life, tension, expectation above and beyond the written word. I found myself responding to these little navigational extras all of which enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

Returning to my student; yes when asked she could indicate where a phrase began and even ended though not instantly, yes she could point out where the musical story changed direction but not immediately in essence she understood the structure of music but did not appreciate the sense of feeling this structure was attempting to deliver.

Sitting alone in her college room what can she do to improve matters?

My answer would be to make learning fun and interesting as this way we learn quicker and appreciate more of what we are learning.

What I am about to say next may have you all turning cynical on me and saying, “no I haven’t got time for that” and that’s fine after all I am just simply guitar teacher who cogitates when I should be playing my guitar.

OK if you are still with me?

Take hold of a piece of music that you can play, preferably only one page long, and a pair of scissors.

Looking at the music is there a place where the composer has printed either a double vertical line or repeat marks (2 dots and a thick black line) if yes cut the music as so –

 

 

 

 

 

Next have a look to see if there is anywhere in the music where either the notes are exactly the same as the beginning or the same rhythm with similar notes,

Yes ?

Good then this is where the music is repeating so cut.

Finally if you have the musical knowledge divide your music into phrases and cut out each phrase.
If you are not sure then count 4 bars and cut, not all phrases have to be 4 bars long however this is a good starting point so don’t worry confidence will come with time.

In this example I have marked a red line every 4 bars so cut, cut and cut again.

Now for the fun or maybe if you are like my mother in law the cutting is much more fun than the playing.

Take one cutting and play/practice until you start to feel more at ease then do the same with another cut piece, don’t worry they do not have to be in order in fact it can be more fun if they are not.

When you can play all the cut pieces we move to the much more fun stage. We are interested in telling a story through music so with one of your cut pieces pay attention to how the music starts and very importantly how do you feel when it ends. With just a small 4 bar phrase it is easy to focus, if you try this with a whole page of music you become lost in the detail of playing and foget to feel the energy of the music.

Start by looking for emotional response within the music, for instance is the overall feel of the music happy or sad, does it feel like you are running or walking, go for everyday feelings and you will gradually start to interpret the story.

Trial all the cut pieces one at a time.

 

Now join two pieces together and feel the effect when playing from the end of one piece into the start of the next. Do not give up just because the two phrases were never ment to join, enjoy and feel the musical response, a sensation that leaves you confused is just as important as a good sensation.

Have fun doing this over several days.

Your final task is to place your cut pieces back into the right order, now use colour to help visually navigate the music. Practice each of the coloured sections as if they were a story all of their own and when you feel more confident join the sections together.

When you play the piece as a whole I want you to use all the feelings you've discovered during practice of the cut pieces.

Colour helps with navigation allowing you to absorb small bites of music making story telling easier and as a by product aids memory. From this you can build a musical story that has shape, emotion and interest and as a by product you will understand much more about the music you are playing than you ever would have just running from the start of the piece through to the end trying to play the right notes.

Most of all do not be afraid to try, do not worry whether your results are right or wrong, trying IS enough and as you gain knowledge and experience you will be able to adjust the way you practice and interpret the music.

Till next time -----

HEY! WHO STOLE MY SCISSORS!

 

 

Adrian.