Category Archives: music study

Yates No. 3 in E minor

I need to find who the composer is. This is an arp study , its pretty. I have the first 4 bars recorded below , not smooth yet and I need to play it closer to the sound hole to bring a more fuller basier and legato sound.

Yates 03 in E minor

Here’s the entire study , its rough. I’m having still a hard time remembering the transitions, reading helps but it also robs the moment a bit. I put it out here not as a demo but to document where I’m at today so that I can compare later.

Sharing Giuliani No. 1

158px-Mauro_GiulianiWell in the spirit of trying to establish a habit of constant evaluation , of putting myself out there, etc. I now do the simple act of sharing something trivial i.e I’m sticking my toes in the water again. Also playing with a new DAW.

Here’s Mauro Giuliani right hand exercise #1 variations :

Giuliani no. 1

Giuliani no.1 var 2

The stock exercise are just block chords where the right hand plucks the entire chord every quater note with the thumb going down the chords lowest notes. In other words it exercises the thumb transitioning among the 5, 4 , 3 strings while the i, m fingers are stroking pedal tones.

Useful but not terribly exciting. So to spice things up I shift where the thumb plays on variation 1 that is where in time, basically thumb stroke on bass line followed by i, m rest stroke on pedal notes on top strings.

The second variation is just a dance between the two chords with the bass note leading.

A third variation based on a meter change will be here tomorrow.

Here it is:

Giulianni no.1 var 3

 

 

 

The way I study

Nothing novel. Nothing earth shattering. However, recently I ve been involved in putting that process behind some tech i.e. software ideas of enabling music study and so I have to think a lot about what I actually do.

It turns out that what I do is what I have always done and asked to be done in most types of study. What I do is that I study in containers or categories of study that have generally a progression of what is to be learnt and what should be achieved. We all have been doing this. We call them “courses” at the university , perhaps “classes” at the high schools but the idea is the same. I’m calling what I do “notebooks” because that’s actually what I have been doing for music study. I have grouped what I do in the following notebooks:

  1. Acoustic Steel String Studies
  2. Active Music Listening
  3. Bass Guitar Studies
  4. Classical Guitar Studies
  5. Ear and Rhythm Training
  6. Jazz Fusion Improv
  7. Keyboard Studies
Everyone of these notebooks has a progression and a set of objectives. It varies from notebook to notebook. Some is about learning repertoire, some about learning supporting technique, some is about improving my musical ear etc.
To be successful in one’s music study its not enough just to put in the time. Its about what is done with the time. How one strives to meet certain objectives given one’s current level of musicianship and very importantly how one strives to make sure one has a balanced study approach that covers everything that it takes to become a better musician in the context of one’s personal goals of course.
Just tracking how much time I put in on piece of repertoire is not enough.
It should go without saying that along with a plan of study there must be a way of measuring progress and indeed the objectives of a “notebook” must be demonstrated somehow. That is part of what effective study must do and its part of what this most un-novel approach is about i.e. it must measure progress.
That I will leave for another post.