What does it mean to "Read Music"?
Lofty title, I know. Bear with me, as this will be a brief primer of deeper material to come.
I have trouble with the term "reading music", as no one really agrees on what it means. When a teacher says that they teach their students to "read music", most of the time this translate to "they can look at notation on a staff and identify the letter names, sometimes with accidentals".
I don't consider that reading. That's like looking at the opening to the constitution and saying "that's a w, and then an e, then there's a space, and a t followed by an h and a e", even being able to say "We the people..." doesn't mean you know what it MEANS.
When I think of "reading" English, I don't think of sounding out and identifying letters, or even of saying words correctly, I think of looking at symbols (writing) and HEARING the words inside your head and KNOWING what those words mean.
To translate to music, this would mean a "reader" can see the symbols (notation) and HEAR what it will sound like (audiate) and understand the MEANING of the sounds (pattern/tonality recognition)
I know, big words, and I'm not defining most of them, did I mention I need you to bear with me?
Music literacy encompasses so much, but at the end of the day I believe the most essential skill is audiation. When you visualize, you create visual input in your head when it's not present in reality. When you audiate, you create aural (sound) input in your head when it's not present in reality.
Let's try an experiment to see if you can audiate:
"Sweet Caroline...."
If you heard "BAH BAH BAH" in your head immediately after reading those words, congratulations! You're audiating!
When I say that my students are learning to "read music" or develop "music literacy", the measurable skill I am referring to is audiation, to ability to create sounds in your head without them being present in the real world. When they see a sequence of pitches on the staff, they have the tools to decode those and know what they will sound like. Not what the letter names are, but the actual musical sound, because we are reading music, not letters.
I think knowing letter names is important, and I do cover it as well, but I think 90% of students forget this skill the minute they are out of our classrooms. What they won't forget (at least not immediately) is the increased skill in ear-training and music reading that result from proper aural training.
Here's the core of it: We don't have time to teach everything.
If my students can learn only one thing while in chorus, it's going to be how to hear.
The best tool that I've found is handsign solfege, with a movable do
I have never seen letter names help a musician without years of lessons learn how to actually hear and reproduce pitch without an instrument.
More to come, stay tuned!
How to Improve Your Auditions
A parent of my student asked what her daughter can do to start preparing for an A Capella group audition. Below, inspired by my reply , is a three step plan for improving your audition skills. It's not easy and it's not quick, but the most effective things rarely are.
Learning to audition is a tricky process, as it is mostly an experiential thing, You can learn all the technique in the world and practice every day, but when you are in the moment there is the element of stage fright which is so difficult to overcome.
As a professional musician and coach who has trained hundreds of musicians and performed in hundreds of concerts, I still feel that nervousness and anxiety each time in front of an audience. In my experience, and in the experience of the countless professional musicians, actors, dancers, speakers, and other performers I've asked, it's not that the feeling goes away as you progress. What happens is we learn to take that feeling and reinterpret it as excitement, passion, or some other positive emotion. Intellectually, I know that the buzzy feeling I get on stage today is the same one that had me shaking before auditions in high school. Emotionally, it feels like excitement and anticipation, and it tells me I'm ready to go out and give it my all.
"That's all well and good, but what can I do to get there?"
The first step is to do the audition NOW, don't wait til next year or the next show, just giving it a shot and saying "I won't get in, I won't get the lead, but I'm doing this to get better at auditioning". Honestly, the only thing that makes you better at auditioning is doing it more often. I am pretty good at interviews and auditions now because I've done hundreds of them, and I'll still do them even when I don't want the part. In fact I regularly interview and audition for new choir positions even when I know I don't have the time for them, just for the experience. When I actually need a position, I bring not only my skill and experience to the table, but the dozens of interviews I've done as well.
Beyond that, daily singing will help to build skill more than anything. Consistent technique work will do so much to improve a singer. You can download a free CD of vocal warmups and exercises from my website. What you can improve which will very much impress judges is ear training - the ability to sing in tune, pick up a part quickly, and read music. This comes first from a large amount of listening and singing.
After the listening/singing foundation has been laid, musicians need a systematic way to approach deciphering the language of music. I've written on this before, and will again in the future, for now you must know that the scientific literature states that all systems of ear training (fixed/movable solfege, numbers, letter names, intervals) work about equally well, the differentiator is the instructor's mastery of the method and teaching ability, the amount of time students devote to practice, and the outside work of the students. Pick a system and stick with it, get a coach, or buy an audio/book program.
In the broader scheme, stage fright is stage fright, and working on it in any context will help to improve in auditions. So public speaking, running for office in a club, reading a passage at church,auditioning for anything and everything that comes up, performing in front of family and friends, trying out for a sports team, doing announcements over the intercom, giving a speech in class, etc.
Getting over the fear of being judged by others and feeling totally comfortable standing up and showing your stuff in a relaxed way is incredibly difficult and takes a lifetime to master, best bet is to get started now and just practice it in the real world whenever you have the opportunity.
Action Step: Google auditions in your area for your artform, pick 3 that fit in your schedule (even if they are way out of your league or genre) and put them in the calendar today. Good luck, though if you audition enough, you won't need it.
How To Memorize a Song in No Time Flat
There are several strategies for aiding the memorization process. While many singers just sing through their songs over and over again until they know them, and this certainly gets results, it is not the most efficient way.
I suggest you not even think about memorization until you have mastered the musical elements of the piece, so that you can sing the pitches and rhythms accurately and expressively, with good breaths and appropriate dynamics. Once that is secure, focus on the text. Our brains attach musical pitches and rhythms to words easily, so once the words are memorized, it is very likely the pitches and rhythms will come along with them (provided you learned the pitches/rhythms thoroughly first).
The first step is to take out your music and copy down the text in your own handwriting. Doing this with paper and pencil is important, as it has been shown in countless studies that physical writing leads to greater retention than typing. When you write you engage yourself kinesthetically (physically) by moving the pencil, visually by seeing the words form from your hand, and aurally because it is impossible for humans to read and write words without hearing them inside our heads. This is the process of ‘audiation’ that I often bring up in discussing solfege and music reading.
Use your own handwritten copy to refer to as you rewrite the text as least 3 times.
The second step will seem odd but this is where you will start to really make progress memorizing. Take your handwritten copy of the text and on a new sheet of paper copy down just the first word or two of each phrase or sentence of the text. Once you’ve finished copying only the first word of each phrase, flip over the full text and try to fill in each phrase by memory. This should be harder than step one but much easier than remembering the full text on your own. More often than not, it is the first word of a new phrase that trips us up, and once we get that word we can get the entire phrase with little to no problem. This is a trait singers share with actors, as you’ll often find forgetful actors saying “line” and once they get the cue of the first word, they will rattle off a monologue of several pages.
Now that you’ve seen the power those first words of a phrase hold, again copy down just the first words of each phrase. Now repeat just these first words out loud, in order. Do this several times, until you can easily and effortlessly recite the first words of each phrase of your piece one after the other.
Congratulations! Now that you’ve memorized the start of each phrase, you have likely memorized the entire text. Grab a blank sheet of paper and test yourself. If there are still areas of difficulty return to reading aloud to polish those sections.
You are now ready to return to the music and attempt to sing the song from memory. I caution against going to this step too early, as many singers rely on the music to remind them of the text. If you don’t learn the text separate from the music, it is likely that with the butterflies in your stomach and the stage lights on your face you will blank on one or more words throughout your performance. Put the time in to learn your text and you will feel incredibly confident going forward.
Save Time by Figuring out "Who You Are"
"I have to go to class, work, take care of the kids, clean the house, and find time to sleep don't have TIME to figure out 'who I am'"
One of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself is work on your identity.
Dr. Joyce Brothers says that "you cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistant with how you see yourself"
What this means: if you see yourself as a "fat person" you will not be able to consistently exercise and eat healthily. Those behaviors will only become consistent as a result of seeing yourself as the kind of person who behaves that way. Will power alone is not enough.
What would it mean to you to be able to save hours every day and years of your life in the long run to spend on whatever you choose?
In the 2000's, time is a valuable commodity. We are all stretched thin, and most of us are doing more than we can handle already. So why take a large chunk of time you could be getting things done and explore your identity?
The truth: Your identity is ever-changing and far larger than you realize.
What you do is part of who you are: teacher, lawyer, CEO, salesman, etc. But there is SO much more to you, and it is worth exploring it all.
Once you have a clear idea of who you are, it will change over time, don't let that stop you though, you can always spend more time exploring later.
Knowing who you are allows you to check what you do for alignment. I'm currently working 11 separate jobs which constitutes over 60 hours a week of "working" time. I also volunteer, write, exercise, practice singing, go out with friends, and clean the house, shop for groceries, etc. I don't havea lot of "free" time because I am passionate about what I do, and I devote "free" time to tasks I enjoy.
Because I have a good idea of my identity, I am able to make sure the time I spend is spend on things that bring me fulfillment, and mercilessly cut activities that don't match up.
In the last year alone I've left 4 jobs, parted with several projects and volunteer organizations, and turned down high-paying clients and employment opportunities in order to keep aligned with my identity, and the result has been hours upon hours of time to devote to things that still bring in money, still get the job done, but leave me feelings refreshed, energetic, and enthusiastic for most of the day.
Time is distorted when you are happily engaged in productive work, this state of 'flow' has been extensively researched and documented, it exists, and it makes it feel like you have all the time in the world.
Align with your identity and you can start to feel you have all the time in the world, even when you're working 60+ hour weeks.