Professor Esposito Tip of the Week! TESTING YOUR MUSICAL REFLEXES. Testing your musical reflexes, or the ability to have control and command over your instrument while comprehending musical notation, is an essential skill to develop. As musicians, we spend much time, as we should, getting our eyes and ears to move forward, so that we may see and “pre-hear” what is coming next in a passage for faster computation and continuity. To test both your mental reflex and physical endurance, try this exercise. When practicing an etude, or a piece of music, put a repeat sign after every bar. Play the etude or piece in its entirety, playing every bar of the piece exactly twice, without pause. This will test your ability to look and hear back and forward at the same time providing both a mental and physical challenge. Also, your ear will have heard the passage twice in a row, thus committing it better to your muscle and aural memory. This exercise can be practiced under tempo, for slow practice and clear comprehension of the notation, while offering more time for the player to listen to what he/she is doing, or at the optimal speed, to test the player’s stamina, savvy and technical prowess at performance tempo. One could even then expand on the exercise by repeating two bars at time, or four, etc. If it provides too great of a concentration challenge at first, try it with smaller sections within the piece. With any repetitive exercise, it is imperative that proper rhythm and form are kept throughout. Without a sense of pulse and rhythmic definition, the exercise is without merit. Perspective from multiple vantage points is important when problem solving, so check back for the following weeks’ tips that will offer other ideas on how to test your musical reflexes.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:36:52 +0000
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