Most of us do, don’t we? Tender loving care – who wouldn’t like that? It’s human nature to want to be loved and looked after. It makes us feel happy.
Obviously, the same goes for your music – and by “music”, I mean the piece, song or exercise you are learning to play.
So how do we give our music the TLC it needs?
Tender Loving Care for music? Yes, you should love your music and you should care for it. That’s how you make it happy! But here is a practical way to do that:
T = Tempo
- Practise slowly.
- Practise quickly.
- Use your metronome.
- Check your rhythms fit accurately with the click.
- Always count yourself in – remember, the click is a groove, always there, always in control. If you don’t know what I mean by that, please see this post.
- You will have a rough idea of the tempo (speed) you want to play your music at eventually. But this is not your practice tempo! Many of my pupils use a Metronome Practice Record (MPR). You can download it from this website, although you’ll need the password. Please email me to ask for it if you don’t already have it. With the MPR you keep track of your speeds and your success at each new tempo. Use it, it’s really helpful.
- By practising slowly, and then varying the tempo, you learn to play with confidence.
L = Layers
- Layers are horizontal bands.
- For pianists, basic layers are Left Hand and Right Hand.
- Practise with each hand separately. Interestingly, this is called “Hands Separately”!
- Check each hand is “happy” before you try to combine them.
- Keep using the metronome, keep practising slowly and keep varying the tempo.
- When you think each hand is happy, you can put them together. This is called “Hands Together”. Hmm.
C = Chunks
- Chunks are vertical divisions.
- A chunk might be a single line of the music. Or it might be a single bar. Or it might be half a bar. It can be any sensible part of the music which you isolate for specific care.
- The chunk should be practised in isolation, and, when it’s happy, in context.
- Keep using the metronome, keep practising slowly and keep varying the tempo.
- Keep layering as well. Within the chunk, you practise Hands Separately before you do it Hands Together.
- Trying the chunk “in context” means fitting it into a wider section. This could mean the entire piece, or just part of it.
You’ll have noticed how TLC works together. You can do just one, just two, or all three at the same time. A couple of bars (chunk), hands separately (layers), with a slow click on the metronome (tempo) is a good start. How do you progress from there? Perhaps the same chunk but hands together. Perhaps a bigger chunk. Perhaps a slightly quicker tempo. Don’t change too much too soon. Try one thing at a time, see how it goes, and keep applying Tender Loving Care to the whole business. You, and your music, will soon be happy!
I’d love to know what you think of this Humoresque. You can put a comment in the box below this post, or you can email me directly. I read and respond to everything.
Humoresque is available to anyone who might be interested. You don’t have to be one of my pupils, or even learning music. If you know anyone who might be interested in subscribing to Humoresque, please let me know. I will only need their name and their email address. Thanks.
Humoresque = a whimsical or fanciful piece of music. Be whimsical, be fanciful, but play in time!
This is Humoresque Number 47