In our training modules inside Musical U, we tend to structure things as a series of lessons, each of which moves through Learn, Practice, Apply for a particular focus. For example a lesson might focus on certain Solfa syllables, or certain types of Intervals, or certain Chord Progressions. This provides a clear yet flexible path for musicians to follow, from A to Z, doing a short loop of Learn-Practice-Apply each day.
Our aim in this book is a little different. In the chapters which follow, you will still find a clear, flexible sequence to follow, but to prevent each chapter being vast, and to make sure the book can serve as a reference for you throughout your learning journey, we won’t be spelling out the L-P-A loop for each and every step of a particular fixed sequence.
Instead, the structure of each of the pitch building blocks chapters (Chapter 9: Solfa, Chapter 10: Intervals, Chapter 11: Chords and Progressions) is as follows:
- In the “How It Works” section, you’ll be introduced to all the essential terms and concepts for the topic.
- In the “Getting Started” section, you’ll begin exploring the sounds of the musical elements you’ve just been learning about.
- Then, in the “Start With Aiming For” section we’ll suggest a particular target you can aim for, and a sequence to follow to reach it. These are chosen based on our experience of what represents a “solid, usable level of skill” for each topic.
- In the “Going Further” section we’ll introduce any more sophisticated, complex or niche areas of the topic, which you may wish to explore later.
- Finally, the “Additional Exercises And Activities” section presents additional “Practice” exercises and “Apply” activities which you can use at any stage, to provide a rich variety of activities you can tailor to suit your own musicality while developing your skills.
So you can see, each chapter is “front-loaded” with a focus on Learn, but from there it’s a blend of Learn, Practice and Apply, so that you can develop your Head, Hands, Hearing, and Heart as you move through the chapter.
This structure provides you with a clear map of everything relating to that topic, a suggested path towards the most meaningful substantial milestone to aim for, and a range of ways to get there. This not only allows for a clear, flexible path forwards, but will also equip you with the knowledge, understanding and familiarity required with each topic to continue to develop your skills to any level you should wish to.
You may like to read through each chapter in full the first time, perhaps pausing to try some of the “Getting Started” exercises. Then you can return to that section and the “Start With Aiming For” section as you begin regularly practicing the topic, introducing additional activities from the “Further Exercises” section along the way.
While this level of freedom in “what should I do when?” may seem overwhelming at first, remember the principle of Convergent Learning: your activities don’t need to be perfectly logically sequenced in order for your musical brain to learn effectively. In fact, as we saw in Chapter 6: Superlearning, more variety and randomness can actually do you a lot of good!
All of this means that you can have faith that diligently putting in time practicing with the various exercises and activities included in these chapters, and roughly following the sequences suggested in a way that suits you, will prove to be an effective way to develop your skills in all three areas.
Before we move on to our three building blocks in detail, there’s one bigger-picture topic we must address…