Cadences for the Rest Of Us

While studying theory and composition at university, one of the first things they talked to us about was voice leading. Voice leading is simply trying to find the best way of connecting the different voices in your harmony. You would start with a Cantus Firmus (fixed song) and work at writing counterpoint to that melody.

A big part of voice leading and counterpoint are cadences. Cadences are simply a way of ending musical phrases and ideas. There are a number of different cadences that happen in music. These are still just as relevant today although not used in exactly the same way. Today we're going to look at the different 'classical' cadences and see how they are used in today's music.


Following the Rules

When classical (i.e. classical, romantic, baroque etc.) musicians sat down to compose, there was a huge emphasis placed on voice leading and counterpoint. Classical musicians were preoccupied with the importance of the various independent lines, maintaining the voices and making sure there were no holes in their part writing (e.g. parallel 5ths and octaves). There were (still are) a whole set of rules that musicians would follow to make sure all of these things were taken care of. There were also other rules, like certain intervals (e.g. dim. 5th) and leaps that were to be avoided. Since the 20th century counterpoint has fallen out in place for more block and parallel lines. Most of the rules that were made for writing for band in the classical tradition were thrown out in the jazz era. Jazz musicians focused more on parallel lines, 'dissonant'* harmonies and swing. Voice leading though, is still an important part of writing and arranging in various styles.

*What at one time was considered dissonant (unpleasant, tense) may later be considered consonant (pleasing, no tension). It often happens that once people hear a dissonant interval or harmony often enough, it no longer is considered dissonant. Other general practices, (like always having to resolve suspended sonorities or ending on the I chord) no longer become particularly necessary. One of the trademarks of a innovator is someone who takes well known conventions and throws them out the window. Of course it helps if they do it in a musical and interesting way, instead of going against the grain just to be different.

The Perfect Cadence

With voice leading, it's important that the individual voices move in the proper way. There are predetermined ways to end phrases and pieces. For example classical musicians would always end a piece with a perfect cadence (i.e. a V-I progression in root position). This had an element of finality to it that was the norm and part of the style. When writing out a V-I, there are a number of ways to arrange the four voices*. If it was in the middle of a piece, the cadence had to be voiced a certain way, if it was the end of the piece, it had to be voiced another way. If you're wondering why most of the symphonies you hear end in the same way (the big repeating V to I), this is why. Beyond the theory with the individual voices, to most of us a perfect cadence is simply a V-I chord progression. This is considered the strongest progression in music simply because as soon as we hear that V chord, we immediately want to go back to the I.

*Classical musicians would often write out their voice leading in four voices (separate lines). This was a convention that started early in Western Music and is still done today, even though we often hear sonorities made up of more than 4 voices.

The Plagal Cadence

Beyond the V-I cadence, the other most used progression is the IV-I. This is referred to as the plagal cadence. Of course the voice leading rules that applied to the perfect cadence also applied to these. Whereas the perfect cadence had a finality to it, the IV-I progression isn't quite as strong. Where the perfect cadence felt more like a period, the plagal cadence was more like a comma. The IV almost feels like it could go anywhere; it doesn't have the strong desire to go back to the I. In this way the IV-I would often be used in the first part of a phrase letting the listener know that you weren't quite completely done.

The Imperfect Cadence


Whereas the perfect and plagal cadences both returned to the I, this cadence ends on the V. This cadence has much more of 'suspended' feeling. You are literally left hanging and seem to be waiting to hear the rest of the musical idea. It mostly stems from the strong urge of the V to return to the I. But in this case, it doesn't resolve.

Beyond the Basics

If you've studied music theory, you'll notice that these cadences are still the backbone of most of our music. There are books filled with 3 chord songs that use these progressions only. Don't be fooled by their simplicity, they're still very effective. If you're just beginning on your writing journey, don't be afraid to fully explore these basic progressions. They're effective because they work. Once you've gotten used to using these, you'll be able to use them in your own creations at will. Also, after using these for an extended period of time, you should be able to pick them out immediately in a song. Try listening to a song that has one of these basic progressions and see if you can tell what the chords are without your instrument.

So What??

So how can we use this in our writing? By knowing some of these conventions, we can use them (and go against them) at will. For example, try writing a short 4 bar phrase and end it with either a plagal or imperfect cadence. Notice how the music seems to begging for another phrase. Now write another phrase and this time end with a perfect cadence. See how the whole 8 bar phrase now seems like a logical sentence. Now that you know this, you can use this or go against convention on purpose. Try writing the piece but don't use any perfect cadences until your chorus. In fact try not to use the V chord at all. You'll notice that the cadence may have a different effect if it's only used once at a pivotal point (like at the end of the chorus) in the song.

How To Learn Music

As we went through school, we realized that there were good ways to learn and bad ways to learn. We discovered some shortcuts and methods that helped us through the rough spots. As we get older and leave school we forget some of these and the effectiveness in learning. We're going to look at the different ways we learn and how we use certain techniques to improve our progress.


Beginner's Mind

When growing up and learning new skills, most children just usually dive right in. They don't think too much about the whys or what-fors, and just get into absorbing the new skill. (They're also usually excited which is another great advantage). As adults we learn that not everything that is placed in front of us is great, so we question a lot. We have a lot more internal dialogue going on. And, most of all, we have more bad habits and well defined patterns of thinking. These are useful in most situations but when learning something completely new, it's better to have what's called a 'beginner's mind'. A beginner's mind is to start with a completely open and empty mind; which is a lot harder than it seems. First of all, you have to be willing to make mistakes. You have to have the mindset that you know nothing. Even though you may want to build on your current knowledge, it's better to come into each learning session with an open, empty mind. It also means to be relaxed and pliable. For example when you learn a new music style, just try to absorb as much as you can without making too many judgements or evaluations. Just try to listen and absorb. There many be part of the style that doesn't make sense to you and having an open mind will help alleviate that.

There's a story about 2 martial artists that we taking part in learning a completely new form of martial art. They both we champions in their own style but this was something completely new. One of the martial artists was quite proud of his accomplishments and made no secret of his skill. The other martial artist was the opposite; in fact most of the other students didn't know that he was a champion at all. The first martial artist had a hard time learning the new style and eventually dropped out. The other martial artist became quite skilled at the new art. It wasn't until graduation that the martial artist let the others know about his other skills by going through an impressive set. The first martial artist relied on his previous training and when it became obvious that it was getting in the way, he couldn't 'drop it' to learn the new skill.

Patience

When you first started learning, you had an incredible amount of patience with yourself. When I teach children I'm always amazed at how much they'll work at it and not get discouraged. As adults we learn that if we don't get something within a reasonable amount of time, we probably won't get it at all. When students come in to me and want to learn certain skills, I already know how much time that will take. I know that if a student wants to learn skill 'x' it may take a year or so. Most things in music take longer to master than we usually think. I also know that it will take that amount of time if the student practices and sticks to the program. You're going to have to have patience when learning. It's not only good to have patience in the long run but in the short too. When I teach a new strumming pattern or a new finger exercise, I tell the student to have patience and practice slowly. I know that this rarely happens but I can't stress enough how important this is. If you learn a new exercise and practice it slowly until you can do it without mistakes, your progress will be much, much quicker.

Be Engaging

One of the things that you will notice when learning, that small details usually make a huge difference. This is just as true in music. When learning new skills you will find that there are always small details that come up. It can get to the point where you may feel that you're getting nit-picky. It's not really being picky as it is being thoughtful and concise. That means that whenever you learn something new, try and engage the mind as much as possible. You will find that when you really get into the process, all other thoughts will drift away. You'll absorb much more than usual and the new ideas will be assimilated much easier. It's the same thing when practicing, really think about what you're doing.

Mimicking

This is the primary way we pretty much learned to do everything for the first part of our lives. It's effectiveness can not be understated. Yet as we age, we feel that we must do things our own way. We feel that mimicking or emulating somebody else is cheating or just wrong. This in fact, is a great way to learn any skill, not just music. If you want to learn a new style, a new move, or get a new sound, one of the best ways to start is by mimicking somebody else who already does what you want to do. There are many advantages to this. First of all, they've probably done most of the homework for you. They've found what works for that particular situation. Second, by emulating them, you will automatically pick up subtle information and nuances that can't be gleaned from normal techniques. Most of all, your getting straight into what you want to learn and how you want to sound. If you want to get that blues sound, go right to the source. Then, once you have it, take it to the next level...


Taking It Too Far

For a lot of musicians, the last paragraph may be a big no-no because so often in music, musicians get so enamored with certain artists and styles that they become carbon copies. They exhibit no originality or creative thought. This is a familiar pattern to fall into but easy to avoid. The best way to avoid it is to do what I tell all of my students to do; I tell them; learn this stuff cold, then rip it apart. If you learn new techniques and go one step further and try to incorporate some creativity you end up with a musician who sort of sounds like this but still has something all their own. That way you impart the style and sound that you were looking for, but still have your own individual sound and voice. Not only do you develop you own sound, you may take the style to a whole new level. This is a long used tradition in blues and jazz, not to mention whole schools of music. The other way to avoid becoming a carbon copy is to learn the style of many different artists. Learn the styles of many artists in your genre but also include other related genres. Try to apply all of the different things you learned and develop them into your own style. Of course if you're a composer, an improviser and a gigging musician, you're going to have to be able to do both. You'll have to be able to fit into a certain category, make it sound authentic without straying too far, and still have your own voice.

One Day At A Time

Music is a huge and wonderful world. It takes a while to grasp all of it's subtleties but can be enjoyed the second you pick up the instrument. It takes constant and concentrated effort. It's not hard, it just doesn't happen overnight. Take your music lessons and practice sessions like a daily meditation. Forget the world and focus on what's in front of you. Use all of the tricks and things you learned when you were young and trying to get through school. Music is a life long learning experience, sit back and enjoy the ride.

How To Sing Harmonies

Harmonies. They almost seem to be invisible on some tracks, yet on others, they seem to make the whole song. Most music you hear on the radio (pop/rock/MOR) is filled with harmonies. Sometimes it's obvious, usually it isn't. A great harmony can take a track to the next level. Yet, there seems to be lots of confusion about how to do these or where to put them.


They're Out There

If you listen closely to the vocal tracks on most pop songs, you'll find tons of harmonies. You'll not only hear them on the chorus but peppered throughout the rest of the track too. Most vocalists like to stick a harmony on a couple of lines throughout the song, not just the chorus. A lot of the time, it's layered in the background, just lifting the line without making it too obvious. Sometimes the vocal will be doubled, sometimes it's the lead an octave above or below, and of course the traditional 3rd above is always popular. Doubling and singing the same line an octave above or below is also vary effective in bringing something extra to the line without having a full blown harmony there. Some artists will almost always double their vocal line.

Different Strokes

What people don't realize is that each style of music has it's own way of dealing with harmonies and vocals. Some styles (like metal) generally don't like 3 part harmonies unless it's for a special effect. Other genres (like country) use harmonies so much, that it's pretty much part of the style. Jazz of course has it's more complicated harmonies, but usually used more in vocal groups (versus the intimate trio setting). Certain types of rock and indie rock also use different harmonies to create different moods (Alice In Chains is a great example of unique harmonies being part of their style). RnB harmonies also can go beyond the typical intervals to great effect.

Some Of The Rules

Straight ahead harmonies follow simple rules that can be used as a starting point (as well as ending point) for some of your songs. Most harmonies will follow the chord or 'harmony' behind the vocal line. Depending on your melody, your harmony will usually be a third (or fourth) above (or below) that. For example if your chord is a C major and your vocal melody starts of an E note, goes up to an F, and returns to and E, your harmony line will be a third above that (i.e. G, to A, back to G). However, if your vocal melody line starts on a G, goes up to an A and back to a G, your harmony line will be a fourth above that (i.e a C, to a D, back to a C). It doesn't always work exactly this way because your melody doesn't always start on a convenient note, but it's a good starting point. Also, depending on the genre, different harmonies will apply. If you're singing harmony on a blues song, or a reggae song, different harmonies will apply. Still, a third is a great way to start.

Get It Going

The best way to get started in using harmonies is to just get started. Don't worry about too much of the technical stuff to begin with. Just try singing along with songs and try doing the harmonies. We'll go into some exercises that will help you along the way but it's best to just get going. A lot of vocalists I've worked with didn't work on harmonies as much because they were a mystery and had trouble at the beginning. Try working on these and see how far you get. The best harmony singers I've ever used had a great ear and would come up with the best harmonies. There are two ways to go about figuring out and working on harmonies; a) strictly technical (following the line exactly) and b) experimentation (not following the line). These both occur in music for different reasons. Most of the time when signers are in 3 (or more) part harmony, you have to be a bit more strict about the lines because you don't want the different harmony lines tripping over each other. The second happens a lot with just one line of harmony where the harmony line won't follow the melody line exactly. Examples of this is where the melody will move but the harmony will stay on one note (or move around very little).

Strictly Technical

Start by playing a chord on the piano. Keep it simple to start. With your right hand play a simple melody. Start with using chord tones only. The example listed above is a great example to start with. Play a C chord. Play the melody above that: C to D back to C. Now you're going to sing the harmony. Play the E to F just above the C to D you just played. Hear those notes in your head. Sing them and try to remember them. Now play the chord with your left hand, the melody notes C and D with your right hand and sing the harmony notes E and F all at the same time. It's important when you work on this that you get your pitch right. Once you get your notes right, try and hear the notes you're singing with the original notes of the melody. This is the most important part; you need to hear both parts at once. This is where most vocalists fall behind. The reason for this is because whenever you sing harmonies, you're always singing with another person. That other person is usually the lead. Your line must meld with theirs seamlessly. That can't happen if you aren't listening carefully to what they're doing. This listening has to be done as soon as you start practicing harmonies. The best harmony singers I've ever heard didn't just have great pitch, they had great timing, and most of all they had great ears.

A Little Experimentation

The other way to get some harmonies  going is to simply start singing and see if you can 'hear' another line, it doesn't matter if the line is 'technically' correct i.e. a correct harmony line moving in perfect parallel with the lead vocal. It just matters that you try and start to 'hear' these things. Again start with a simple line and then start singing lines above (or below) that line. Try to stay above or below the melody; harmony lines as a general rule don't cross the melody. Try as many variations as you can. Remember to try lines below as well as above your original. The value in this is that after you become used to singing harmonies, this is the best way to come up with interesting lines. Line made up are almost always better than lines carefully constructed (this may not be the case in strict harmonies or really involved arrangements) . If used in conjunction with the technical method, you'll find you're on your way to becoming a great harmony singer.

One Liners

Because some melodies just around a lot, or don't stick to chord tones, a 3rd or fourth line won't work. Sometimes, because the chords are moving and your line doesn't or vice-versa a moving line won't work. Sometimes when nothing else fails, singing a single note over the entire phrase is best. Not only is it a good idea in some cases, in some genres (like indie rock) a single note above or below the melody will actually sound better (or cooler to your ears). Other styles of rock also like to use one liners like an octave below to a line to thicken it and make it sound darker.

In The Mix

Most of the time a harmony line will play second role to the melody. This usually works the best and like mentioned, it's a great way to bring out that melody. When it comes to having more than one harmony part, you're going to have to go in and do some tweaking to make it sound right. Depending on your harmonies and how many people you have singing any one part, the harmonies are going to have to be mixed right. It's not always all completely even. We tend to like the higher harmony parts better, so they're usually mixed a little higher, or at least heard better. If it's a three (or more) part harmony, be careful with the inner voices. If one of these sticks out too much, it'll sound weird to our ears. Our ear naturally pick up three things. First, we hear the lead and for a lot of people, that's all they really notice. Second, we'll hear the highest harmony, third we'll hear the lowest note and finally we're able to discern the inner voices. To most people those inner voices are almost invisible. A lot of musicians try and pull those inner voices out to make their music more interesting. The point is that unless it's something you want to do on purpose, it'll sound strange to our ears if those middle lines are the most prominent.


The Double

Once a special effect, it's now standard for artists to double their vocal line. This is used in every genre of music from pop to rap. There's something special that happens when a vocal line is doubled. Keep in mind that the line has to be sung twice and not just copied and pasted. The latter results in a chorus/phase type effect (or even make the line completely disappear) whereas doubling the vocal will thicken it. Some artists do this numerous times. While effective to bring out a vocal line, it also takes away from the intimacy of a single vocal; the idiosyncrasies and special inflections of the original vocal may get lost. One effect that a lot rock artists like to use is to keep the verse a single vocal line and then double it at the chorus. This really makes the chorus stand out and keeps the intimacy of the verse intact. Remember too that often the harmonies are doubled just as much as the lead. This has the same effect making the harmonies sound bigger (and somewhat smoother) than just the one line. Remember to make the double as close to the original line as possible or you'll end up with a useless mess.

Start Your Harmony Engines

There are so many ways to treat a vocal line. Harmonies are one of the best ways to really pull out a line. Plus, people just love the sound of multiple voices. It's a powerful tool. Try some of the other things mentioned in this article: doubling, octave doubling, alternate lines etc. Even if your genre doesn't generally use a lot of harmonies, you may start something that changes everything. At the very least, you'll create your own unique voice.

The Cirlce Of Fifths: Other Applications

We've talked about the circle of fifths and the different ways that songwriters you can use it. Today we're going to talk about a couple more ways that the circle applies to different aspects of music theory. Other uses include chord progressions, key modulation, improvisation and composition.

Modulate What?

When it comes to modulating to different keys within the same song, there are ones that are more fluid than others. For example a modulation from the major to it's relative minor is a very fluid modulation whereas the modulation from C major to F# major is more abrupt. The further away the modulating key from the original in the circle, the more obvious and abrupt* the change will be. In most forms of classical music, there is a modulation as part of the form. For example the second movement is usually in a different key. You'll find that the composer would often follow the circle when choosing a key to modulate to. If they chose a key further away, if was often on purpose and for a good reason. So in effect, the simplest modulation would be from a major key to it's relative minor. One movement to the left or right would be the next easiest movement. The only exception to this would be the modulation to the major's parallel minor. For example going from C major to minor. Even though their key signatures are different, we hear this modulation so much, that it doesn't seem intrusive to us at all.

*Of course 'abrupt' here is subjective since accomplished composers can make the most unusual key changes seamless...or the most obvious change seem intrusive.

This not only applies to composition but to improvisation as well. If' you're DJing you'll find the same thing happens when you mix songs. The further away the keys, the more obvious the transition will be.

Improvisation

The use of the circle is also a great vehicle for improvisation. Go through some theory books or jazz courses (the Aebersold series is a great example here), and you'll find that they'll often suggest going through the circle of fifths as an exercise. There are two reasons for this. First it's a great way to get the circle second nature in your mind. After going through the circle a million times with your scales, it becomes like your second name. Second, like mentioned above, a lot of modulations follow the circle so you're in effect practicing something that's going to come up in real world situations.

Try this: When practicing your scales, go through the circle. Play the C major scale up and down and then move to the right (or left) of the circle and keep going. You'll end up going through all keys in a very musical way. Try playing a pattern and doing the same thing. Next, try doing the same thing with chord progressions (e.g. a ii V I ). Since keys often modulate a fifth away, you're practicing things that will definitely come up. You'll find that the entire progression (a ii V I progression is all fifths) is just one movement of fifths after another.

Chord Progressions

We covered the circle and how it applies to chord progression before. Chords will often move in fifths. For example the famous 'Rhythm Changes' is just a chord progression going through the circle of fifths. Just like modulations, the movement of a fifth in chord progressions is a very pleasing sound to us. You'll find that the most well known ( and used) chord progressions (e.g. ii V I, IV I, V I, vi ii V I, etc.) are all just movements of fifths. At the same time, if you want to make things difficult, modulate across the circle. Start at C, then go to Gb, then to G, then to B, etc. If you look at notoriously difficult songs, (e.g. Coltrane's 'Giant Steps') you'll find that it follows these guidelines. Also, when improvising on changes in jazz or blues, it's common to add a V or ii V in the middle of the progression (again, just more fifths). These need to be on your fingertips.

Composition

Of course, all of this leads us to composition. Key modulation and effective chord movement and progressions are part of the craft. Knowing where to go, (or at least knowing where you want to go) is a huge part of effective writing. If you start off in the key of F and want to make a couple of modulations, what are your choices? Or, you're right in the middle of writing a beautiful melody and are trying to find a great way to harmonize that line, what are your chord choices? One of the things that you should be looking at in both examples is the circle of fifths. The 'smoothest' modulations are the ones that are closest to your home key on the circle. If you're right in the middle of writing a song and can't figure out the next chord, if it's not the root chord, try one a fifth away, you'll be surprised at how effective this is. This can also work in reverse. If you want to jump all over the place, if you want more angular changes or intrusive modulations, use the circle to pick the oddest modulation.

It's There, Use It

As you can see, there are tons of uses for the circle of fifths. It's best to have the circle on the edge of your fingertips. You'll be amazed how often you'll use it.

The Other Circle Of Fifths: Thirds

We've talked about the circle of fifths and it's many uses here before. There is another circle that exists in music that you need to be aware of. It's the answer to many other questions in music as well as the answer to any chord in music. It's the circle of thirds and it's so important that it needs to memorized.



Here it is: C  E  G  B  D  F  A ( C  E G etc.)

That's it. Memorize it. It's very simple yet it contains all of the chords used in music. It's also the foundation of every arpeggio and scale that you'll come across. It also contains every other chord progression that isn't covered by the circle of fifths. If fact there are only three movements in music: a second (or seventh), a third (or sixth), or a fifth (or fourth). These can all be chromatic or diatonic.

Chord Chemistry 101

Ok, "How is this every chord known to man?" you may be asking. Well all chords are constructed from thirds. There are chords built on fourths and some with 'added' notes but we'll come to that. Every chord is initially built from thirds and then altered from there. To know what the notes are in any given chord, simply start with that note and go in thirds. Of course you're going to have to take into account the key you're in. For example, if you're in the key of E, the E chord will be E  G#  B  D#  F#  A C#. That's it. If you want to change any of the notes, change it, then make that part of your chord name (e.g. EMaj7#11 = E G# B D# F# A#). So you start on the root and climb in thirds. In the E example above we're looking at the root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth. They all work this way. Not all chords will have all of these notes in it*, but this is the basic foundation.

*Not all notes need to be in the chord; some are 'more important' than others. For example, you usually include the 3rd and 7th since these really define the chord (i.e. major/minor, dominant 7th/major 7th) and the altered extensions. Some extensions, like the 11th in dominant chords is usually left out; others like the 3rd and 7th mentioned above, may be the only notes played. Remember, these aren't hard and fast rules, and can be changed at any time. These are just guidelines.

A Scale Is Just A Linear Arpeggio

One thing that may be a be a bit of a mind bend (at first) is that a scale is just a linear way of looking at a chord. You will come to see that scales and chords are interchangeable and different ways at looking at the same thing. If you look at the notes in a CMaj7 chord and then you look at the C major scale, you'll see that they are almost identical. Improvisers will look at a scale and see the target notes (i.e. notes of the chord) and passing notes (auxiliary notes not found in the chord). Some music (like bebop) was founded on the idea that you could improvise on the upper extensions of the chord and not on the chord tones themselves. A game changing idea at the time.

So What About Those Fourths?

Even though there are chords built in fourths, and others with a fourth or second added, they're still built from this basic chord chemistry. That is, the basic chord is still a C major or D minor (or whatever) but then instead of voicing the chord in thirds, you voice it in fourths. You still name the chord the conventional way (i.e. according to the method listed above). Therefore a chord built on fourths will still be named according to the traditional way. Other chords, like added and suspended chords work in the same way. In fact, once you know the chemistry behind how these chords are built, you can come up with a ton of varieties of your own. The best thing about this is once you've come up with some great chords, you'll know how to name them properly. Again, just use the circle of thirds to figure out what your chord is called, then name it appropriately.

Advanced Arpeggios

Since the circle of thirds is great for chords, the same holds true for arpeggios. Arpeggios are made up of the thirds that we mentioned but once you get into some extended harmonies and altered chords, those arpeggios can get quite hairy. This is where our circle of thirds comes in again. Instead of trying to play all of the notes of the chord, try building the whole thing in thirds. That is, start with the triad and continue climbing from there. You'll find that you end up playing other triads over top of the original triad. This is where polychords come from. Polychords seem really confusing at first but once you've done this exercise a couple of times, you'll see who effective they are. Once you see that for example playing a D major chord over a C major triad automatically becomes a Maj 13 with a sharp 4, trying to incorporate one of these chords into your playing won't be such a problem. This works on many levels. Just go up the arpeggio and see how many triads pop up. Get to know these. Some players rely on these when it comes to altered and extended harmonies because you end up playing new harmonies based on basic triads that you've been playing for years. Don't forget that when improvising, playing around with these extended triads may bring a whole new level to your playing.

Chord Progressions in Thirds

Remember we talked about the ways that chords move. Aside from the fifth movement which we talked about before, there is the second and third. Once you get used to the sound of roots moving in certain intervals, it becomes a lot easier to discern chord progressions and even single lines. When listening to a chord progression, listen to the roots and try to guess which interval they're moving in. Is it seconds (stepwise)? or is it fifths? If it isn't one of the these, it will be our thirds. Some famous chord progressions move in thirds. Anytime the root moves to it's relative minor, it's a third movement. Anytime you hear the famous rock I to bIII, it's a third movement.

E to G is used in millions of rock and blues songs.
So is the E to C (down an third) movement.
Any I to vi or iii is a third movement.
A C#m G Bm is a famous pop progression.

Just to Start

As you can see from the examples, we've just got started on thirds and third movements in chords. The same goes for the chord theory mentioned above. Memorize this circle just like you've memorized the circle of fifths. You'll see these coming up again and again in many things you do. When you have them on the tip of your tongue, it becomes easy to rifle off chord tones, progressions and arpeggios without much thought at all. And that's what we want; we want it to all become automatic.

The Musician's Most Important Skill

All too often we talk about how to practice and perform. You might think that the most important skill a musician could have is great dexterity or, a great imagination, or maybe even great creativity. Where these are important, that there is one skill that is the foundation of all that a musician must do. It's our memory. Memory isn't just used by musicians to remember tons of songs; it's used in every aspect (improvising, composing, performing). Musicians must remember songs, chord progressions, fingerings, lyrics, scales, idioms (licks), performance notes (dynamics, inflections, phrasing, breathing, etc),  recording techniques, engineering facts, song forms, theory, stage moves, gear settings, recording settings, software applications, etc. And this is just the musical applications! This doesn't include any of the marketing, PR, business activities that we have to do on a daily basis. Memory even comes into play in our ear training because ultimately, the ear is using our memory as reference point for all of those chords, intervals and sounds.

It's All In The Repetition

As a musician, the same exercises and drills are repeated over and over again throughout your lifetime. There's a good reason for this. Repetition is simply one of the best (if not the best) way that to learn. Of course all musicians know this, since this principle is shoved down our throats from our first lesson...Did you practice? Did you go over all of the stuff we talked about? Did you do your scales for the millionth time? Did you practice your rhythms (that you've memorized)? We all know that practice makes perfect and the essence of practice is repetition. For some reason though, we don't apply this principle to other areas when we know how effective it is. For example, a lot of musicians will work on music theory, different styles, new chords, new scales etc. but they don't apply this repetition technique. The best way to retain a new scale/chord/technique is to repeat it over and over until it's second nature. There is the proper application of new material which we've talked about before but, for simple retention, repetition can be one of your most effective weapons. Use it daily. One of the most effective things about teaching is the fact that I can enforce this simple technique every week when I see the student. If you're practicing on your own, you're going to have to reinforce this on yourself. Ask yourself what you did the last time you picked up your instrument. What did you do last practice?  Did you practice what you had started? Did you do a little everyday or did you just go through it once? Make sure you do this every time you sit down to practice.

The Four Point Review Method

Once you've learned a new skill, read a book or had a lesson, one of the worst things you can do is just go home and forget about it. Even leaving it until the next day isn't a good idea. There is a method of reviewing material that will go a long way in absorbing and memorizing new ideas. Every time you come across something that you want to retain and use in the future, go through this learning regimen.

Step 1 - Input: Like mentioned before, it's not enough to simply read or scan the information that is presented. You must engage the mind immediately. Get into the mindset that you're going to immerse yourself in the task at hand. It's the same with learning almost any new skill, the more your mind is engaged in the technique, the easier it will be to retain and use that information. You engage the mind by asking questions, repeating important facts out loud, making notes, circling and highlighting important points, and most of all, summarizing what you've just learned. Let's look at a couple of those in detail.

Engage First

The most important thing about trying to remember facts and ideas is to engage the mind in the first place. This may seem obvious but you have to be working the brain a certain way right from the beginning to make sure that the facts are retained. It's like trying to remember somebody's name when first being introduced. It's important that you go through a couple of simple steps or you may end up paying attention to the color of their shirt instead of remembering their name. Simply reading something or passively skimming over it is ineffective in retaining information. Reading and skimming over material are only effective when you've engaged the mind in the right way. It's all too easy to just read over something without remembering anything. How many times have you ended up reading the same paragraph over and over because your mind was elsewhere? This happens more often than you think. Try this: read over some material, or a couple of blogs or a couple of articles like normal. Just read them like you normally would, don't do anything different. (You might try harder to retain info this time because you know whats coming next). Now close whatever material that you had open and try to remember what you've just read. How much can you remember? If you've read a dozen blog posts, how many do you remember? Do you even remember the titles? How about the pictures? How many of those do you remember? Because we consume so much information in a day, we start to consume our reading material like our television; as a casual observer.

The Non-Casual Observer

Now we're going to take the same material but this time we're going to engage our mind. Keep in mind that this isn't something that we usually do automatically so we're going to have to make a conscious effort. There are a number of ways to retain information, to learn and to be able to recall it at will. Numerous books have been written on the many ways of doing this. There are ways to retain lists, physical surroundings, technical information, graphical information etc. Most involve using all of your senses in one way or another. Others try and figure out how you process information and use that to your advantage. Do some research on these and try them out. You may find one works better for you than others. The way you learn is usually a personal thing and one method doesn't apply to everyone. We'll look at just one way to help us retain all that we read.

Mindset

When you first get the material, give it a quick once over. That means if you have a book or even a chapter of a book, go over the entire thing at once. Go to the end and see what you're supposed to learn. If it's a scale or theory, look at the final examples to see what the point is. By doing this, you're getting an idea of the overall thought process right from the beginning. You'll notice that in some books, there is a summary at the beginning of each chapter as well as one at the end detailing all that was covered in a couple of sentences. You should be doing the same thing when you start with any new material. Second, get rid of any other things that may be on your mind. It's a standard thing to close your door and turn off any distractions when really getting down to work. There's a good reason for this. You want to do this every time you sit down to learn. Except don't stop at just that. Try and shut off your mind too. Empty your mind of any other thoughts if possible. That's why it's good to get an overall view of all of the material when you start, it gets your mind into the task at hand. Try and keep this focus. We lose concentration easily and quite consistently. Keeping focus is a skill that must be learned and worked on. Third, keep an internal dialogue about the material at hand going on. Why is don't like this and not that? Why do this at all? Is there another way? How do I do these things? By keeping your mind engaged with this dialogue, it'll be easier to keep focused.

Step 2 - Organization

We've talked about having a separate method of collecting ideas and putting things together for your practice sessions. I use a binder that I put all of my notes in, reference material and practice schedules. When learning new material, it's important to have a place where you can make notes but also be able to come back to. Remember the review is going to be really important. Get together a notebook or use your favorite method be it a laptop or anything else you use. It's important that you have some organization to your notes. That way, when you come back to them, it's simply a matter of going through a quick review. Looking for notes, forgetting where you put something, or not understanding what you've written will just get in the way. You can make notes any way you like, just make sure you do them. This is something that we lose after we leave school. Notes are great for organizing things in our mind and reviewing what we've learned. Retention is difficult without these. Also, try and make time for a review everyday. After a while the reviews will be less often but it's important that you're consistent with this. We know that the best way to learn is by repetition. Make it so the repetition is effortless. You simply go to the material everyday, and review. I'm not just talking about organizing the written material but organizing your time.


Notes and Mind Maps

One great way to engage the mind and try organizing things in your head is to create notes and mind maps. Mind maps can be used for anything...even music. It's about how you put it together. Once you learn some new facts, put them together in a mind map and see how they all connect and make sense. Mind maps are really just another way to make notes. Instead of having lists though, we have a graphical representation. This is more like our brain functions so it's more effective than long lists and straight text. Mind maps also use keywords which are another great learning tool. I find that any type of graphical reference always helps. Mind maps have a standard way they are put together. I follow this but also have tons of other notes and diagrams I make to understand. Tests have shown that material is retained much better when it is written by hand as opposed to typing or other input.

Repetition

Like mentioned above, it's important that the material is reviewed consistently. This is one of the most important parts of learning. It's the reason why I'll go over the same material again and again with my students. That means having a schedule and going over all of the material everyday. It's important to go through these steps every time you open your notes.

Step 3 - Review

Of course there is no retention without review. That means not just going over the material but going over it consistently and making sure that you understand what you're learning. Go through the same mental processes that you went through when you first learned the material. The consistency of review is important also. When you first learn something new, it's important that you do a review almost immediately after learning. That means if you've learned something is a classroom, do a review that day when you get home. This is the most important review of all of them. Just doing this will increase your retention and understanding tenfold. Go over all of the material you learned that day. This doesn't have to take hours, a half hour will do. Just make sure that you engage your mind like you did when you first learned the material. Once you've done the first review, you can wait until the next day before you do another. Do this review like the first. Once you've done these first two reviews, you're well on your way to retaining the info. You can wait a couple of days before doing another review but don't wait longer than that. After doing all of these reviews the first week, you can just do a review once a week for the next month, you should be able to retain all of the information this way. Once you've done the first month, you should only need to do a review once a month. I try and go over all of the material once a year. If you have tons of songs and an extended repertoire, you may have to tweak your review methods depending how much material there is. Remember that if material isn't reviewed often enough, it will have to be relearned when the time comes.

Don't Just Regurgitate

It's usual for most people to review material simply by reading over it again. There are more effective ways to remember. One is the mind map method mentioned earlier. Another effective method is to create quizzes and/or try to recreate what you've learned. This means taking the ideas learned and try to write down and explain all that's been covered. Once you've gone over the material, go back over it in your head. What's the general point? What was learned? Are there new definitions and terms to know? Did you understand what you read? Is there something that you didn't understand? If there was, write it down. You can come back to that later. Once you've gone over the material, close everything, take a short break and then give yourself a small test. All you need to do is write down, play and explain what you just learned. By putting it in your own words, it will help with not only your retention but your understanding also. Music can be confusing, by putting things into your own words, it helps create your own understanding of the material. You'll find most musicians have their own opinion about quite a few things in music. This is because we've all taken the same concepts and organized them and made them our own.

Focus and Engage

You can see that once again we've just touched the surface of what we can do to use our memory better. There are a couple of techniques here that you'll want to use again and again. The better you get at retaining information, the better you'll  get at remembering songs, fingerings, scales, chords etc. This sort of technique will permeate all of your playing and make you a better musician overall.

How Not To Practice

There are many times when we set out to accomplish our goals but it either takes too long or doesn't happen at all. When it comes to music, we all know how important it is to practice. Yet, there are many things that we do that undermines our ability to get better, grow and learn. This things may not seem all that important at first but their effect over time can be monumental.

Practicing Quickly

We know what we want to do. We have a basic idea of what it is and how to go about it. So we try the exercise a couple of times slowly and then plow ahead and see how quickly we can pick it up. It's not perfect but it's close. The speed is almost there but there are a couple of problem areas. So we keep plowing ahead and forcing it to work. This is in fact contrary to what we want to do. Every time we practice something, it gets reinforced in our brain. Practicing something at a fast tempo, incorrectly, over and over again just reinforces the bad technique. That's why it's important to practice slowly. When you practice slowly and deliberately, you are reinforcing good technique (i.e. the neural pathways in your mind). The tempo doesn't matter; it just matters that you are doing it correctly. Practice slowly and get faster gradually. Ironically, if you practice this way, you'll get better sooner.



Practicing Mistakes

The biggest problem by far that people do on a constant basis is to practice their mistakes. Once you've practiced something a couple of times, it becomes a pattern in your brain. If you keep practicing it the same way, that new 'wrong' habit is going to be reinforced again and again. There are many things that can happen when we learn something new. Sometimes we go with what 'feels' right or comfortable. It's important that when you practice, like working out, that your form is correct. Practicing bad form can produce all sorts of bad side effects; from slow development to even injury. Just going with the flow isn't always the best idea. Sometimes our bodies do the wrong things and we have to take the time and make sure we're doing it correctly. This goes hand in hand with practicing slowly. But it also goes with being focused and making sure that you're thinking about what you're doing. It's all too easy to get comfortable with what you're doing and not think about it. It's easy to get into some bad habits and bad technique simply by not paying attention to what you're doing.

Being Inconsistent

We need to practice a new skill many times before in becomes ingrained in our minds and our muscle memory. It's been said that you need to practice something for 10,000 hours before it becomes part of your muscle memory. Whether or not the number is correct, we all know that a new skill must be repeated numerous times before it becomes second nature. Yet when we practice, we aren't as consistent and we know we should be. There is a general method of review that ensures that when you learn something, it is remembered. The biggest part of remembering something is doing it over and over. The same goes with learning a new skill, it must be done consistently over and over. It's important to do a review every time you sit down to practice. What did you work on yesterday? Do a review. Whenever it comes to a new skill, this is going to have to be done consistently for an extended period of time before it becomes second nature.

Not Setting Goals

This is something else we've talked a lot about here. It's pretty hard to be consistent when  you don't have an idea of what you're trying to accomplish. It's important to think about these things first. Even if you are consistent, are you being consistent with your goals? If not you're going to have to change either your methods or your goals. Once you establish what it is you want to accomplish it's easier to be consistent. It's easier to stay the course and gauge any progress.

Not Having Any Patience

When learning a new skill, it's important that you are patient with yourself. If you take the time, following these guidelines will be a lot easier. If you learn the proper technique and practice slowly, your progress will be greater. This does take some initial patience because our natural inclination is to push it as soon as we can. It's always, 'if I can do it this fast, I could do it a lot faster'. Or, 'I can almost do it this fast'. Have patience with yourself and practice at a good tempo for an extended period. Also, the more you want accomplish, the more patience you're going to have. Music takes a long time to learn and master. There are many things to take in and work on. If you have the patience to see it through, people will be amazed with your talent whereas you'll know how much time and effort you had to put in to make it seem that way.

Little By Little

Are you starting to see a trend here? All of these things seem to go hand in hand. Practicing slowly and deliberately, while staying consistent with your goals. These are pretty much a standard in all music schools yet it's something that's easy to forget or overlook. It takes a bit more effort to make sure that you're doing these things every time you pick up your instrument. It takes discipline on a daily basis. The next time you pick up your instrument, before you play a single note, think about these things. It'll make your time with your instrument that much more productive.