BUG SPOTTING
Because you can't fix what you don't know about :-)
Penny keeps being surprised at lessons by mistakes that she never knew were there.
What frustrates her though is that they feel like mistakes she could easily correct herself... if only she were able to spot them at home.
"It's not that they're hard to find," says her teacher. "It's just that you have to remember to look for them."
Look for bugs in your pieces? How do you do that?
~ 0 ~
PRACTICING IS LARGELY ABOUT SOLVING PROBLEMS. It's about figuring out how to get this piece up to full tempo, or which fingering will make that passage work. It's about discovering why that section on page three sounds so... flat... and how to stop the coda from getting faster.
The more you practice, the better you'll get at solving problems like these.
But there's a danger that you need to be aware of:
You can't solve problems that you don't know are there.
You might be perfectly capable of tidying up some incorrect rhythms in your new piece... if only you had known they were wrong in the first place...
So why does it matter if you miss things like these? Surely your teacher will find them anyway?
Your teacher has lots of roles, but pointing out things you could have found for yourself really shouldn't be one of them. Because these details actually do make an enormous difference to how your piece sounds, your teacher has to point them out whenever you miss them.
Unfortunately though, during that time, your teacher is not helping you become a better player, or showing you new tricks. There's not much room for them to be fun or interesting. (Just how fun can you make "um... there's no flat in front of that B"?) They're just covering ground you could cover yourself - you don't even need a lesson.
What you've done is taken your teacher - someone who might have decades of training in music - and reduced their job to point-out-the-details-my-dopey-student-missed.
Every time your teacher uses lesson time pointing out a detail you could have picked up for yourself, you should ask yourself this:
- "What cool new thing could my teacher be showing me right now instead, if only I had checked this myself?
2. It delays the start of repairs
Instead of starting work on the problem when the evidence first appears, you'll have to wait until your lesson comes around - cutting down the amount of time you then have to actually fix the problem.
3. It embeds the error
With every practice, the missed issue becomes harder to resolve - and because you're getting used to how it sounds, even harder to spot.
Spotting bugs for yourself
If you want to be sure of finding all the bugs, you have to stop your regular practice, and actually look for them.
How? There are a few options...
Bugspotting 1: "Spot" Method
This method is about identifying what needs fixing - it's job is not to fix things. It identifies where issues are:
1. Start by playing from the beginning of the section that you want to survey.
2. You would then keep playing until the very first thing happens that you wouldn't be happy to have happen in a recital/exam room
It might be a wrong note, or a badly ended phrase. It could be sloppy rhythm delivery, or a fingering disaster.
3. Your job then is to stop playing and put a tiny spot above the exact location of the problem in the music.
4. Pick up from where you were up to, and continue the process. So you'd keep playing until the very next thing happens that you wouldn't be happy to have happen in a recital/exam room. Stop, mark the spot, pick up again... and son on.
5. When you get to the end of the section, simply loop back to the start and continue. If a mistake appears in the same bar on the second pass, then it will get another spot.
After you've looped half a dozen times, you'll notice that some bars are clear, some have one or two spots... an others look like they have the measles.
When you next practice this passage, you'd start with the bars that have the most spots.
While the spot method is very good at helping you identify where issues are, it provides little information about what the concern was in the first place.
The problem is all the markings start to look the same. Pretty soon they just become as everyday and easy to ignore as the details they were supposed to be highlighting.
Worse still, a bar can have a circle around it, but you'll have no idea why - and so you start to feel guilty about everything in that bar:
"Urk! A circle. Is there a wrong note? Am I playing too loudly? Was I forgetting to observe the rest? Was something maybe an octave too high? I know I had to remember SOMETHING here..."
Students sometimes wonder how pencil marks can breed so quickly in their music - it's because as a one-fit-all reminder, if you need a lot of reminders, you're going to need a lot of circles.
Here's how it usually works:
...and so it continues. Before long, your piece is covered with circles, failing to remind you of anything, because each individual pencil mark looks exactly like all the others, and conveys no more information than "watch out for this."
Using colors to help with "what"
Rather than cluttering up your score with written notes every time you stop, consider using color coding to help you remember what each spot was for.
So, for example, a red spot might mean "misread note." Light green might mean "Rhythm needs
tightening." Blue might be "not legato enough."
Color stands out, making it more likely that you'll notice reminders in the first place.
But even more important is that you'll be able to tell - at a glance - what sort of reminder it is. As soon as the color is visible, you can tell what it represents.
Of course, you don't need to be able to play at 150, but the sections that give way first are usually those that are most likely to be trouble at 120 too.
And of course if you can handle 150, then you have the added bonus on performance day of knowing that you're performing 20% slower than you know you can manage. :-)
Bugspotting 4: Thematic listening
Instead of focusing on the location of errors, thematic listening has you concentrating on types of issues - wherever they may be in the piece.
So, you might play right though, listening just for precise delivery of rhythm. Make a note at the end about the extent to which that's a problem in the passage.
Then you'd switch issues - perhaps this time focusing on articulation.
By the time you've been through a dozen issues, some will have put their hands up as being major concerns. Others you might get an all-clear for.
Either way, you'll be much better equipped to answer the question "what should I work on next?"
In the next blog, Clearing Obstacles, we'll get some ideas on how to exterminate your bugs, among other things! :-)
Meanwhile, make yourself some fresh copies of the music, and start spotting them bugs! :-D
1. Start by playing from the beginning of the section that you want to survey.
2. You would then keep playing until the very first thing happens that you wouldn't be happy to have happen in a recital/exam room
It might be a wrong note, or a badly ended phrase. It could be sloppy rhythm delivery, or a fingering disaster.
3. Your job then is to stop playing and put a tiny spot above the exact location of the problem in the music.
4. Pick up from where you were up to, and continue the process. So you'd keep playing until the very next thing happens that you wouldn't be happy to have happen in a recital/exam room. Stop, mark the spot, pick up again... and son on.
5. When you get to the end of the section, simply loop back to the start and continue. If a mistake appears in the same bar on the second pass, then it will get another spot.
After you've looped half a dozen times, you'll notice that some bars are clear, some have one or two spots... an others look like they have the measles.
When you next practice this passage, you'd start with the bars that have the most spots.
While the spot method is very good at helping you identify where issues are, it provides little information about what the concern was in the first place.
The problem is all the markings start to look the same. Pretty soon they just become as everyday and easy to ignore as the details they were supposed to be highlighting.
Worse still, a bar can have a circle around it, but you'll have no idea why - and so you start to feel guilty about everything in that bar:
"Urk! A circle. Is there a wrong note? Am I playing too loudly? Was I forgetting to observe the rest? Was something maybe an octave too high? I know I had to remember SOMETHING here..."
Students sometimes wonder how pencil marks can breed so quickly in their music - it's because as a one-fit-all reminder, if you need a lot of reminders, you're going to need a lot of circles.
Here's how it usually works:
Need to remember a tempo change?
Circle it
Forget to observe the rest?
Circle that too
Didn't spot the C#?
Circle that accidental
Playing the turn incorrectly?
Yep, you'd circle that too...
...and so it continues. Before long, your piece is covered with circles, failing to remind you of anything, because each individual pencil mark looks exactly like all the others, and conveys no more information than "watch out for this."
Using colors to help with "what"
Rather than cluttering up your score with written notes every time you stop, consider using color coding to help you remember what each spot was for.
So, for example, a red spot might mean "misread note." Light green might mean "Rhythm needs
tightening." Blue might be "not legato enough."
Color stands out, making it more likely that you'll notice reminders in the first place.
But even more important is that you'll be able to tell - at a glance - what sort of reminder it is. As soon as the color is visible, you can tell what it represents.
Bugspotting 2: Record and Review
Sometimes it's easier to hear issues if you're not actually busy playing at the same time.
This time, instead of stopping every time you notice a mistake, record a complete playthrough.
Then you'd listen to that recording, while carefully following the score. As you notice areas of concern, mark them in.
Again, you're not trying to fix anything... all you're doing is flagging areas as being high priority for future work.
Multiple passes
A sample of one can be a little misleading sometimes - to ensure that you're making recommendations based on typical playing, it's a good idea to record several takes consecutively.
Make separate notes for each take... and then, like the spot method, give highest priority to those issues that keep reappearing.
Bugspotting 3: Stress Testing
One way to identify possible trouble spots in your piece is to set up similar stress tests. Demand more than you need, and see if any cracks appear.
So, for example, if the passage is designed to be played at 120bpm, you might test it at 150bpm...just to see what's still fine, what wobbles, and what collapses completely.
And of course if you can handle 150, then you have the added bonus on performance day of knowing that you're performing 20% slower than you know you can manage. :-)
Bugspotting 4: Thematic listening
Instead of focusing on the location of errors, thematic listening has you concentrating on types of issues - wherever they may be in the piece.
So, you might play right though, listening just for precise delivery of rhythm. Make a note at the end about the extent to which that's a problem in the passage.
Then you'd switch issues - perhaps this time focusing on articulation.
By the time you've been through a dozen issues, some will have put their hands up as being major concerns. Others you might get an all-clear for.
Either way, you'll be much better equipped to answer the question "what should I work on next?"
In the next blog, Clearing Obstacles, we'll get some ideas on how to exterminate your bugs, among other things! :-)
Meanwhile, make yourself some fresh copies of the music, and start spotting them bugs! :-D
Yet another worthwhile practice tip! :-)
ReplyDelete