Fast Tracking the Mind
By clicking on the What's New? Button third from the top on your left, you can read my theory about the evolution of the diatonic scale based on 5ths. In this article are explanations for how the 5th is like the "DNA" of music. I have been using this theory for the last two decades to help my students understand the tonal and modal scales and the hidden patterns of relationships that exist within them when based on the 5th.
Syncing the Mind to the Ear: Part 1
The Musical Keyboard as the Cognitive Tool of the Musician
The Importance of Visualizing the Keyboard
by MARIANNE PLOGER © 2010 BRENTWOOD, TN
Having a good ear in music depends greatly upon our ability to accurately and fluently calculate the distance between heard pitches - to correctly identify and track musical intervals. In my experience over the past 35 years as a teacher specializing in practical musicianship and having found a method for teaching how to identify musical intervals by ear at the speed of music, I have been continually challenged by the students' initial inability to correctly mentally calculate musical intervals on the musical staff and keyboard and, without this skill, the best ear in the world will be of little effect. I like to say that learning to identify intervals by ear is like creating a fine wine and learning to correctly calculate distances between notes on the keyboard and staff is like creating a golden chalice to contain the wine; if the chalice is riddled with holes, the wine cannot be contained and drips uselessly through the holes, seeping into the earth, staining our clothes on the way!
Among the most crucial skills needed for musicians is the ability to accurately and fluently calculate distances between pitches (what I like to call TRACKING), because it is this skill that the mind employs unconsciously to recognize any familiar melody when it has been transposed. To demonstrate this, all you need to do is to sing a song you have learned by ear, never having read it on a musical staff. You may have no idea of the pitch on which to begin the tune, but this does not matter because you can sing the tune starting on any pitch as long as you correctly retrace the pitch distance from the first pitch to the second to the third and eventually to the final pitch of the melody. How accurately you are able to correctly retrace the pitch distance between adjacent pitches in the tune determines both how in tune you seem to be from the standpoint of a listening bystander and the more likely it is that you will end in exactly the same spot at the end of the melody. What is astonishing is that you have created the pitch space map of the tune neither knowing that you were doing this nor how. The challenge to all of us as musicians is for our conscious mind to be able to keep up with our ear, not the other way around!
This article will discuss how to go about developing conscious and deliberate music tracking skills using various methodologies that I have developed over the course of several decades that help speed up your ability to keep up with, or 'track' what your ear hears by using your other sensory modalities - your visual and kinesthetic ones - to match pitch space on the musical keyboard and staff - the musical maps. In the course of doing these exercises, you may find that you are sometimes mentally disoriented and, if this occurs, it will be important for you to realize that you are visiting new and different places in your brain, coordinating aural, verbal, visual, spatial and kinesthetic modalities. You will more quickly become familiar with these new ways of being in these new places in the brain as you learn to relax and trust your senses. Remember, your brain has been tracking pitch space without your conscious awareness since the time you first heard music. Enjoy the ride.
Creating the Pitch Space Map - the Musical Keyboard
Several years ago, it occurred to me that musical training entails the ability to exactly and precisely follow match the pitches we hear while moving our index finger on a single stringed, fretted instrument, on which the note names for each pitch are written on the fingerboard. Having taught already for at least 15 years, and having read numerous musical treatises before this, it occurred to me that this was precisely the instrument that Pythagoras must have devised, called the monochord, around 500 B.C.E. to calculate pitch spaces in music.
This brings me to the modern musical keyboard. The keyboard is a useful tool in calculating pitch space because:
o There are 12 equally-spaced inches in a foot ruler, there are 12 equally-spaced pitches to the octave
o The same 12-note pattern of black and white keys is repeated 7 and a half times to create the 88 keys found on most modern music keyboards
o The 7 white notes together form to the 'diatonic' scale
o The 5 black keys together form to the 'pentatonic' scale
o It is possible to measure even pitches falling somewhere between those indicated on the keyboard in the same way that we can measure objects that are between the inch markers on a ruler
o The entire scope of pitches used in music can be found within the span of the keyboard
o The keyboard provides a visual pitch space field that allows us to keep track of one or many different pitch tracks simultaneously, which is not possible using other instruments
o Exceptional musicians visualize the keyboard almost all the time
o Unlike other instruments, it allows us to employ the visual, kinesthetic and audio modalities simultaneously, ensuring cognitive strength and integrity.
o Anyone can become fluent at using the keyboard as a cognitive tool
I have drawn two versions of a portion of the musical keyboard below, one with accompanying diatonic letters and one with diatonic solemnization (also called solfege) syllables that are used to define the notes in conservatories throughout the world. You can learn either version or better still, learn both.
To secure your memory, draw the keyboard version you have selected, including the note names, using a pencil or pen in your favorite color. Drawing the keyboard will help you solidify it in your imagination/memory more than passively looking at its image because you will use two rather than only one cognitive modality; to draw, you use your eye (visual modality) to guide your hand (kinesthetic modality) as you draw, creating a stronger cognitive bond or cognitive web in your mind.
It is important that your drawing closely resemble the actual keyboard in both size and proportion to the one provided so that, when you play on an actual keyboard, you mind can easily adapt to this reality; if your keyboard is distorted, it will create a poor ruler for you to use in calculating pitch space, will be difficult to read and may even make you feel internally agitated or uncomfortable.
Use only one basic color to draw the keyboard and note names in order to keep the image simple and straightforward; using many colors causes the mind to become fixated on the colors rather than on the more important note pattern of the keyboard and note names. If you wish to use more than one color, color the 'white' notes a very pale version of the color for the 'black' notes, perhaps coloring the white notes a watery, pale lavender and the black notes a dark, deep violet.
In writing the note names, I suggest that you start with the note C/doh, then draw its lower neighbor B/si, then draw its upper neighbor D/re, then draw B/si's lower neighbor A/la and D/re's upper neighbor E/mi, then A/la's lower neighbor G/sol then E/mi's upper neighbor F/fa, in a fanning pattern. With the addition of each note name, imagine that same note name applied in higher and lower octaves, with this nametag theoretically applied to that note in each octave
to infinity! With the addition of each subsequent note, do the same while continuing to see the any nametag already assigned. The goal will be to see each white note with its nametag AT ALL TIMES, for the rest of your life.
Having the nametag written on each note on the keyboard, even the black notes eventually, allows the brain to access that name instantly, perceiving it in the context of all the other notes and their names. If you do not see the note names at all times, you may point to the note but unable to illicit its name without performing a 'double-click' in the mind. Imagine if you had to double-click on your computer to call up your text writing software as you wrote each letter in a document; it would totally impede fluency and quickly lead to a breakdown in the process. Or, on a more positive side, imagine how nice it is to be at meetings where everyone is wearing a nametag; you do not need to scratch your head to remember who is who, because their name is right in front of your eyes, allowing you to better pay attention to your conversation. So, keep the nametags on the keys at all times.
It can be beneficial to draw the keyboard several times until you have it embedded in your memory.
Additionally beneficial is to take a few moments to recall the image of the keyboard - in every detail - several times during the day for three or four days in a row, until the memory is firmly established. This can be done when stopped in your car at a red light, during a commercial break or whenever you have a moment to reflect.
If you have trouble initiating the image of the keyboard, imagine your hand (mouse cursor) pointing to some note, any note. Strangely, by initiating the motion of your hand in your imagination, you will not only be able to see the note but you will also be able to see the image of the keyboard. I have found that, without exception, the visual image of the keyboard is stimulated by kinesthetic motion and, more specifically, the act of pointing. Have you ever tried to use your computer when your mouse cursor was malfunctioning or not functioning at all? The cursor - the pointer, whether a mouse or a finger, acts as a focal point of attention for the mind, creating a direction and intention. Without the pointer, the mind is without focus and intention, but with the pointer the mind is alive with a sense of purpose and direction so that, when the pointer is operating, the mind's hands are no longer tied behind its back. (Notice that infants point at objects of focus much of the time. As they mature, they learn that this physical action is unnecessary and may even be considered rude in some cultures. Nonetheless, I maintain that the pointing goes on in the imagination.)
As regards your imagination of your hand as a musical mouse cursor, always imagine the hand as completely relaxed, with no fingers extended, stretched or tense. The hand, even in the imagination, must be slightly cupped, so that the fingers and thumbs arch gently towards the palm, with all five fingertip-pads - even the side of the thumb - resting softly on the surface of the imagined keyboard 'pad'. You will not need to depress a key in order to activate it because there is no action to 'throw' as on a piano, harpsichord, organ, or electronic keyboard. Imagine that the index finger is the activation point of the pointing device.
Developing an imagination of the musical keyboard can be an adventure and can even be amusing at times. In Richard Bandler's Using Your Brain for a Change, he discusses how images we hold in our mind greatly impact how we behave and how we feel, see and hear in different situations. For instance, he discusses how individuals with phobias perceive the object of their fears as close up, shaky, distorted, contorted, unfocused, blurry or generally unpleasant, though the actual object may actually appear small, regular and still. Thus, our mind has a powerful capacity to shape our experiences, making it crucial for us - as musicians - to create an attractive, reliable, clear, smooth, warm and delightful version of the keyboard as imaginable.
Some people have said that having the letters in the names of the notes embossed so that they can be felt as much as seen. For those who are strongly kinesthetic, and who enjoy tactile sensations, this could be an excellent strategy and would increase memory retention for anyone.
If you encounter anxiety in recalling the image of the keyboard, carefully observe how you are imagining it when this occurs. Does your mind perceive darkness, vagueness, blurriness, roughness, harshness or over-brightness? Is the keyboard shifting or undulating? Is it rising up or getting smaller on the edges? Does it appear way too close or too far away? If so, imagine that you possess a dial that you can use to adjust the image, forming the image to the point that it appears pleasant to you. For example, if the image is dark, turn the dial until it becomes even too bright then turn the dial back to the position that it looks and feels comfortable in your mind's eye. If the image is too far away or too close, turn the dial to where it feels comfortable, to where you can see several octaves and still see the note names clearly. If the letters for the note names appear jiggly while the keys themselves are stable, turn the dial so that the note names appear and feel stable. If the keys feel rough and sharp or cold or hot, adjust the dial until they feel pleasant and even delightful to your mental touch. As you find the right settings in your mind's eye, imagine that you can mentally set or lock these settings so that they will be in place every time you visualize/feel the keyboard. If, in the future, you wish to change these settings, you can.
The importance of easily visualizing the keyboard cannot be overemphasized if you wish to become fluent in tracking the distances between pitches. You will become more and more at ease with this tool as you employ it in every imaginable context. For example, in listening to music, imagine using your index finger to trace the melody.