LEARNING TAPES - your EARS, your EYES, your VOICE

So, you’ve got a new learning tape….now what are you going to do with it? Stare at it all week; tell yourself that you’ll get to it; play it in the car when you get out-you can sing while you’re compiling your grocery list; wait ‘til the night before rehearsal – like you used to do when you were a student? Things don’t change much, do they? If you can relate to any of this, don’t stop here: keep reading. This may be for you.

Ever wonder why you still don’t have your music learned after “hours” of practicing? I did, so this is what I did about it. I worked out a system of learning for myself. Yours may be different but at least get one together. It’s one of those little organizational things we never get around to doing. I’ve always understood that if you work on the little things the big things will take care of themselves.

The most important part of a good musician is your EAR. Get a good sense of the song and your part by just listening to it. Listen to your tape for at least two days. Don’t hum or sing along. Let your ear absorb everything without interference from you. If you start humming along too soon, you will put yourself in a self correcting mode. You will hum over the difficult parts and not even realize you’re learning it wrong – until, of course, your section leader points that out to you. Ever try to erase ink? Same thing with a wrong note, only this one will be lurking in your subconscious, just waiting for you to be under pressure (like when you’re trying to pass a tape at rehearsal) and zap, it’ll get you! Listening to your tape for a couple of days can be painless. Make your own tape from the original with multiple copies so you lessen the amount of rewinding. Cd players can be put on repeat. I even got myself gifted a digital recorder. Nifty. Add to this a pair of headsets and a fanny pack and you’re ready to get started. Now let the tape run QUIETLY in the background. Play it all day. It’s amazing how many times you’ll get to hear it while cleaning the house, working in the garden, checking email, reading the newspaper, waiting for a Dr.’s appointment, in line at the bank, walking the dog, reading the newspaper or a book, in the car (better not use the headset). I’m listening to one right now as I write. Let it get into your subconscious! And the most difficult part —don’t fall for temptation. Don’t hum or sing along. Let your ear hear that perfect version…not your concept of it!

After two days of just listening, you’ll know it’s time to take the next step. You can’t get the thing out of your head, you’re sleeping with it, you’re hearing it during, commercials, you walk into a room to get something, can’t remember what, but there it is again…that song playing in your head. Time for the visual: your EYES. Even if you aren’t a great music reader you can do this part. Grab your song sheet and tape recorder and get yourself to a table. Turn on your tape. Now with your finger on the music, follow along. Watch and feel your finger as it moves up and down with the notes as they float across the page. Put a picture of the music in your mind. Notice the big jumps, the little ones, and when the notes are in a straight line. You are traveling thru the music, heading for a destination, just like a road trip. Take this trip three times in a row for three days. Sound like a prescription? Well, then, don’t forget to finish all of it. AND as tempting as it is —don’t sing along!! You’re putting ears and eyes together here and you want it perfect. Putting the frosting on a cake while it’s still in the oven doesn’t speed up the process. It just makes a mess.

The words: the last frontier. Make yourself a tape of just the spoken words. You can be very creative here depending upon the song and the difficulty of the words. If there is a very tricky set of words, repeat them in groups of 6 repeats. I mean “strut ‘em out what about kicking up your heels…” at 500 mph was quite a challenge for me. I think I have about ten minutes of just those words on one of my tapes. So put all these tough spots on your tape with lots of repeats, put on that headset and practice with this tape all day until you can do it. Even my mailman knows what’s happening when he sees me with my headset on.

Now it’s time to put all the elements together. It’s almost like making a subconscious movie. Play your tape, follow the music with your finger, and pick a good vowel and hmm or da, da along. Build those intervals into your muscle memory. Let your voice go where your eyes and ears take it. You’ll notice how easy this part is if you’ve prepared yourself properly. As you get better with the humming or vowels, start adding the words.

Well, you’ve done the homework, you’re off the paper at chorus rehearsal and now the real work begins—with your musical director. Are you done, off the hook? Of course not. That would be like losing fifty pounds, ignoring your diet, and then gaining it back. Ever catch yourself suddenly singing a wrong word or note during chorus rehearsal when it was perfect at home? You may have unconsciously picked up one of those wrong note germs from someone around you or you may not have known it as well as you thought. Sometimes someone is singing a different note and you start questioning yourself. Happens to me all the time. So, it’s important that you keep up a personal review. Run your tapes several times a week, especially right after rehearsal, just to listen to the notes…don’t sing along. Check your words or play your word tape for extra practice on those hard spots. Check anything questionable. Reinforce what you know to be correct…even if you’ve already passed your taping at chorus. Build your confidence by knowing that you’ve put your all into being a great team player. You’re an important piece to this musical puzzle and when all those pieces are put together you can be proud to be part of that picture.

But most importantly, you will triple your enjoyment and have so much more fun singing when you know you’ve done the best that you can do. Happy taping.

Jo Shannon
Verdugo Hills, Region 11

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