The steps of practice to master the seven basic elements of a piece or composition that are:
- Scale and Arpeggio.
- Note in Alphabet, Up-Down-Same, In Out Black, Solfege and Aural Spelling.
- Fingering and Touch.
- Beat and Tempo.
- Articulation, Dynamic and Expression.
- Passage and Phrase.
- Chord.
How to Practice?
Guitar is a pluck instrument which its notes spread in every fret along the finger board, visualized its fret getting narrower down to the body of a guitar and tone getting higher. There are 5 steps of practice:
- Play and say the note in alphabet (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) including its sharp, flat and natural, when the notes are in harmonic interval, two or more notes played together just say the highest note.
- Play and say the note Up-Down-Same, usually for the main melody not the rhythm or bass..
- Play and say the note in solfege or doremi according to its scale or keynote for the main melody usually the highest note.
- Play and say “beat” for the note on down beat only and say “tek” for the extra down beat and say rest on the rest sign.
- Play and say the note in aural, tam-tam for detache’, ta-ra-ram for legato. pam-pam for staccato, dam for tenuto and bam for accent. When you are performing there is only aural spelling in your mind.
After practice with those steps, the next you must analyze: the Passage and Phrase also the Chord to complete your understanding of a composition.
This is an effective, efficient and logical way to learn, play and understand a composition well.
