M2M Day 223: I’m getting better. And I’m getting worse. At the same
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For June, my goal is to develop perfect pitch.
Yesterday, I figured out a better way to identify musical notes, allowing me to maintain my mental reference frame even when the particular notes drift out-of-key.
Today, I used this technique to introduce the notes Bb and Eb into my training, which I spaced out over four 15-minute sessions.
After completing these four sessions, I realized two things: 1. I’m getting better, and 2. I’m getting worse.
I’m getting better
Once I’m in the groove of identifying notes, I’m finding it easier and easier to maintain my mental reference frame and consistently interpret the sequence of notes correctly.
Based on my pace of progress, it seem that I’ll actually be able to learn the remaining notes, and maintain my level of accuracy. It’s going to take a lot of practice, but it now seems reasonably in reach if I work for it.
I’m getting worse
Although my accuracy within the practice session is improving, my accuracy at the beginning of each session is worsening. In other words, I’m finding it harder and harder to identify the very first note of the training session.
In the past couple days, I’ve been relying less on the song “Changing” to establish my reference frame, and instead, I’ve been simply relying on my continuous practice within the key of C.
Basically, since I’ve only been practicing in the key of C, and continue to return to my practice throughout the day, I’ve found it easy to keep my brain in C from session to session.
However, now that I’m starting to introduce notes outside of the key, it seems I’ve lost this luxury.
Part of me thinks that, if I continue to improve my key maintenance within these broader tonal sessions, I should eventually be able to regain this luxury.
The other part of me thinks that I should devote more time to independently training my mental reference frame.
I guess I’ll need to monitor this over the next few days, and see which part of me is right.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
