The Musically Fluent Course

1. Groove

• Regular matrix patterns - mantras
• Sense of poetry, cadence, storytelling
• Colours game
• Attack and flow - accentuation (loud/late/long)
• Elasticity
• Gestural/percussive/lyrical rhythm
• Using different tempos, dynamics, articulation

2. Rhythm cells

• Improvising, writing and reading duple, triple and quadruple cells -clapping/playing on a single note
• Experiencing them as complete units like words
• A look at how our conditioned rhythmic sense is affected by verbal language - hence the need for this training (retraining)

1.

• Intention from dynamic rhythm first (attack, flow cadence), sonority - making the tone feel “supported” - float, bloom, bite, explode etc.
• Embodied connection to the instrument or your voice for natural expression (non-mechanical)
• Introduction to the keyboard map (and vocal map) - red and blue groups (keyboard harmony training)
• Tonal centre - intention and feeling the "home and away" sense (through poetic cadence of the groove)
• Improvising, writing and reading - using just 1, 2 and 3 lines - patterns on 2 keys and on small blocks of 3 & 4 notes (harmonic and auxiliary notes)

2.

• The 12 major and 12 minor harmonic blocks in 5 structural sets
• Improvising simple patterns on single blocks and symmetrical pairs randomly across the full range of the instrument
• Awareness of major and minor tonality and root/tonal centre
• Applying the blocks to other instruments with different/irregular maps

3.

• 12-note areas
• Introduction to the staff (treble, bass, alto, tenor clefs and transposing instruments)
• Improvising, writing and reading single harmonic blocks, symmetric pairs, relative major-minor pairs, and random pairs on each 12-key area, each butterfly area and then 29-keys
• The 12 diatonic blocks and the families of 6 harmonic blocks - sensing the middle/flat/sharp positions of the 3 relative major/minor pairs - the circle of 5ths
• Improvising, writing and reading melodies over drones and using harmonic and diatonic blocks (auxiliary notes)
• Improvise, write and read increasingly complex music
• Writing/reading using multiple staves (like the grand staff)

1. Rhythmic subdivision - stems & beams

2. Two or more layers of rhythm

3. Syncopation

4. Grace notes and spread chords

5. Tuplets and cross rhythms

6. Irregular grooves and rhythms

1. Chromatic auxiliary notes, pentatonic blocks and blue notes

3. Chromatic harmonic and diatonic block changes

3. Whole tone and diminished blocks for tonal ambiguity and colour