Tiny Experiments for Musicians

Today is the 4th week into my 3 month experiment on tiny experiments. I recorded a video explaining part of what I'm doing. (Credit to Ann-Laure Le Cunff for her awesome book, Tiny Experiments!)

A Tiny Experiment Explanation

In the video I mention a workbook, which is a way of keeping track of the tiny experiments that you are running.

For the time being, you can download a draft of the workbook I'm using with my students here:

Pact Tiny Experiment Worksheets.pdf

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This is the 4th week of doing tiny experiments with most of my studio. I think my favorite part of the lessons are reviewing the week to see what worked and what didn't.

So far:

• a parent who has been sitting with her daughter while she's been practicing has noticed that there is significant improvement, and that practice is becoming more enjoyable for both of them.

• A student who had been playing an inverted triad chord progression was able to easily identify chords when she was looking at a new piece because she remembered playing them around the circle.

• Students are noticing improvements in muscle memory and coordination.

What's interesting is while I often notice the improvements, because I see students weekly, the students themselves are noticing their own improvements.

The cards that I'm using the most these days are the most basic ones:

5 Note Scale and Chord Key Finder Cards

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Root Position Triads and Inversions

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I had forgotten about the triad inversions until my student wanted to play Coldplay. The ease which students are able to understand and play the triads and inversions is exciting to watch.

I've been running a couple experiments as well. I've been playing the 2-5-1-4 major and 2-5-1 minor chords around the circle as a warm-up. Because I'm becoming so much more familiar with the sounds, I'm noticing a lot more in the music I'm playing, particularly the harmonic patterns. It's also really satisfying to work patterns around the circle of 5ths.

I would love to hear how your tiny experiments are going, and if you have improvements that you can think of to make the workbook more useful, please let me know.

Happy Playing!