Things You'll Need:
- your instrument
- a good Celtic or Old Time tune book, containing melody lines and chords, because Celtic music is built for speed
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Step 1
Lose the group. You want to be by yourself to relieve the pressure so you can concentrate. Set some time aside to just play by yourself and get used to the sound of your own playing. We are using folk music here, because orchestral music has too many random rests in it, where you sit out while other people play their parts, making it impossible to rehearse without other people around you. And then it is not you setting the pace, either, but other people. You might never catch up if you never brake out on your own. The Celtic or Old Time folk music lets you play by yourself.
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Step 2
Pick a tune, any tune, and play your way through it. If you don't like it, pick a different one. It doesn't have to be fast yet. You just want to get the notes and rhythm memorized, so you'll play just that one tune many many times until your fingers automatically go to where the notes on the page tell them to go.
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Step 3
Increase the speed until your fingers are flying through the piece, you find your eyes wandering off the page, and you are still playing it anyway. You have it memorized – not only the tune, but you've strengthened the eye-hand connection needed for quick sight reading for the notes that were in that tune.
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Step 4
Now pick another tune and do the same thing as Step 3.
Do this for many tunes, maybe 30 to 60. -
Step 5
Rejoin your music group, and you will find that even with the orchestrated random rests in the music, and other people setting the pace, you will be much better at keeping up.
