Appendices
Weekly Practice Plan and Analysis Checklist
How to spend several hours a week, and a checklist for learning from any song.
Weekly practice template
For several hours of practice per week:
| Block | Time | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Ear and theory | 20 min, 3 times a week | Interval and chord ear training, spelling drills, the quizzes |
| Vocabulary | 20 min, 3 times a week | The current module’s scales and chords on guitar and piano |
| Improvisation | 15 min, 3 times a week | Chord-tone soloing over loops, rotating keys |
| Writing | 45–60 min, twice a week | The current module’s writing exercises, or the weekly song |
| Listening and analysis | 20 min, once a week | Analyze one song with the checklist below |
If you have less time, keep the writing blocks and shorten the others. Writing is the point of the course.
The daily minimum
On days when you have only ten minutes:
- Three minutes of ear training.
- Five minutes on one exercise from the current lesson.
- Two minutes recording one new idea, however small.
Analysis checklist
Use this on any song. Twenty minutes with one song teaches more than two hours of passive listening.
- Key and mode. What is home? Major, minor or modal?
- Chords as numerals. Write out the progression of each section.
- Outside chords. Any borrowed chords or secondary dominants? Where, and why there?
- Form. Map the sections with bar counts. Draw the energy graph.
- Melody. What is the motif? How is it varied? Which chord tones are targeted? Where is the climax?
- Rhythm. What is the subdivision? Where is the syncopation? What does the kick drum do?
- Arrangement. What enters and exits at each section boundary?
- Steal one move. Pick one thing and use it in your own writing this week.