Memories

Beginning students of music are provided (by some teachers) with handy mnemonic aids to help them navigate the Grand Staff. Since the order of notes on the bars of the Treble Clef from the bottom to the top is EGBDF, the classic--if sexist--phrase to aid in remembrance is "Every Good Boy Does Fine." For the Bass Clef, in which the order from bottom to top is GBDFA, the phrase is "Good Boys Do Fine Always." We're left in the dark concerning the fate of Bad Boys, or speculations concerning the perambulations of Bad Girls, whose escapades always intrigued me more anyway.

By the way, the mnemonic for the spaces on the Treble clef is "FACE" (pretty self-explanatory) and for the bass clef it's "All Cows Eat Grass." There. Now you're a musician.

But Alfred, my mentor, from whose course my teacher is grooming me, apparently doesn't place much stock in mnemonics. There isn't a single memory aid to be found in his entire training manual. I think I've discovered why. These handy tricks are nifty when you first start out, but when you sit at the keyboard, looking at the printed music, there's just too much to do. You're trying to match the note to the key, count from the bottom line of the Clef as you recite your mantra about how Good Boys are doing, wondering if they're all right, have warm socks, why they never write home, if they fell under the evil influence of Bad Girls, and all this combined mental activity--especially if you're middle-aged and your poor brain isn't as soft and moist as a twelve-year-old's--your mind WILL go into vapor lock.

In classical training methods--and as friend Alfred seems to prefer-- you build up your recognition note by note. Which really seems to burn them in. So I think the "Good Boys" system may be counterproductive to quick and intuitive sight-reading. I think the classical training methods may have a great deal of merit to them. However, these mnemonics are handy tools if you find yourself lost amid the terra incognito of the Grand Staff and need a quick reference point as long as you don't come to rely on them. They slow you down. Ideally, you should see a note and immediately know what it is and your fingers should play it even before your brain says, for example, "C" or "B-Flat." Just as when you read words you don't spell out each individual letter, unless you're my cousin Lumpy from East Tennessee, and the less said about him the better.

When you move from the comfort zone of the neatly-delineated five bars and four spaces into the stratosphere and underground areas, these mnemonics need augmentation anyway, so they're merely starting points. Many helpful authors have added additional memory aids, which in my experience only serve to confuse the issue. There are PATTERNS, though, and patterns are a different story altogether. Once you learn to spot the patterns and everything begins to fall into place like a jigsaw puzzle, lights begin firing and the learning curve accelerates.

This is how it is with mathematics, too. At first it's gobbledegook, a few pieces fall into place, then the whole thing comes together, and before you know it you're calculating the area of a nebula. But there are no real shortcuts to deep and enduring understanding of a thing. Understanding takes time, and unfortunately we live in a society that's fast forgetting how to slow down and listen. We want everything now.

Fortunately the nice thing about studying music is that you're rewarded with instant gratification. You get to make noise. If you get it right, it sounds sweet. If not, you try again.