Yeah, I wish the person leading the hymns could tell me what they were going to sing (out of over 1300 possible choices) on that day..... would help me heaps....
The Y-man
Mr. Y-man Sir; May I attempt to HELP you with a suggestion? This isn't something you can accomplish in a few minutes BUT, "I" think it's something that over-all, will greatly assist you in being more adept at musical recognition of whut's about to be announced NEXT.
MY approach in this case, is simply that of establishing a spesific MENTAL order that your subconscious can more readily relate to and resultantly, provide your conscious mind with the information it needs to prepare you for whut's NEXT.
Therefore, I suggest that first, you make a list of the titles that are most popular where you're officiating, , and keep that list az small as possible initially, so that you can learn it quickly and then very probably with-OUT much learning at all later, , add TO it without ever really being overly aware of the fact that you're accomplishing such LEARNING.
Hopefully, the most popular titles can be included in a list of not more than a hundred. Then, FROM that list, make ANOTHER list of all the titles that you like MOST, those that are easiest for you, , and NOTE the spesific "KEY", even if only by memory, that they all have in common, and if per-chance those few comprise MORE than "1" spesific KEY, make even another list with those from THAT list, that you like BEST, listed FIRST, , , and =THEN= repeatedly CONCENTRATE on those few OR many, making it a point to rehearse them repeatedly throughout each day as you work or play. THEN, , add TO that rehearsal list, OWNLY those that are NEXT the most perfered or easiest for you to remember BUT, do =NOT=
stray from that list in your repeated rehearsals, un-TIL you can merely GLANCE at =ANY= title thairin and INSTANTLY know WHUT key it begins on.
IF per-chance, there is a song or two in that list that commonly presents a problem for you, make a determined effort habit of always rehearsing THAT title at least every second or third time until ITS relative key can be recalled easily.
Having thus established this kind of mental BASIS for your subconscious to make instant reference to, it THEN has a REFERRAL file that it can ADD-TO, , "BUT" for the first few months, =KEEEEP= that referral list SMALL, until like I said, merely GLANCING at =ANY= title therein, simultaneously provides instant re-call mentally, of what key that title begins on AND, "IF" per-chance this proves a little difficult, THAT will be becuz you've inherited only RELATIVE PITCH it's called, instead of ABSOLUTE pitch as I've inherited and thus, you then should obtain a little device WITH which at any time, you can INSERT a mental referral PITCH, that then provides a mental reckoning referral point "KEY"
ON which to ac
complish subconscious reckoning for all of the OTHER titles, , be
cause of all music being entirely intertwinedly RELATIVE, permits instant knowledge of all
OTHER keys distinction, merely on HEARING a directly RELATIVE key AND, it's because they ALL are relative, that this system of re-call actually works in most cases.
The little device I'd advise, is the most discreet to use in public and the most durable; it's a tuning-fork; they come in very small sizes to accomodate a pocket or coin purse, and merely by holding it in your palm and raising your hand to your preferred ear, you can "plink" it jist enough to make it vibrate sufishently for you to distinctly hear its KEY, , and then RELATIVE to that spesific KEY note sound, the re
mainder of all the
others can be mentally summoned, , and after considerable use thereof, your subconscious will establish THAT spesific KEY as its basis for all of the others and then MUCH later even, , it will "TAG"
other keys TO that one, so that it becomes easy to remember WHICH key this OTHER title is based on, and then even LATER, the titles you
like most OR that are
heard most, by that
same method, begin to inter-relate and "TAG" themselves MENTALLY with EACH
OTHER, , so that after having finished THIS title, when the NEXT one is announced, INSTANTLY your mind relates IT via its established, mental "tagging" system to the respective KEY most recently announced.
Another means of establishing MENTAL RELATIVITY reckoning, is to sit at the keyboard and make mental note of whether the NEXT title on the list takes you UP or DOWN the keyboard for its initial or opening stanza. THIS then can be correlated as an additional subconscious reckoning help, in that down the keyboard, makes direct referral to a LOWER key in memory, and up the keyboard, a HIGHER key. After a little while, you'll note that in fact your hands begin to mentally gravitate to the keyboard direction KEY of the title NEXT announced, a split second or so be
fore even you re
member what that title con
tains.
I sinserely HOPE this dialogue proves helpful to yoo and that over the space of a year or three, you then can respond INSTANTLY to =ANY= of those 1300 titles BUT, , one
litttttttle ecseption to this, iz that although having accomplished instant recognition of the respective KEY of each of those 1300 or even 13,000, , and that is NOT impossible or even unusual, , , it won't be unusual to always need a beginning referral key OR title, such as for instance, if the OPENING title is uncommonly DIFFERENT on occassion, , you MAY note that you must allow a few seconds for your subconscious mind to quickly go through however many titles until it finds one
with which it can readily relate, to provide you with the necessary recall for this suddenly announced, UN-familiar title.
To close on the little device topic, I've heard of professional performers sitting at a keyboard, and moments before the first title is announced, casually reaching into a shirt pocket and then pretending to be scratching an ear breifly, before returning that hand to the same shirt pocket
after the RELATIVE key has been mentally awakened for the required performance. Ano
ther method is consistently relating all titles keys to that of a most favoured one, that in each case, requires nearly instant mental recall of that title and the mental repeating of its first two or three measures, so as to provide relative recall for the one just announced. There are MANY kinds of professional talent that use this method constantly, mathematicians I think being the most prominent, in that by recalling a spesific formulae of a favorite mathematical equation, they then can relate any other TO it and calculate a solution, , , and of course ALL such reckoning originally is Bible based, but not knowing whether that topic would offend you, I'll not mention it further. Archie
