Fragmenting and Positioning
Found in: Foundation Songs, Playing-Based Methodology
Claude D., Canada
Can somebody tell me where I can read more on “fragmenting and positioning”. I tell my students it’s dividing the piece in small sections and that the position of the fingers help remember the sequence. But the fact that it is written in big letters (Fragmenting, Positioning) in the student home materials for Lullaby gives me the impression that there is something more to it.
This also has an important link with the issue I asked for help in the forum yesterday. I feel I’m in a dead end with a student.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
There is a little more to fragmenting than dividing into small sections. It means learning small sections, yes, but then piecing the sections together before moving on. Like this:
Master fragment 1
Master fragment 2, then play 1-2
Master fragment 3, then play 1-2-3
etc.
They should not move on to the next fragment until they can play through all previous fragments together solidly. I use an analogy of laying bricks – you start with one, then apply mortar before adding the next brick. The mortar keeps the bricks from falling apart. Each brick represents a fragment, and the mortar represents playing all the fragments together and keeping them from falling apart.
The Positioning provides a framework for the song. Once the framework is learned, then you fill in the details. Makes it much easier for the brain to put it all together. Another building analogy! It’s like the framework that goes up when a new house is being built. You plan the layout first and build the framework, then fill in the details (walls, floors, doors, etc). But you have to start with a framework o you know where to place those things.
Claude D., Canada
So for the fragmenting, it is not different than when we learn a piece of music by reading the sheet music. As you said, we master each section and then glue them one by one, one after the other. What’s specific to Simply Music would be more the positioning. Do you agree?
Gordon Harvey, Australia
I think it’s also worth noting the importance of “advancing the fragments”; i.e. learn fragment 1, learn fragment 2, add it to fragment 1, learn fragment 3, add it to 1 & 2, and so on. Extending Laurie’s analogy, you might call that a house that Jack built 🙂
I might quickly also respond to your remark that “it is not different than when we learn a piece of music by reading the partition”. By that do you mean that fragmenting is the same approach that you use to read sheet music? If so, I wouldn’t make too sweeping a statement because there are many ways to read sheet music. If you mean choosing logical groupings of notes to process, I would agree.
You could think of a fragment as a sentence (as used in SM terminology). The difference is that some pieces have sentences that have no particular connection with each other or have less obvious patterns, and are best learned one at a time, in sequence. The real key to success (as your students will learn as they start to self-generate) is knowing exactly what notes to group together to form an easy-to-learn fragment.