Brain Processing Speed

1. Set the following:
   • Key
   • Major or Minor
   • Clef - Treble or Bass
   • Metre - 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 or 6/8
2. Set your rhythm by clicking on the note values (You can have up to 4 bars)
3. Decide how long you wish each exercise to be visible – you can go from 0.1 to 4 seconds.
4. Set the tempo via the Countdown metronome – this will count you 2 bars in. For pianists this is probably sufficient preparation and you can press Go, for instrumentalists click the ‘hands free’ toggle to automatically go on to the next exercise. (You set how much time between exercise – from 1 to 10 seconds).

There are two ways to use these exercises:

1. Recall the exercise immediately in your mind’s eye – in effect putting it into your short-term memory – then compare what you remembered when the music reappears.
2. Process the music and immediately play. This will develop the eye-hand span which is in effect the distance between the eye’s reading and the hand(s) playing. Press Go and enjoy the ride!

Work out what you find achievable: not too simple but by no means anything that causes you any more than a slender challenge. Maybe one bar, made up of a straightforward rhythm, then set the app to see each exercise for, say, 2 seconds. If you’ve managed to find just the right ingredients to begin, enjoy the exercises and then next session reduce the time very slightly – to something where you’ll hardly notice the difference. Maybe to 1.9 seconds. And the next session reduce the time a little more. With patience you will, and almost imperceptibly, be improving your brain processing speed.

Then start another sequence, maybe the following day, or week, it doesn’t matter, with more notes, a more complex rhythmic pattern, or a new key. Very gradually reduce the time. The number of variations on this theme that this app can create is virtually infinite and, with appropriate patience, you will gradually develop your ability to read patterns quicker. Simultaneously, and in a sense, without realising it, you are also developing the skill of temporarily memorising these patterns (using your working memory). You will be developing your sight-reading technique in a very real and perceptible way.

Peripheral Vision

Here you will set just one bar and then decide whether you have from 1 to 4 extra notes in the following bar.

1. Set the following for the first bar:
   • Key
   • Major or Minor
   • Clef – Treble or Bass
   • Metre – 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 or 6/8
2. Set your rhythm by clicking on the note values
3. Decide whether you want 1, 2, 3 or 4 notes in the second bar.
4. Decide how long you wish each exercise to be visible – you can go from 0.1 to 4 seconds.
5. Set the tempo via the Countdown metronome – this will count you 2 bars in.

For pianists this is probably enough and you can press go, for instrumentalists click the ‘hands free’ toggle to automatically go on to the next exercise. (You set how much time between exercise – from 1 to 10 seconds). Press Go and follow the instructions! Be as strict as you can with the instruction to keep your eyes on the first bar!

Set the sequence going and, using your central vision to look directly at the first bar, see whether you can read whatever comes in the next bar. Begin with one note in the second bar and gradually reduce the time and increase the number of notes as you grow in skill and confidence. You are developing your skill to look ahead.

Rhythm – layered subdivision

Begin by setting the metronome and metre (simple or compound time) then set your pulse by moving the crotchet (or dotted crotchet) slider from left to right. Then set the subdivisions you wish to hear Then press the play button by the metronome.

Then just experiment with different subdivision layers turning volumes up and down. Listen to the combination of pulse and subdivisions - hear and understand the subdivisions.

From time to time, switch the sound off and continue hearing the subdivisions in your musical inner ear.

There is a button at the bottom to create further more complex rhythmic patterns. This ability ultimately will grow into a ‘sophisticated virtual inner metronome’ (SVIM) – with subdivisions you can ‘turn up or down’ allowing you to decode virtually any rhythm.

Read through pieces you are learning with the SVIM set with appropriate subdivisions.