Overcoming the Fear of Stepping Outside Tonality

In this third episode, I explore two ways of overcoming the fear of stepping outside tonality. The first is to reimagine familiar technical exercises, combining them with notes outside the tonality over a pedal tone or a drone . The second is to redirect the brain’s attention by reading words instead of notes and using two languages: your native language for notes that are inside the tonality and a foreign language for those that are outside. The second language can simply be read or, if we know it, translated as well. The idea is to open up the possibilities, take some of the weight away from making mistakes, and find new ways to encourage ourselves to take musical risks.