Week 2: Pattern Recognition/Big Picture Thinking

Week 2: Pattern Recognition + Performance Practice

This week, we’re zooming out from individual passages and looking at the bigger picture of your Sonata.

First, look for connections across the piece: repeated or transposed themes, recurring accompaniment patterns, call-and-response ideas, and anything that seems unusual or unexpected. The goal is to start recognizing how the composer builds the Sonata from a smaller collection of musical ideas.

Then, begin putting the piece into performance mode. Try full run-throughs, make recordings, and, when possible, play for another person. Give each performance a score out of 10 and keep track of what improves from one attempt to the next.

Share one pattern or relationship you discovered in your Sonata this week. It could be a repeated theme, a transposition, a recurring texture, or something unusual you hadn’t noticed before.

And if you’ve started doing run-throughs or recordings, tell us one thing you learned from hearing or performing the piece straight through.

Download the Week 2 worksheet below for the full exercises and performance-practice tracker.