Geoffrey Thomas

Twyla Tharp, the choreograph, has a brilliant book called The Creative Habit. Can’t recommend it enough. The book includes a number of exercises, one of which was to list the fundamental skills in your art form.  Here is my list:

Skills List   

Accompanying Affects   Analysis   Arranging   Articulation   Arpeggios   Chord recognition   Chord voicing  Clefs   Composing   Conducting   Copying scores   Concentration Counterpoint   Dancing   Dichords   Dictation   Ensemble playing   Ethnomusicology  Figured bass  Form recognition   Formal analysis   Harmonizing   Heptachord shift in real time Imitation   Improvising   Interpretation   Listening   Memorizing   Notating    Pitch vowels   Polyrhythms   Orchestration   Octaves   Repertoire   Satztechnik   Scales Score reading   Separating all parts Sight-reading  Sight singing   Singing   Solfège  Style recognition   Rhythm skills   Touch   Thinking multiple parts   Transcribing   Transposing   Tuning   Variations   Vocal coaching