I am sure that you all know what they say about New Year's resolutions. Many people would have you believe that they usually start to peter out about this time of year. Things come up, life happens, time gets away from you, and before you know it, BAM! your resolution is all but disappeared.
I am here to encourage you to not let that happen! Especially if you resolved to become a better musician.
The secret to being a good musician is to find new and interesting ways to practice your core skills. Many of these ways do not even involve your instrument at all!
I'm sure some people will say, "But Mr. Manager, that's crazy! How can I practice without my instrument?"
Many people probably thinking I'm pulling a Harold Hill and trying to get everyone to use the THINK method, but I promise you, I am not (if you didn't get that reference, look for The Music Man at your local library. Not the one with Ferris Bueller in it, the older one).
Here we go!
- Guitarists/Woodwinders/Brass players/Drum hitters: you should practice your finger/stick combos or patterns any time you can.
Even if it is just going over scales, when you take the time to make your fingers work together, they will perform better on your instrument.
You can air guitar or air play if you like, or you can put your fingers on a firm, flat surface (like a table) and practice that way. The most important part is to make sure that you have great hand position, and are taking the time to force your fingers to work in the order, or together how you want them to.
- Brass/Woodwind players: Practice with just your mouthpiece.
For brass players, this is easy! Just keep your mouthpiece, or if you can a spare mouthpiece with you, and when you have some extra time of not doing much, practice blowing different simple tunes on your mouthpiece. This allows you to practice gaining better control of your embouchure, and also allows you to practice in front of a mirror to watch your lip changing habits without having to worry about lugging your instrument around.
Woodwind players may need to use a reed for this, and may not be able to produce as many different sounds without hurting themselves, but practicing in front of a mirror or playing long tones on just the mouthpiece can help you focus your air until you are better in control of your sound.
Across the board, I like to try to have my woodwind and brass students match the pitch I play on my mouthpiece because it can help them to realize that they are pinching too tight, or not focusing their air enough to get the best sound.
These are just a few small ways to improve yourself as a player. Use your imaginations! How do you practice away from your instrument?
Something that a lot of musicians hear constantly is that 'Practice makes Perfect' or that 'Perfect Practice makes Perfect' and to folks who say either of those two things frequently I say: phooey.
The notion that practice should be perfect is a mistake. We practice in order to play more perfectly, but there really is no perfect way to practice. Each practice session is best approached from the perspective of a Doctor or a Mechanic trying to diagnose why something is not working the way we want it to.
Playing music isn't just an automatic reaction to symbols on a page. Music is an interpretation by a smart, savvy young musician, of those symbols into something that makes sense to both player and listener.
The best way to approach new material, is to take it SLOW.
I cannot emphasize it enough. I know, playing everything slow is no fun. It sounds lame and it feels like it is too hard to do (that is me pretending to be you making excuses about why playing slow is dumb).
I am telling you you've got it all wrong.
Playing slow, while possibly somewhat difficult to do, is very important to developing as a musician. When you first start doing something, or learn how to perform a new skill, you can't do it very quickly can you? You have to think about, and try to force yourself to do this thing you just started doing.
Playing music is the same way. You have to think about doing it. This is why we start practicing slowly. If you have time to think about it, you have a much better opportunity to be successful while you practice.
Think of your brain performing a skill as a vehicle leaving one place, to go to another. At first, for new skills, the path to get where you want to go is narrow, or bumpy, and takes a long time to traverse. The more you travel down the path to finish this skill, the easier it gets. The road gets wider, or perhaps it gets smoother.
Once you have done it a couple dozen times, all of a sudden, instead of, say, a dirt path, you have a gravel path. After a few more dozen times, you're traveling down a brick path, or a decently paved sidewalk. The more you practice and perform this skill, the wider your path gets. Eventually you are traveling down a decently smooth, paved road.
After you master a skill, sequence, or piece of music, your brain is sending its signals down an eight lane wide, super highway, where you barely have to think about how to perform the task at all.
This is the way of practicing. You start off having to think about, and force yourself to perform an action, until you do it enough times that it seems like you could never get it wrong.
To get to that end point though, you need to start SLOW in order to build up to the awesome speeds of that super highway.
Obviously you don't have to play slowly forever. Just like our example above, the more you practice and concentrate on improving a skill, the faster you are able to go.
Please, budding musicians, do not be discouraged by not being able to practice or play perfectly the very first time. Try your hardest to, instead, work hard to improve the ability of your brain and body to interpret, and perform what is being asked of you on a piece of music until you have no choice but to play it 100% correctly, and beautifully.
Happy practicing!
