When I was a 20 something going to Berklee I used to practice on the order of 8-12 hours a day, this wasn't unheard of in the 80's when the norm was practice, practice, practice. Trouble is, nobody taught me how to practice. So I felt like I was going absolutely nowhere. I thought maybe I don't have any talent and should bag it at times. Frustrating experience that was! I'd run scales, use a metronome, get them faster, and really, listening back I became as un-musical as many of those guys I hated, you know, the big hair noodly doodly spandex crowd.
I dropped out and joined a band in Baltimore.
It wasn't a great band, but I just needed to know if I could contribute. Playing with people is where you really get to see how good you actually are. Playing with people better than you really reveals how good you are and can help you get better much quicker than playing with people you are simply comfortable with. I was much better than I thought. My stengths were my soul and creativity, not so much my chops in those days.
I don't actually think all that woodshedding did me much good. See, it was forced. That's a terrible way to get better at anything. Any success or failure follows a trajectory of gradually, then suddenly. Let's look at failure. Nobody fails overnight. In practice if you are failing you simply may not have clarity on what you actually need to do. It's easy to "compare and despair", huff and scuff those scales and get really great at, um, playing scales. Then you may notice you aren't good at many other things, you don't get the gig. In business it looks like this: you didn't call people back over a period of time, got distracted and comfortable then suddenly you're outta dough!
We like suddenly. It's dramatic. Suddenly Jimi Hendrix changed the way we all see, hear, play electric guitar. Bullshit. He had years of gradually and a clear vision of what he wanted to do. Raw talent? Of course. Listen to some early recordings. He had something but wasn't all that good, for a long, long time. Then suddenly he got good. He paid a lot of dues. Played a lot of $5 gigs.
The same goes for anything. You have an idea of what you want, practice, be willing to be not good at it for a long time then suddenly you are good at many things if you balance your practice.
How does one do that? We need clarity, that's all. Had I know at 18 the power of clarity I would have saved myself a lot of trouble. A practice log is a great way to obtain that clarity. Right now I'm practicing a lot of saxophone. I want to be able to handle just about any gig on this instrument by next years time. I'm taking lessons again just to get clarity on my air column, technique and musicality. I have a great sound. That took 15 years to develop! But lately I've been in a rut so now I log in what I actually am doing. 1/2 hour of this, 2 hours of that. 1 hour of tunes, etc. By the end of the week I total those hours logged up and put them inot categories. This takes very little time to do and I can see my progress and what I am neglecting. My sessions are shorter and I take breaks. My sessions don't feel forced or obsessive. Mundane scales in 3rds and 4ths I can do while watching Foyle's War on Netflix. Other stuff I go to my rehearsal space to do. What I've accomplised in a week is stronger than what I've accomplished in the last 8 months!
I also log in my writing sessions, what I worked on and my band practice sessions and what we worked on as a group now. It's helpful to write notes on how you felt about your sessions as well, that you are still struggling with and what you are really soaring on!
And best of all, I have a band with some great players. That's where I can really feel the progress. A new idea takes way less time to get under my fingers. I remember when this happened on guitar, when things simply got easier to do. That's a great feeling!
JB
I dropped out and joined a band in Baltimore.
It wasn't a great band, but I just needed to know if I could contribute. Playing with people is where you really get to see how good you actually are. Playing with people better than you really reveals how good you are and can help you get better much quicker than playing with people you are simply comfortable with. I was much better than I thought. My stengths were my soul and creativity, not so much my chops in those days.
I don't actually think all that woodshedding did me much good. See, it was forced. That's a terrible way to get better at anything. Any success or failure follows a trajectory of gradually, then suddenly. Let's look at failure. Nobody fails overnight. In practice if you are failing you simply may not have clarity on what you actually need to do. It's easy to "compare and despair", huff and scuff those scales and get really great at, um, playing scales. Then you may notice you aren't good at many other things, you don't get the gig. In business it looks like this: you didn't call people back over a period of time, got distracted and comfortable then suddenly you're outta dough!
We like suddenly. It's dramatic. Suddenly Jimi Hendrix changed the way we all see, hear, play electric guitar. Bullshit. He had years of gradually and a clear vision of what he wanted to do. Raw talent? Of course. Listen to some early recordings. He had something but wasn't all that good, for a long, long time. Then suddenly he got good. He paid a lot of dues. Played a lot of $5 gigs.
The same goes for anything. You have an idea of what you want, practice, be willing to be not good at it for a long time then suddenly you are good at many things if you balance your practice.
How does one do that? We need clarity, that's all. Had I know at 18 the power of clarity I would have saved myself a lot of trouble. A practice log is a great way to obtain that clarity. Right now I'm practicing a lot of saxophone. I want to be able to handle just about any gig on this instrument by next years time. I'm taking lessons again just to get clarity on my air column, technique and musicality. I have a great sound. That took 15 years to develop! But lately I've been in a rut so now I log in what I actually am doing. 1/2 hour of this, 2 hours of that. 1 hour of tunes, etc. By the end of the week I total those hours logged up and put them inot categories. This takes very little time to do and I can see my progress and what I am neglecting. My sessions are shorter and I take breaks. My sessions don't feel forced or obsessive. Mundane scales in 3rds and 4ths I can do while watching Foyle's War on Netflix. Other stuff I go to my rehearsal space to do. What I've accomplised in a week is stronger than what I've accomplished in the last 8 months!
I also log in my writing sessions, what I worked on and my band practice sessions and what we worked on as a group now. It's helpful to write notes on how you felt about your sessions as well, that you are still struggling with and what you are really soaring on!
And best of all, I have a band with some great players. That's where I can really feel the progress. A new idea takes way less time to get under my fingers. I remember when this happened on guitar, when things simply got easier to do. That's a great feeling!
JB
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