This Practice of Practice - Part 1

Playing any instrument and taking the time to practice it is often a constant battle for musicians. Some people have a love/hate relationship with their instrument. They may go for weeks/months without practicing, then suddenly practice almost non-stop for days. And if you have a spouse/kids/day job/pets/etc., finding time to practice can be a challenge.
My desk

How To Practice
  • Being a drummer is hard. To be a drummer is a life force. You have to be motivated to even deal with this instrument. ~ the late, great, jazz drummer, Roy Brooks

Now with all the distractions and commitments of today's world, it's often difficult to find uninterrupted hours in which to practice. I remember back in my high school and university days practicing all the time. It seemed like when I wasn't actually performing, I was practicing. What a luxury of time I had back then! Now, that isn't possible. But I'm wiser and am able to better use the little time I have.

First, if you are going to put in extended time practicing, turn off your phone and lock the door. You don't want any distractions to pull you away from your practice time. Facebook and e-mail will survive without you for a while. You need to look at your practice time as WORK. No, work isn't a dirty word, it just means that you are focused on the task at hand. Think of how you would feel at a day job, working on something important, and you keep getting disturbed. Being a musician is a lot of work. Respect that. Respect yourself.

If you're a beginner/intermediate player, you need to devote a lot of time to just get the fundamentals down. Once you get this foundation, then you need to devote a lot of time to getting a repertoire down. This is intense and time consuming if you are serious about being a musician. But when you've moved past that, and become, for lack of a better word, a pro, you have put in your 10,000 hours and developed both mental and muscle memory, so a lot of what you do has become instinctive. At this point, hours of practice would be great, but you can get by on much less.

I tell my students I don't expect them to practice hours everyday. But I do expect them to practice some everyday, because you get both momentum and continuity if you practice regularly. It's better to practice 15 minutes on each of 4 days, than to practice 1 hour every 4 days. 

Micro Practice

This is where micro practice comes in. First, keep your instrument handy. If possible, don't pack it away in its case. You want to be able to pick it up and play whenever you have some spare moments. If you spend a lot of time at your desk, keep it next to the desk. You want to be able to see it to remind you to play it. And you want to be able to grab it, on impulse, to play it. What could be better than taking a break from what you are working on and playing your instrument? I keep a pad/sticks and a hand drum next to my desk. If I get an idea, I can grab something and work on it. When I'm writing music/lessons, I don't have to run to the next room to grab anything to play with.

So imagine you gave yourself 3-10 minute micro practice sessions in a day/evening. That would add up to 30 minutes. There's no rule anywhere that practice time has to be contiguous. I tell my students, see if you can play 10 minutes in the morning/before school, 10 minutes when you come home/before dinner, then 10 minutes at night/before bed. It's so easy to say to yourself, "I don't have half an hour/an hour to practice, so forget it." Break your practice session down into easy to manage pieces.

Part 2 will focus on what to practice.

~ MB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tam Tam vs Gong

Image
I can't tell you how many times this argument of "A tam tam is not a Gong" comes up. It came my way no less than 3 different times this week. Actually, 'tam tam' (also tam-tam) was 1st used in symphonic music back in the 1800s to differentiate a flat faced Gong from a Gong with a raised center 'boss.' (There is no definitive answer as to where the term tam tam originated - some say it's Chinese, some say it's Hindi, still others say it's something else…) To add to the confusion, 'tam-tam' is a term often used for either an   African  djembe or talking drum. When a score calls for a 'tam tam' (like Messiaen’s 'Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum' or various works of Richard Wagner), then a flat faced Gong, like a Chinese Chau, is used. Flat Faced Chinese Chau Gong/Tam Tam When a score calls for a 'Gong' (like Puccini’s 'Madame Butterfly', or 'Turandot'), then a bossed Gon
Read more

What to Look for When Buying a Gong

Image
Today's blog is a revised & updated blog I posted 3 years ago on my old website. I'm always having people ask me about buying a Gong. Well, here's some tips: •••••••• So you’ve decided to get a Gong. The first thing to ask is, what will I use a Gong for? What type of music do you play? Do you want to use it in a rock band, a jazz band, solo? Are you looking for a meditation device? These are important questions and will help determine what type and size of Gong to get.  One important thing to look at is how big a Gong do you want? Gongs are heavy. Gongs are not easy to transport. If this Gong will stay in your house/studio, then that makes it easy to have a larger size. But if you plan to travel in a band with it,  you need to look at the impact a different size Gong will have on transporting it.  A lot of drummers want a Gong because they look cool and sound cool. They also want that type of sound in their percussive arsenal.  A good place to star
Read more

Music Notation for Gongs

Image
Recently, I was asked a question about how Gongs are notated in a musical score. Here are various examples of different ways they have been notated, from traditional classical, to modern musical forms. The first thing is to differentiate the 2 main types of Gongs: the flat faced, usually termed Tam Tam in a classical score, and the Bossed Gong, with a raised center boss (AKA cup, nipple). A good example of a traditional symphonic Tam Tam part would be from Gustav Holst’s, The Planets . This example is from Mars, the Bringer of War : We can see the Gong/Tam Tam notated traditionally on a single staff line.  The next example is from Puccini’s opera, Turandot . This is the Tam Tam part, notated on the bottom line. Example #3 is also from Turandot. The score also calls for Tuned Bossed Gongs. Unfortunately I was unable to find a score example of them. John Cage used various Gongs in his percussion music. This is an example of how he notated the
Read more