Jonathan Harnum

Are You Past-, Present-, or Future-Oriented? It Matters.

I’ve been intrigued by animated talks from the great peeps at RSAnimate. This one is a talk by Philip Zimbardo called, The Secret Powers of Time. According to over 30 years of research, Zambardo says we have discovered that the way we think about time has a profound impact on our behavior, including the behavior of music practice.

Motivation Station: Do Incentives Work?

If you’ve got 10 minutes, check out this quick animation from the good folks at RSAnimate about some interesting studies of motivation presented by Daniel Pink (taken from his book on motivation, Drive).

Even though the topic of this talk on motivation takes a business-oriented bent, I found myself using the ideas to assess my own relationship with practice and with music and with my other chief love, writing. Interesting that for mastery motivation he cites music.

Do You Have a Growth or a Fixed Mindset?

Research begun by Carol Dweck in the mid-1980s explored the repercussions of how we think about intelligence. She identified two ways of thinking about intelligence that people hold. Either we tend to believe that intelligence is a fixed thing: you’re born with a certain amount of smarts and that’s what you have to work with,…

Improving With Improv

To me, improvising is like speaking a language spontaneously, whereas only reading music and re-creating the music others (or yourself) have written is like reading a book or a story out loud. The reading is scripted, whereas the spontaneous use of language flows where it will, especially if it’s in conversation with another. If you’re new to improvising, it’s a simple thing to do.

Festive Overture by Shostakovich: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, 2009

Here’s a YouTube gem: Festive Overture, written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 3 days! Premiered in 1954. All artists are a mash-up of their influences, and we all steal from each other to make new creations. This piece Shostakovich based on a piece from Glinka 100 years earlier (Russlan and Ludmilla).

Michel Godard Blows the Serpent: Phrygian Mode

This is an excellent musical performance, and interesting to boot! The frame drum solo at the beginning drew me right in, and when Michel Godard began to play the serpent I was entranced. The serpent is an ancient low-voiced instrument similar to the Medieval cornetto, and it produces a mesmerizing sound in the hands of a master like Godard (see the vid below or listen to the mp3).

This is How Moanin’ is Done

This is a great tune. It’s simple, but very easy to rush those quarter note and dotted quarter note rhythms. If you’re not paying attention, you’re gonna speed up instead of lay it back. Here’s how it’s done right, and Freddie blows a killer improvised solo. (changes in C are here, thanks to MRB) (Real Book, vol. 2 in which Moanin’ appears can be found in C (piano, guitar, etc.), Bb (trumpet, clarinet, t. sax), Eb (alto sax) and bass clef)

Words of Wisdom from Jazz Musicians: DMEP

While at the festival (I was there to critique groups and give a couple clinics on my investigation into practice), I got the chance to chat with Rob Klevan, long-time education director at the fantabulous Monterey Jazz Festival. He turned me on to a new app and interviews that you HAVE to check out if you’re interested in jazz, or any kind of music practice for that matter. This weekend I got to meet one of the featured players, Sal Cracchiolo, before he went up to play a smoking set with the always funky Tower of Power.

This thing goes deep.

Stop! Hey, What’s that Sound?

The more musicians I speak to about practice in preparation for the new book, the more I’m reminded how extremely important listening is to one’s music. In fact, there’s some evidence in published research that all this time spent listening gives us musicians more ability to pull sound out of noisy environments (link to study)….

Practice on a Tiny Drum Set

This has me thinking about portable practice. Would practicing these drum set skills transfer to a real set? Maybe. Either way, it would be fun. There are all kinds of “travel” instruments out there for surreptitious practice: pocket trumpets, travel guitars in many configurations, and now, this drum set. First vid is the drum solo,…

Drone Your Way to Excellence

Several months ago I spoke with the fantastic jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen about practice. She mentioned that one thing she liked to do was practice with drones, using an Indian instrument called a tanpura (also tampura). She said that playing against a drone was a great way to train your ear/horn coordination. Practicing with a drone allows you to really feel how it sounds to play every note against the tonic, throughout your range. It’s meditative.

Ingrid Jensen
When I hear a great practice idea, I try it, and I’ve been using this one for a while and absolutely love it. I almost immediately noticed a greater ability to match pitch (my fellow musicians mentioned it in rehearsal), and a deeper awareness of sound in general. Part of the reason for this is that playing with the drone makes me aware of where the horn is naturally out of tune, whether because of the way a horn is made or because of the quirks of the harmonic series.