Most of us in the United States have resources beyond the wildest dreams of billions of other people less fortunate in the world. Our technology and relative wealth allow us the time to study music or other arts, to surf the Internet, to speak with friends and loved ones at the touch of a button….
Category: Books
Thoughts on Art and Hip Hop
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. –Oscar Wilde. I am for an art that takes its forms from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself. –Claes…
Forget Perfection (or, No Fear)
Flight is our usual response when we come up against these fears in practice. We skim over all we have to do because there is so much. We fly through routines and exercises and try to cram as much as possible in our half hour of practice (or whatever amount) because we’re running to keep up with our desire to get better as fast as possible. This is NOT the way to go about practice because what you do learn will be of a surface nature, will not stick with you, and will probably be riddled with mistakes.
A more proper response to this fear is to recognize it, and not fall back on the flight response, but tap into the fight response. Fight it by …
Improv = Improve
About learning to play an instrument John Stevens says: Improvisation is the basis of learning to play a musical instrument. But what usually happens? You decide you want a certain instrument. You buy the instrument and then think to yourself, “I’ll go and find a teacher, and who knows, in seven or 8 years’ time…
Book Review: The Music Lesson, by Victor Wooten
Ever heard of Victor Wooten? He’s a bass player best known for his amazing work with banjo master (yes, that’s right, banjo master) Bela Fleck. Wooten has written a book about music called “The Music Lesson,” but before we get to a review of the book, you may be wondering about Mr. Wooten’s credentials if you don’t know of him already. Watch beyond the first 50 seconds of the following vid and you might be amazed (you could well be amazed before that, too):
Signal to Noise
This–among other things–helps the brain grow myelin, the substance that helps neurons fire more efficiently, making you better at whatever it is you’re practicing. The best example Coyle gives is futsal, a game very much like futbol (American soccer), but in a smaller field, with a smaller and heavier ball, and much quicker. Major players in world soccer (esp. if they’re Brazilian), have used the greater intensity of the signal in futsal to improve their soccer skills. It’s also a great example of how playing a game might actually be furthering your goals. Some think playing games are a waste of time, and video games can be a great example. But what is time-wasting, really? It’s noise. And noise depends on your definitions, your context.
Book Review: Outliers: The Story of Success
No, it [excellence] doesn’t start with talent, it starts with love. —Malcolm Gladwell on Jimmy Kimmel Live (1-13-09) Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent. —Langston Coleman The zeitgeist in the world of practice is the 10,000 hour rule, a fact that first appeared in Ericsson’s research into excellence….
Ass Power!
Learn what Quincy Jones meant when he said one of the reasons for Michal Jackson’s success was that he had ass power. It’s not what you might think. Ass power will certainly help your own music practice. Learn about it.
Book Review: The Talent Code
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator and writer (106-43 BCE) Wear the old coat and buy the new book. ~ Austin Phelps Despite what Cicero seemed to think 2,100 years ago, I think it’s great that everyone is writing…
Twisted views of Creativity and Genius
Our fascination with excellence and those who manifest excellence leads us to some odd conclusions and slightly twisted relationships with the concepts; relationships that aren’t all that healthy, though they won’t cause congestive heart failure or flabby thighs. What I’m talking about is that tendency–which I believe we all have to some extent or other–to…
Practical Practice Tactics
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all…
Book Review: Talent is Overrated
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator and writer (106-43 BCE) Wear the old coat and buy the new book. ~ Austin Phelps Book Review Colvin, Geoff (2008). Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everybody Else. Portfolio/Penguin:…
The Practice of Practice 