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…
Category: Do This
Practice Links
Today’s blog will be a simple listing of some other sites where you can find more information on and/or tools for practice: Want to learn more about the best ways to practice? Get an e-mail with a discount code when The Practice of Practice is published (June, 2014). To learn more about the book, check…
When in Doubt, Leave it Out
Try to put well into practice what you already know. In so doing, you will, in good time, discover the hidden things you now inquire about. —Remy de Gourmont (French novelist/poet/playwright/philosopher, 1858-1915) ________________ It seems that I tend to write and think about abstract notions of practice and discipline and motivation and these don’t easily…
The Long Now
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. –Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967) We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch. –John F. Kennedy (1917…
The McGurk Effect
Don’t believe everything you think. –folk wisdom _________________________________ Think you can stump the ear/eye connection? Below is a little test to see if you fall into the 98% of adults who experience the McGurk Effect. It doesn’t relate directly to music practice, but is interesting to think about and it does involve listening. Neuroscience usually…
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.
Don’t Eat the Marshmallow (yet)!
In another short and funny six minute TED talk called Don’t Eat the Marshnmallow Yet by Joachim de Posada, the advantages of delayed gratification are tested with four year old kids and marshmallows. If the kid could wait 15 minutes without eating a marshmallow in front of them, they got another one. The original Stanford…
Teach to Learn
When one teaches, two learn. — Robert Heinlein If you really want to learn something you already know more deeply, there is no better way than trying to teach it to someone else. People in the Learning Sciences who study how we come to know what we know say that knowledge is socially constructed. We…
The Practice of Practice 