Rhythm is one of the most fundamental musical elements, in my opinion, one of the most important and most powerful. Unless we’re a drummer, our focus on rhythm often is overshadowed by other demands of the instrument or voice: tone production, fingering, intonation, and more. Here are three kinds of rhythmic activity you can add to your practice.
Category: Do This
Motivation to Practice: Go With the Flow
There’s a lot to like about the video of pianist Glenn Gould below. I’ve highlighted three things that happen in the video (see clips below).
As the great Robert Krulwich (of Radiolab and NPR) pointed out in a recent post, Gould appears to be deep in a Flow state, practicing Bach’s Partita #2.
Plays Well With Others: Why Practice Alone?
One of the many things I discovered while doing research for The Practice of Practice is that music practice can be a lot more than just sitting alone in a room working on technique. That part is important, but it’s hardly everything. One of the most in-the-shed, hard-practicing musicians to ever play is John Coltrane. Check out him practicing with a drummer below, and the same tune with a full band (including Miles)…
Michel Blows a Serpent (Practice Playing In Tune)
Want to learn to play in tune? You should. Read on. Playing in tune is a skill often overlooked in practice. Here’s a great example of playing in tune: Michel Godard playing a serpent. 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).
Playing With Yourself: Practice Gadgets
I’m always looking for examples of musicians doing cool things with loops; people like Andrew Bird. A friend turned me on to this video by Mike Love that’s one of the best examples I’ve come across. Especially impressive is the looping that starts around 4:20.
Jazz Guitarist Bobby Broom Talks Practice
It was mainly about the music and just wanting to get it right. ~ Bobby Broom ~ I’ve done a lot of interviews with stellar musicians like Bobby Broom about music practice, but this was one of the coolest, not only because I’m a big fan of his, and not because he speaks so eloquently and…
Erin McKeown Talks Practice
Erin McKeown first opened my eyes about how practice can be very different depending on the kind of music you’re making. The kind of creative approach Erin uses to get better is covered in more detail in Chapters 26 and 38 of “The Practice of Practice,” available on Amazon. Below is a recording of my 2011 interview with Erin, talking about how she gets better.
Go Go Gadget Practice
Bach once said of his prodigious keyboard skills something like, “There’s nothing to it; you just push the right key at the right time and the instrument plays itself.”
Do you think somebody who merely pushes a button to make music a musician? See the hilarious video below for a negative example, and the following one for a wonderfully positive example.
The important thing with gadgetry is the willful interaction with sound, not the motor ability. Yes, there are varied levels of physical engagement with the sound-producing device, but again, that’s not the point.
Goals as Fractals and Guerrilla Practice
Hans Jørgen Jensen is an affable cello teacher from whose studio have come cello players who win in international cello competitions and garner spots in top orchestras around the world. He’s a wonderful teacher and an interesting, busy man. There were many gems to admire when he spoke with me about practice, but the one that sticks in my mind, the one that was powerful enough to make it a chapter in The Practice of Practice was the power of goals. Another chapter covers what I’ve called Guerrilla Practice: snatching a tiny fragment of practice when you can, either once a day or, ideally, throughout the day. Both are covered briefly below.
Compose Yourself: Songwriting & Composition as Practice
Songwriting as a means of practice is a great idea! The engagement with the sound you’re making goes deeper than when you practice scales, or other techniques, because you own (on many levels) the sounds you’re creating. And you don’t have to have special skills to do it, just dive in and start figuring it out.
The Real Deal-With-The-Devil at the Crossroads: Tackling the Monster (Marsalis and Ma)
There is no deal with the Prince of Darkness at the crossroads, but what a great myth. The crossroads is inside the ‘shed, and the devil you’re dealing with is practice. Check out what Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis have to say about practice. In these 3 videos, you’ll hear Wynton expound on his 12 rules of practice.
Constrain Yourself: Creativity in Practice
Writers, musicians, visual artists, or any other person who relies on creativity for their well-being–whether spiritual, mental, or monetary–knows that ideas like inspiration, talent, or some other idea that makes us believe that things should be “easy,” are often more hindrance than help. It’s work. And that’s not a bad thing.
What’s great about hearing Jack White speak about his own process is learning about the constraints he puts on himself. There is also this gem about why constraints are so important, and how surfeit can suck the juice out of creativity:
The Practice of Practice 