Check out Tricky Sam Nanton’s solo in the Duke Ellington band. He had a great vocal sound on the trombone that nobody has equalled since. His solo starts at 1:11. A short clip from some of the greatest pop musicians of the 20th century in the US. Info about the tune and some of the musicians below:
Category: How
If You Can’t Sing It, You Can’t Play It: Voice Lesson
One of the best tools for your practice is your voice. Faced with a tough part, if you sing it, you’ll be able to play it better because you’ll be able to hear it better. Singing the passage allows you to “own” it in a deeper way than by pushing buttons or keys on your instrument. You don’t have to be a great singer to benefit from this kind of practice, but here’s a couple good videos on vocal tone production and breathing.
Carnatic Sax, Mental Practice, and Amazing Drumming
Check out these Indian musicians (the sax playing starts around 13 minutes in, after the drum battle/conversation). There is no movement without music. In some cultures there aren’t separate words for music and dance. Using the body to keep track, to groove, and to make better music is something all musicians do. The hand gestures you see in this video are one of the many ways Indian musicians manifest the music physically.
The Fractal Nature of Goals and Music Practice
Setting goals is one of the most powerful things you can do to get better at music or anything else. Some people write them down, some just have a vague idea of what they are, but we all have goals for nearly everything we do. Goals are covered in more detail in The Practice of Practice, but here’s a quick run-down. Goals are like the cool animated GIF of a Sierpinsky fractal above: there are goals within goals within goals. It’s goals all the way down. The usual advice is to break goals down into long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals, but you can and should dive deeper, and consider smaller goals.
The Percussion Instruments at the End of Your Wrist
Another post introduced the importance of rhythmic skill, and how using a percussion instrument at the same time as your other instrument can add greater depth and rhythm to your ability on your main instrument. The video below combines all of that wonderfully in an epic a capella patty cake singing performance, shot in 1 take.
Adopt a Drum: Practicing Rhythm
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.
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.
How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain (vid)
This animated video is a great introduction to what’s going on in your brain when you’re making music. There is more information about practice and the brain in The Practice of Practice, chapter 3: Your Plastic Brain . Check out the video below, and see the full page with more information about the creators of the video here. ___________________________________ Back-To-School Specials On…
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)…
Do YOU Know the Muffin Man? Imitation in Music Practice
Jimmy Fallon and Adam Levine of Maroon 5, spar in a hilarious (and impressive!) with musical impressions of Frank Sinatra (Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes), Bob Dylan (Rude), Michael Jackson (Sesame Street Theme Song), Iggy Azalea (Old MacDonald Had a Farm), and Eddie Vedder (The Muffin Man). All serious musicians do it on the road to getting better. Find great tools to imitate below….
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.
The Practice of Practice 