Usually, our experience of music is very abstract. It’s coherent sound coming out of a speaker, with no visuals of those who made the music, and not only that but the actual event of making the music is in the past, sometimes the distant past. This is why live music of any kind is such a powerful and necessary thing for your own music. To see live bodies in a room (or stadium) with you, making music, breathes life into what it means to make music. The art becomes real, palpably so, and takes on a resonance and meaning that goes well beyond a recording…
Category: Links
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):
Question Limitations
Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities. – Terry Josephson …… The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. -Helen Keller…
Rafael Mendez, master of circular breathing
Rafael Mendez on Practice Had to post this great example of a Master. His thoughts on practice are pithy. And the advice for swimming underwater is great! Makes me think of surfers walking on the sandy bottom, holding rocks to keep them down. His examples of circular breathing and musicianship are phenomenal. Want to learn…
Slow Time
It seems necessary to riff on aspects of time lately, so here I go again. In an earlier post I mentioned the benefits of taking the Long Now approach to time, seeing yourself playing in the future, simply sticking with it. If four year olds and marshmallows rings a bell, you’ll remember from another post…
Video Posts
Hi All- I’m trying to make this a more interesting place to visit, and toward that end, I’ll be periodically posting videos of interesting music, interesting musicians, and other related visual/audio clips. If necessary I’ll say a little something about them, but mostly they’ll probably be related to recent topics, for example: The rhythmically chanted…
Musical Osmosis
The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge. Elbert Hubbard (American editor, publisher and writer, 1856-1915) I often meet people who say they don’t know anything about music, or have the mistaken believe they aren’t “musical” at all. Such conversations make me think that we should expand…
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…
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.
The Practice of Practice 