The Practice of Practice

Singing is an essential part of practice no matter what your instrument is. Some of my students over the years have struggled to match pitch, so if that’s you, here are a couple videos to help.

Piano is SO great for musical understanding. You’d be doing yourself a favor to get started now if you haven’t already.

Trumpeter Brad Harrison has some excellent videos on his channel for trumpeters or any musician. Here’s some good practice advice.

Get the book here. His TED talk goes deeper…

This is today’s top 10. On any other day, I might list different strategies. They’re all important. Don’t wait to understand something (practice, music theory, scales, love, whatever). Do it first. Do it a lot. The understanding will come later. GO SLOWLY! This is perhaps the most difficult and yet the simplest item on the…

Feces happen. It’s one of those truisms like death and taxes. Mistakes happen, too, all the time, especially when playing music. It’s essential that you learn how to recover from them.

Going full-on science nerd with this link. Fascinating study documenting micro-rest and its impact on skill-learning from Ethan R.Buch156LeonardoClaudino125RomainQuentin13MarleneBönstrup14Leonardo G.Cohen

Skip to 16:16 (sixteen minutes, sixteen seconds) in to get to the skill acquisition stuff. Note “chapters” in the YouTube progress bar.

I use this Audacity a LOT, even though I have several more high-end programs, because it’s quick and easy (and free: tutorial to get it here).