Today only (11-20-15), get a free KINDLE edition of the new book, Practice Like This.
Tag: how to practice
Meklit Hadero: Finding Musical Inspiration In Everyday Sounds
Here’s Hadero’s short talk about finding inspirational sounds in the most ordinary places. She hints at the creative kind of practice mentioned in the last blog post, and covered more deeply in The Practice of Practice and Practice Like This: Songwriting as practice. It’s a particularly powerful form of practice because you own what you’re doing, it’s exploratory, and best of all, it’s fun and can make time fly.
Frustrated With Practice? Listen Boston Brass’s Lance LaDuke’s Talk
Watch, listen and learn. Lance LaDuke talks about overcoming frustration with practice, what to focus on in practice, and how to think about (and do) practice.
The Importance of Patience in Practice
In a Skype talk with a colleague in Bratislava (ain’t technology grand?), the topic of how to teach patience arose. Today, this talk came across the wire, addressing that very topic. Because there are an infinite number of things that need attention in our quest to improve, it can be a challenge for beginners–or anyone,…
In Praise of Never Being Good Enough
Music is endless, and there’s always more to practice, more to learn, more to do. The limitlessness can be intimidating, especially to beginners, or to those stuck in the “conscious incompetence” phase (one of four phases of musicianship/practice described in The Practice of Practice). But once you realize the fact, and make peace with it, having endless horizons to explore is liberating. Exciting, even. Then you just have to get started. Check out these great vids from veteran explorer Dizzy Gillespie.
Cover Yourself: “Creep” and “All About That Bass.” Covers by Post Modern Jukebox
Learning a tune by someone else is the 2nd oldest way to practice (the oldest being to just write your own thing). Here’s a fantastic cover of Radiohead’s Creep, done by Post Modern Jukebox. Below that, an equally superb cover of All About That Bass.
Singing Is Learned, Not a Natural Ability: More Evidence
Glad the issue of learning over “natural talent” is getting more attention, and not just from researchers like Steven Demorest and Peter Pfordresher (et al.), who just published a research paper on the subject. Here’s an excerpt from a recent Chicago Tribune article. <snip> Singing is more of a learned skill than a natural talent, said…
Cover Yourself: Led Zeppelin Medley on Marimba by Grade School Kids
Here’s a great example, because these Led Zeppelin tunes have some tricky rhythms that these kids nail. I don’t know if they learned by ear (probably not), but you can bet these kids (age 7-12) listened to the tunes many times. Check it out.
Stealing Like An Artist: Herbie Hancock and Pygmy Musical Improvisation
Musicians steal all the time. Chord progressions can’t be copyrighted, musicians often borrow a progression from a well-known song and put a new melody over the top of the chords. The uber-standard chord progression in the jazz world is “Rhythm Changes,” the chord changes from the Gershwin brothers’ tune “I Got Rhythm,” used in hundreds of songs, including The Flintstones theme.
Herbie Hancock stole a melodic idea for his hit album Headhunters (the super-hit song Watermelon Man–see below) from other master improvisers, improvisers not too many people know about: the Pygmy people (specifically, Mbuti Pygmies of Northeastern Zaire).
How Does Posture Affect Your Sound?
Posture is vital not only to a good sound, but will also help you avoid injury. Jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen gives a superb lesson about posture, why it matters, and how to do it. Listen and learn from Ingrid in the video below:
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)…
Practice Like a Chef
When you sit down to practice, adopt this attitude:
The Practice of Practice 