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.
Tag: music practice
Play With Yourself: How to Get Better With Multi-tracking
One of the revelations I discovered while researching The Practice of Practice was that some musicians–like Erin McKeown who turned me on to the strategy–use composition and multi-tracking, or looping, to improve. Trumpet Wizard Adam Rapa breaks down why using multi-tracking is so good for your practice from a blog post over at the fantastic 21st…
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,…
The Obstacle IS the Path: Guitarist and Inventor Les Paul
The Obstacle IS the Path: Interview with Guitarist and Inventor, Les Paul http://wp.me/ppJKy-1di
Boost Your Music Skills: Practice Book 81% Off
A quick shoutout for a one-year-anniversary discount on The Practice of Practice (Kindle edition) running for a week, from Thursday, June 11 to Thursday June 18, 2015. The discount starts at 81% ($1.99). Learn more. Reviews.
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.
Sea Shanties and Rock: The Case for Listening Widely
A case for the point of eclecticism: The Who sings an a capella sea chanty before rocking out.
Cookie Monster: Life Coach
If you can’t afford a “real” life coach to help you with your practice, I offer you Cookie Monster.
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.
How Important Is It To Play On a Fine Instrument?
An upright bass player I used to play with told me that his teacher owned a $40,000 bow. A bow!
When sound quality is your top priority (and you have money), no amount seems too high a price. See Neil Pert’s new drum set in the video below for an example of a fine (and expensive!) instrument.
The Practice of Practice 