One of many JLCO’s Jazz Academy videos that I’ll be posting here over the coming months. Great stuff from modern masters. Here, Ted Nash talks about using the piano as a practice tool. Super advice. What Mr. Nash is talking about is covered in The Practice of Practice, in the chapter titled: Drone Power, all about using your ears…
Tag: Piano
How to Use the Piano to Explore Harmony
Ted Nash of the JLCO gives some superb advice on using the piano to explore harmony.
“Part of practicing is putting yourself in a position where you’re going to discover something new.” – Ted Nash
Check it out.
Finding Flow in Practice: Glenn Gould
There’s a lot to like about the video of pianist Glenn Gould below. Three things happen in the video that show Gould’s flow state in practice (see clips below).
A Case for Learning by Ear: Young Jazz Wizard Joey Alexander
Joey Alexander is 11 in the video below, and he displays an artistry and control and musicality that few are able to achieve, no matter what their age. In the jazz tradition, he learned by ear, and listening to him talk about who he likes, you know he likes the heavies, and has absorbed them. In…
Chick Corea: The Secret to Improving Your Rhythm & Time, Rhythmic Displacement, Not Getting Lost in the Form
Some lessons from the master. Find more and subscribe over at Chick Corea’s website. Find yourself getting lost in the form when you improvise? Corea and Stanley Clarke give you a tip: And a tip on rhythmic displacement Related articles Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea to tour together
Kenny Werner’s Practice Snapshots
Pianist Kenny Werner’s book Effortless Mastery has helped a lot of people who struggle with the fear of performance. He’s started a new blog, and part of the blog is a series of videos on how he practices. I’m excited to hear and watch these videos, and encourage you to check them out the first three below.
The Fruits of Practice Sound Like This: Peterson, Brown & Thigpen
The swingingest version of Duke Ellington’s tune C Jam Blues with Oscar Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums. These are masters at work.
Quality v. Quantity
Some research shows that the amount of time doesn’t really matter, although it does matter a little since if you spend zero hours doing something, you’re not going to get better at all. But it turns out that the number of hours practiced doesn’t really matter, it’s all about the quality of your practice. What you do is important, but not how much you do. Duh, right?
This seems like a no-brainer issue, but researchers are notoriously skeptical about common-sense issues. We want to know for sure whether things are true. That’s one of the reasons behind a study by Duke, Simmons, & Cash (2009), titled It’s not how much; it’s how: Characteristics of practice behavior and retention of performance skills. These researchers had 17 graduate and advanced undergraduate piano players practice a 3-measure excerpt of Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra (here’s a clip of Shostakovich himself playing part of it). Here’s the excerpt:
The Practice of Practice 