Today's musicians-students-educators need quality of practice, which is of the essence. It's a life long process-. When you're twenty yrs. old, you just run off desire and youthful animal energy to practice. In the long run, the creative person needs to find a way to maintain a level of interest and aliveness in his art. This takes work and intelligence,it is not separate from living, just another aspect of it.
The concept of daily practice is an important one and is the best way to make
any kind of musical progress. Daily effort keeps you finely attuned to
continuous movement and the accumulation of effect. Practicing sporadically
causes you to lose the thread of your practice and is thus much less effective.
Through diligent , consistent daily work, a tangible musical substance is
incrementally developed. First of all, you develop physical stamina through
the repeated effort. Also , from day to day, you accumulate ideas and expand
on the themes of your practice. If you are working Major chords; the first day
you might just work on arpeggios, the next day you might see some connection
with other musical sources, such as songs, or through or whatever is interesting to you. By continuing to work with focus on the same things from day to day, you will find that your level of proficiency has risen and expanded to include all these other sources. Your practicing every day results in the acquisition of
technique, musical intelligence, improved tone, and stamina. Just the quest to continuously find something to practice will increase you creativity.
There are so many variations of scales melodies, and melodic patterns. So many sounds to make, articulations, songs to learn, music to listen to and analyze, technical
problems to sort out. The only limitation is your focus and creativity.
For example: let’s say that you have adequately practiced your horn and now want something else to work on. You could sit down at the piano and transcribe a song, learn a song by ear that you may have previously learned by wrote.
This , is one of the most beneficial practices you can do. Ear training, learning songs, listening to other players, hearing bass lines, melodies or whatever. Ok. Now you’ve spent a few hours and learned a tune the way its supposed to be played. You know the tune inside and out, in essence a great organizational mind skills study too. However your mind works. Don’t overload-otherwise nothing sticks. Your capacity will increase after you have spent more and more time. It’s amazing how connections are
made,they seem to occur in a fashion which is beyond the conscious ability to
plan and organize.
Daily practice also allows me to imprint the material in my mind until it
becomes instinct. One long practice session will not do this. For
most players, useful techniques can only be acquired through repetition. I
always try to work new materials into songs, lines and grooves that I like.
For me it’s sort of like upgrading my musical mind so that my playing becomes
reoriented in the directions I choose. Increasing familiarity with they materials is a good thing. It’s like learning a language--music is a language.
Here is some lunch for your ears;
Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cK_AIpmejs
Elgar Cello Concerto 1st mov.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5C99JyP2ns
solo oboe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZyfaPEnfl0
Arthur Doyle & Sunny Murray - Live at Glenn Miller Cafe 2000http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHOzroR6cgU
Billie Holiday and Lester Young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IyuG_2jXsE
Gerry Mulligan - Prelude In E Minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JLM...eature%3Drelated
Grateful Dead - St Stephen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYmIu_njso4
FRANK SINATRA - ANGEL EYES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll0wkmVBg_c
STANLEY TURRENTINE, Light Blue (Tommy Turrentine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngk4V4_bbUA
It all depends on what ya know, and what your searching for.
If you are looking for Sherlock Holmes you ain't gonna find it in Rumi.
Keep listening, keep your ears open and keep playing.
Sometimes the trip is as much fun as the reward later.
See ya next week, and hope to meet some of ya at NAAM.
~ Tim Price
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