One of the most common things I've found in students of various levels and styles of playing is that the terms "playing" and "practicing" are often interchanged and not clearly defined in how they approach them. Over and over again, as an instructor of guitar, and especially in the realm of jazz where the focus on improvisation can certainly lend to the ambiguity of these terms, a student may lack in separating them and as a result, progress can be stifled and one's musical language may become stagnant.
Theres been many times in asking my students questions like "What things are you working on?" and "How have you been practicing that?" Resulting in an answer occasionally involving passive playing with a lack of specific concentration, or not defining what they are working on to begin with. In response to this, I will define specifically what practicing can be, and how this is a completely separate thing from actual playing and performing. This analogy can be used and applied to all types of music and with students from all ages and levels.
Practicing is just like batting in baseball, in which warming up with using a weight on the bat, will make it light, and easy to swing when you take it off. In doing this one will have far more power as well as control than previously had. Within these terms musically, it can be seen as limitation. Practicing or specifically one form of practicing like this can be assigning your student clear exercises, concepts and ideas to work on which are very specific and outlined, and help all areas of complete musicianship.
Take this for example: Assigning a pattern to use for a scale getting it to a specific BPM within several keys can be seen as the "weight on the bat". When they have completed this, it is the now the time to "get up to bat" where they will utilize the exercise within a real musical context. Here, I could have the student improvise using the scale and pattern, and now by me having gave them such a limitation with concrete, outlined terms, them now using this concept can have a feeling of being natural as well as musical far more than it had been previously and the student will have "taken the weight off the baseball bat"
Now to define what "playing" or "performing" is, which will be done as a separate entity of "practicing" as well as performing live, in my eyes is playing an instrument while removing the conscious, analytical part of the mind; and simply "playing in the moment". This is where everything that had been practiced at home, will be left at home. Many times when playing, the moment can be lost while trying to force in practice material or ideas, into the music, immediately resulting in taking you or the student out of the moment and out of the real-time performance, and building a barrier between the mind, the hand, and the ear ultimately leaving the music to suffer
This concept of practicing vs. playing may be quite simple just in terms of being conscious of it, but being clear about it can in the big picture, help a student grow leaps and bounds, and offer them exponential success in the practice room as well as the stage.
Theres been many times in asking my students questions like "What things are you working on?" and "How have you been practicing that?" Resulting in an answer occasionally involving passive playing with a lack of specific concentration, or not defining what they are working on to begin with. In response to this, I will define specifically what practicing can be, and how this is a completely separate thing from actual playing and performing. This analogy can be used and applied to all types of music and with students from all ages and levels.
Practicing is just like batting in baseball, in which warming up with using a weight on the bat, will make it light, and easy to swing when you take it off. In doing this one will have far more power as well as control than previously had. Within these terms musically, it can be seen as limitation. Practicing or specifically one form of practicing like this can be assigning your student clear exercises, concepts and ideas to work on which are very specific and outlined, and help all areas of complete musicianship.
Take this for example: Assigning a pattern to use for a scale getting it to a specific BPM within several keys can be seen as the "weight on the bat". When they have completed this, it is the now the time to "get up to bat" where they will utilize the exercise within a real musical context. Here, I could have the student improvise using the scale and pattern, and now by me having gave them such a limitation with concrete, outlined terms, them now using this concept can have a feeling of being natural as well as musical far more than it had been previously and the student will have "taken the weight off the baseball bat"
Now to define what "playing" or "performing" is, which will be done as a separate entity of "practicing" as well as performing live, in my eyes is playing an instrument while removing the conscious, analytical part of the mind; and simply "playing in the moment". This is where everything that had been practiced at home, will be left at home. Many times when playing, the moment can be lost while trying to force in practice material or ideas, into the music, immediately resulting in taking you or the student out of the moment and out of the real-time performance, and building a barrier between the mind, the hand, and the ear ultimately leaving the music to suffer
This concept of practicing vs. playing may be quite simple just in terms of being conscious of it, but being clear about it can in the big picture, help a student grow leaps and bounds, and offer them exponential success in the practice room as well as the stage.
About the Author:
For more tips, tricks, insights and resources for the music students and teachers be sure to check out these articles on online music schools and online music lessons!
No comments:
Post a Comment