Monthly Archives: May 2015

Ask Yourself These Four Questions To Make Your Practice Time More Effective

One of the things that many highly accomplished musicians have in common is the ability to practice in an efficient and effective manner. This is a skill that is cultivated and improved upon over a lifetime.

As a practice coach, my main aim is to connect my client’s desires with their actions. In other words: “What kind of musician do you wish to become?”, needs to be connected to, “What are you doing every day to become that kind of musician?”

As simple as this sounds, I’m still struck by the number of  very good musicians who’ve come to me for help who aren’t as clear as they need to be about this. Some are quite frustrated that they’re spending lots of time practicing, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere through their efforts.

Effective and efficient practice comes down to two simple things: prescription (what  you choose to practice), and implementation (how  you practice what you’ve chosen).

Though there are many variables to consider here, I’ve come to realize that virtually any musician’s practice can become more effective if she/he keeps four simple questions in mind. Here they are:

1. Why am I practicing this? It’s not uncommon for me to ask this to one of my clients and have them struggle to find an answer. This should never be the case. You are either practicing something because of a short-term, “closed-ended” goal/obligation (I need to have this piece ready by next Thursday), or a long-term, “open-ended” one (I’d like to improve my sound). Of course, most of the problems with respect to this lie in the realm of long-term, open-ended goals.

Whatever you’re practicing, make sure you have the end  in mind. In the short-term, this is not too difficult (mastering the piece, the chord changes, etc.). In the long-term this means that you need to be  always mindful of the musician you are aspiring  to become (in as specific detail as possible) and that everything you’re practicing is clearly leading you toward that goal. This means lots of self-reflection, assessment and modification.

2. What would I like to achieve today  as I practice this? Have a clear aim in mind every time you set out to practice something. For example, “Today, I want to be able to play this at quarter note equals 142 with the precision and clarity that I know I’m currently capable of.”

Bear in mind that you might not achieve your goal. And that’s absolutely fine. Don’t feel bad about aiming low, either. It is okay to have small, easily attainable goals in your practice session (in fact, I prefer it). Giving yourself a chance to improve in even the smallest degree on a daily basis , not only encourages you, but also, helps you keep things under control and at the highest quality.

3. How am I practicing this? This goes to the core of the Alexander Technique principles of “use”. What are you doing with yourself  as you practice this particular thing? Are you allowing your neck and shoulders (and the rest of yourself) to be free and mobile? Is your breathing mobile, expansive and quiet? Are you letting the floor (or chair) support you as you let your neuromuscular system suspend you lightly upwards? The more efficiently you use yourself as you practice, the more effective the thing you practice becomes. It’s a matter of good  overall coordination supporting fine motor skills.

Also, you need to give yourself ample time and opportunities to stop. Stop and redirect your thinking. Bring it back to your intention and to your more conscious, improved use of yourself. I’ve seen far too many musicians jumping right from one attempt to the next as they practice a particular thing, with no chance for redirecting their efforts. This tends to bring them within the realm of Einstein’s definition of insanity: Doing something the same way over and over, but expecting a different result. Get better at stopping. You’ll be glad you did.

4. Have I finished practicing this? This is the one that most of my clients struggle with the most. When have you done enough work in this practice session to move on to the next thing? It’s time to move on either because: you’ve reached your goal for the day; or, you’ve done as well as you can reasonably expect for the day.

Learn to move on when the time is right. If you find yourself getting more and more frustrated as you practice something, it’s time to stop and redirect your thinking (see number 3, above). Regress the challenge of whatever your practicing to bring it back into your reach. All you need are a few good experiences each day with a particular skill to improve it. You don’t need to repeat that same scale pattern thirty times over and over in one practice session. Aim for four or five (or even fewer) good, consciously directed takes on a particular piece, then move on.

The clearer your aims are, and the more conscientious you are as you go after them, the more likely it is you’ll improve. These four simple questions can help keep you on track.

Change This Habit In Your Daily Practice To Become A Better Improviser

Ah…good ol’ 4/4 time. It is so prevalent in western music that it is often referred to as “common time”. Most of the compositions in the standard jazz repertoire are composed in this ubiquitous time signature.

But even though the harmonic forms of these pieces are based around this time subdivision, it doesn’t mean that every idea you play as an improviser must be.

In fact, lots of interesting “rhythmic dissonance” can be created by playing melodic ideas that don’t readily fit into the 4/4 harmonic structure. Just listen to Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, Warne Marsh, et. al., and you can hear them build excitement and tension as they “ignore the bar line.”

Yet many of the jazz musicians that I know personally (as well as the vast majority of students who come to me for lessons) practice nearly everything they do, every day, in 4/4 time. This time signature/subdivision becomes their default, their “go to” place. In essence, it becomes habit.

Virtually every time they discover a new idea, concept, or lick, it’s immediately conceived of (and practiced) in 4/4.

In a way, it makes sense for you to spend so much of your practice time thinking/imagining/improvising in 4/4. Because in reality, most of the improvising you’ll do with other jazz musicians will take place in this time signature.

For sure, there are exceptions. A number standard tunes in the jazz lexicon are composed in 3/4 (e.g., Someday My Prince Will Come, Wayne Shorter’s Footprints). So it’s not like you never have the chance to improvise in other time signatures.

But 3/4 time is odd, not just because of the odd-metered subdivision, but it’s also a little odd  (not as familiar) because it you don’t visit it nearly as often as you do the “common time” of 4/4.

In the past, my own habit was to spend about 99% of my improvisational practice time in 4/4. I felt quite comfortable and confident doing so.

But I can tell you with absolute certainty that when I started to regularly improvise in “non 4/4” time signatures, I became a far better improviser. Not just in odd meters, but in 4/4 time itself.

Why? Because it challenged me to stop putting my “evenly organized” ideas into neat-fitting little packages, and got me to start imagining melodic construction in a more organic and expansive manner. The more time I spent improvising in odd meters, the more chances I had to re-discover what I could do as an improviser.

As a result of this, my time, feel and articulation improved. My phrasing dramatically expanded. My melodic organization possibilities from note to note opened way  up. My sense of form become deeply confident. My overall conception of spontaneously creating music became, well…more spontaneous.

All this because I changed a daily habit.

Nowadays when I practice, I choose a “default” time signature that I work in for each day. Typically, it’s one of the following: 3/4, 5/4, 5/8 and 7/8. (Occasionally I’ll work with 6/8, 9/8 and  11/8.)

I also work in 4/4 every day, too, in addition to my chosen default time signature. And I’ll assign at least one day a week where 4/4 is the default.

If you change your habit of spending 99% or more of your daily practice time in 4/4, you’ll be pleased with the results. Besides becoming a more expressive and spontaneous improviser, you’ll also become a better musician, overall.

Take Action

Here are some things to keep in mind (and/or to practice) to help you with this:

  • Stay with one new time signature default at a time-3/4 is a good place to start. Spend three or four days of your practice week spending 90% or more of your time in this time signature. Do this for several weeks. More, if you feel the need. Once you are as free and comfortable in 3 as you are in 4, other odd times will seem immediately approachable (see below).
  • All odd times are just subdivisions of 2 and 3-5/8 is a subdivision of 2 and 3 (or 3 and 2); 7/8 is 2-2-3 (or 3-2-2). Once you’ve mastered playing in 3 (see above), the rest falls into place. It’s just a matter of methodical practice. After 3/4, work on 5/4, then 5/8, then 7/4, then 7/8. (Again, one time signature at a time until you feel confident before moving on to another.)
  • Put scale and arpeggio patterns into the odd time signature-Whether you’re working with a note grouping that you know well (like scales in thirds, for example) or are working out a new pattern, work it out into the non-4/4 time subdivision.
  • Start with open-ended improvisation-When you begin exploring a new odd time signature, choose a mode, scale, or thematic fragment, turn on the metronome (or drum loop) and improvise as melodically and clearly as you can. Always know where beat one is. Always.
  • Put standard songs and cyclical chord changes into odd times-Once you’re comfortable improvising without a bar form (you know where “one” is; you can play melodically), take a tune that you know really well into odd time. (I Got Rhythm changes in 7/8 is a blast!) If you don’t want to start with a tune, practice over some ii-V cycles, or the Coltrane Matrix, or…?
  • Take a jazz lick or cliché that you know really well and modify it to fit into the odd time subdivision-This will really open up your ears as well as you melodic imagination.
  • Work in both a swing feel and in a straight eighth note feel-Either with a metronome or with drum loops, it’s always a good idea to explore different feels. Even if all you want to do is play swing. With all the amazing smart phone apps out there these days, you have lots of fun things to work with.
  • Work with polymeter-This is where it comes full circle. Once you’ve become comfortable improvising in odd meters, you can begin to actively explore odd-metered subdivisions as you superimpose them over 4/4 time. (I have written a very thorough and methodical eBook that helps you to develop this specific skill, called Essential Polymeter Studies in 4/4 for the Improvising Musician.) Polymeter is a highly effective way to build tension and interest in your solos.

So give up the daily habit of 4/4 as the “go to” time signature (you already know it well enough by now, I’m sure!), and enjoy a new adventure in your learning process, and in your musical expression.