Posted on Wed Jul 23, 08:59 PM in Music
Amazing that I learned how to practice, and that I remember after all this time.
Although I am proud to have had a better-than-decent public school music education in junior high and high school, I am hard pressed to remember being taught the proper way to practice. Granted, we got plenty of talk on proper stature when sitting (EDGE OF THE CHAIR, FEET FLAT ON THE GROUND), and breathing (USE THE DIAPHRAGM), and there were the requisite lesson books with included etudes. But I don’t think anyone really taught us how to practice.
It’s usually common to practice music by repeating it… repeatedly, the thought being that the longer one is exposed to it, that somehow it sinks in. In j.h. and h.s., it was usually within the context of full band rehearsal that we practiced anything, but of course the emphasis there is on “we.” It was as an ensemble, with a director that knew how to extract the best from us, that we practiced as a whole. Yes, we all “practiced” our parts; but did we, really?
Only when I got to college and studied one-on-one with professors did I realize that practicing is not repeating, that to really know how to play a piece you really have to know the piece. Knowing the key signature is one thing; performing the appropriate scaler runs in preparation to practicing the piece is quite another. Knowing the notes you play is always helpful; knowing the harmonic structure that supports your part (or the structure your part supports) is better. Playing it well on your instrument is good; being able to sing it to yourself is priceless (nothing beats singing your part to internalize it). Need to ad-lib a line? Know the straight version inside and out, backwards and forwards, upside down, before attempting any ad-lib, or you won’t even convince yourself that you know what you’re doing. Need to nail a seemingly easy rhythm but can’t nail the notes? Play it syncopated, dotted-eighth-sixteenth style, to exaggerate transitions between notes… then reverse the same line to sixteenth-dotted-eighth style. More than knowing your notes, it has to be about knowing how you fit into the whole. Only then can you really contribute to it.
I’m finding that I retained all of this somewhere, in a part of my brain I haven’t used much in ten years. It’s coming in quite helpful for practicing these keyboard parts for the SO’s band… and I also am surprised that I have the patience for it. I suppose that’s the other thing. You have to want to go through all that woodshedding to get through to the other side. I understand how some people don’t want to do that, because it just plain isn’t fun. But sometimes, I hear bands that have great concepts and only so-so execution, and think, “They just need to practice… really practice!” How much more fun would it be if they could play better as a unit, instead of just playing? I hope that this continues to serve me well while I work my way through these keyboard parts, and for any other projects that come my way.
Go ahead, have your say!