Thorough vs. scattered
Recently I noticed that a few students (and also a few good musicians) sort of skate over what they’re playing. In other words, they execute their ideas or their material with a diminished degree of intensity and commitment. Perhaps they play lots of ideas at the same time vaguely or they aren’t able to play what they intend to play with any depth. The rhythms are not clear and the notes are not clear and it’s as if they’re just throwing any old thing out.
I remember I was once very curious about how to get the most out of my practice. I wanted to get ahead in the music world and be successful as quickly as possible. And I asked one of my teachers, “It sometimes seems like there are so many things to practise, where can I start? Should I practise this or that? How can I make sure I’m going to get the most out of my practice?” In a sense I was trying to find out how I could make my practice more efficient. And my teacher gave me what I believe to be a very good answer. It was something along the lines of, “generally, it’s better to practise one thing thoroughly and as perfectly as possible than to practise 10 things at the same time half halfheartedly.”
I have the feeling (and as far as I can tell) that this is the biggest mistake music students make. They are overwhelmed by hearing Chick Corea’s incredible playing one moment and Robert Glasper’s the next, Art Tatum, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau or some impressive young talent like Jacob Collier or Joey Alexander and they think I have to learn this technique and that concept and I need to transcribe this pianist and that pianist and I have to learn this style and that genre and they quickly become overwhelmed. So they start practising everything they can in short bursts and don’t really get very far with any of it. So when they come to performing it sort of dribbles out instead of being a strong statement with intention.
So this is strong suggestion one. Practise as few things as possible as thoroughly as possible. The other thing to note about this is that generally when you practise one thing thoroughly to as high a level as possible, it is much easier to practise other things after you have done that quality work. So with a bit of luck, you make your playing better and at the same time you are building a base from which to make the rest of your practice easier and of a higher quality. So in the end this should make your practice more efficient.
(As a little addendum for jazz musicians, I would like to plant a little thought. There are (usually) only 12 notes that jazz musicians are using so there is no spectacularly bombastic note choice that is beyond or incomprehensible or impossible to discover. So why does a great musician sound so intense and so powerful and a mediocre one sounds vague and scattered to the point where you hardly even notice that they’re playing at all?)
Enjoyment
I think my second golden suggestion is learning to enjoy your practice more. If you practise because you feel you have to, you are likely to wire that relationship with music and practice into your brain. Which means practising will become tiring and you will feel like music making is a chore not something to enjoy. This is undesirable both because you will want to practise less and then likely practise less but also playing your instrument will be registered in your brain and your body as something loathsome and difficult. And so when people hear you play they will hear that difference. In general I think it’s better to practise less with utter joy and commitment than to practise more with discipline and strong will.
On the other hand I’m not sure I fully subscribe to the idea that it should only be pleasurable. Life is full of joy and difficulty and in music too we can experience both sides so it seems like we have to get used to that dynamic. I guess what I’m trying to say is that sometimes you can achieve something impressive through a little struggle and resolve to tackle a problem. But nonetheless I think it’s generally a fantastic thing if you can make your practice full of joy and enjoyment so that it comes out in your playing and music making as much as possible.
Practise one thing for a long time vs. moving on to a new thing when you get bored.
This tension sort of ties together what I have discussed above. I’m not sure about this one to be honest. I tend to switch between both modes. I think if you have a clear vision of wanting to be a virtuoso then practising one thing for a long time to a high level of perfection is going to yield great results.
However I think this is not the only thing we can find in music. Music can also be more folky and more primitive where the goal isn’t necessarily perfection or virtuosity but some shared experience of enjoying simple musical ideas together with others. So yes, practising one thing thoroughly for a long time will improve your technical ability greatly but following your musical interest and curiosity from one moment to the next will take you to great joyful musical experiences.
Practise what you can’t play not what you can already
A friend of mine went to a Brad Mehldau masterclass in Amsterdam recently. The key advice she took away from it and passed on to me was to practise what you can’t play. This is an idea that I was already aware of but great to have it reinforced by one of my favourite pianists. It’s very tempting to practise what you can play already because it’s comfortable and fits your muscle memory like a glove. But really this is playing and enjoying and not practising.
Of course it’s great to have a good relationship with playing music (ideally with an audience as part of the equation) but this is often described as being a very different process to practising. Playing is enjoyable, exploratory, playful (like a child or a cat enjoys playing) and sometimes includes some risk taking. Practice, on the other hand, is goal orientated. You have specific things which you want to be able to express on your instrument and you need to train your mind/body/muscles to be able to play those movements with effortless ease. This usually involves isolation of exactly the movement or technique desired and then a certain amount of repetition until it becomes easily integrated into what you can do on your instrument.
This means that you want to take little elements of music which you can’t play yet or learn whole new pieces. Perhaps you want to learn minor scales in all keys or major 7#5 chords in all positions or learn to play fluently in 7/4. Or perhaps you want to learn the piece Claire De Lune or the song Giant Steps. If these are things which you can’t play already then they are great places from which to base your practice. If however you’re very fluent with Giant Steps for example and love playing on it then this is not going to be good material to use for practise (unless you find something on it which presents fresh challenges such as transcribing a challenging solo or playing it in different keys or in different metres).
So if you really want to progress with your instrumental proficiency or other musical skills, practise don’t play. Or at least be more aware of the difference between practising and playing and don’t fall into the trap of playing because it’s easy when you should be practising.
Here’s some wise words from Kenny Werner. His book ‘effortless mastery’ was invaluable to my development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANTILfA2xk