The Philosophy of Practice
29/05/07 01:43 Filed in: Music
So, you want to learn the saxophone, or any other
instrument? Well, needless to say, you’re going to
have to work hard to get good at it, harder if you
want to be great at it, and you have to live, eat,
and breathe it if you plan to master it someday.
Well, how do we work on our mastery of our
instruments, you say? Practice, Practice,
Practice....
There is much philosophy to the often tiresome and difficult ritual of practicing, but it must be done to progress in any idiom. A few rules to live by:
1) “Are you practicing as hard as your competitors?”
Don Jaramillo
2) “The only shortcuts in life come from doing something right the first time.”
Dr. Bruce Eskovitz
3) “Make music become an art, not a system.”
Sean O’Kelley
Each of the following rules are thus explained. Rule number one explains the sincerity of the competitive spirit between you and your fellow players, if you aren’t working harder than they are, they have an advantage over you, and will probably get more gigs than you and perhaps make more money than you. But rather than spying on your competitors, spend that time evaluating yourself and practicing. Rule number two refers to the common routine in practicing of trying to cut corners and make shortcuts. Well, in the long-run, that is not the least bit productive or efficient. Simply because learning something the right way first means taking special care and giving attention to what it is to be learned. Eventually you will be tried for your knowledge, and if you don’t know something as well as someone else, this puts YOU at a disadvantage. Lastly, music is art, if you are not being creative with it or trying to make a statement with it, you are merely being technical and lifeless. Bring something of your own to each and every practice session.
Learn to question yourself all of the time: Is this what it’s supposed to sound like? Am I in tune? Am I in the right tone color? Am I in time (good pulse?)? Is this the easiest I can play this? What do I need to do to play this better than before?
Practicing versus Performing
When you practice, you are working on things that you otherwise don’t know... so don’t play the things you do! So what if it sounds bad, that’s the point! You play the things that sound bad and work on them in order to make them sound good. When everything starts to sound good, you are ready for rehearsal. At rehearsal, before the director (or your boss) comes up to the stand, you should go through your proper warmups and then maybe hit the spots that you want to be sure will be flawless (a.k.a. the harder parts). However, once the director is on the podium, you are performing and you must know how to play everything correctly. After a successful rehearsal or so, with regimented practicing, you are ready to perform. When you perform, you are playing the things you know very well, don’t try to play things you don’t know (that was what practicing was for). Countless people (myself included) have mistaken practicing for performing on numerous occasions. Avoid it at all costs.
Approaching the dreaded ‘Warmup’
You’ve just gotten your horn out of the case, it’s all put together, you put it to your mouth... what’s the first thing you do? Of course, you play the hardest lick you know. However, once you’ve gotten your jollies from that, now what? The best things to do sound the simplest and impress your friends the LEAST, deal with it.
1) Get air in the horn by playing some major and minor scales. A neat trick is to pick a random Key (A), play all the scales, modes, arpeggios, patterns and sequences that you can in major and all three minors (harmonic, melodic, natural). Then follow that up with the same exact thing in the key above it (A#) and the key below it (Ab). When you’ve finished, you will have trained your fingers in such a way that they feel as though you were playing all 12 major scales. Randomize the keys though, don’t keep playing in any particular key (strive for the one’s you don’t know so well).
2) Play long tones. Starting on the lowest note, play until you run out of breath, getting louder and softer as you go. Then do the same thing on the next note up. Repeat until you are at the highest note you know of. Play in front of a tuner and really strive to keep each tone in tune throughout the crescendo and decrescendo. Play from Bb to C (Altissimo) sax players since you will use these notes for the majority of your playing.
3) Play over tones. Finger low Bb and make the saxophone play an octave higher, a fifth higher than that, a fourth higher than that, a major third higher, a minor third higher, and a perfect second higher. Do the same on B natural, C, C#, and if you can, D. Then, match the overtones to their corresponding pitches and tones. That full-bodied sound you eventually hear is the true sound of your instrument, if you match that, you will have great tone and your tuning will become more consistent as you learn to alter pitch with your tongue and throat, not your lips and teeth.
4) Sight-read something. Find a jazz etude book or the Charlie Parker Omnibook, open up to a page, take a deep breath, set the metronome to about 2/3 the actual tempo, and play through it, making mental notes of places you falter. Keep going! When you’re finished, assess the problems (if any), and read it again. If successful, read it again at tempo, if not read it at the reduced tempo.
Practicing Material
Focusing on the Jazz idiom, there are several ‘sure-shot’ methods to practicing effectively when you’re finished with warmups and scales:
1) Song Transcription: Take a favorite song (preferably the type of music you like to play or want to learn), listen to it over and over again, be able to sing it (with or without lyrics), transcribe the solo and make it so that you sound just like the person on the recording.
2) Internalization: Even I have difficulty with this, but play the song to the point where you know the changes in and out, you can solo on quarter notes or longer and can hear the rhythmic harmonies in perfect pulse (a capella). The point is to gain the deepest understanding of a song. Having this understanding, it becomes difficult to solo poorly.
3) ii-V7-I Transcriptions: Take the transcribed solo and locate the ii-V7-I’s, learn to play and understand them in all 12 keys. Incorporate them in your solos.
The more charts you know, the more versatile you are as a player. As far as learning to phrase your solos, study the Lennie Niehaus Jazz Etudes and pay attention to the articulations while maintaining a good sense of ‘swing.’ As a Jazz Saxophone player, it is necessary for you to listen to music constantly. Go out and buy CDs of artists you want to sound like. Listen and analyze the music; little licks you liked, the tone, artistic style. Be sure to pick the songs apart. Adopt everything you like and incorporate it in your playing.
From the Classical Viewpoint
Familiarize yourself with the Ferling 48 Etudes, buy Marcel Mule books and practice them slowly, working your way up to tempo. Become anal about everything you do with music. Pay strict attention to dynamics, articulation, texture, tone, how the parts blend with other parts (if any), phrasing and especially intonation. Play every note on your saxophone against a tuner and write your own fingering chart according to the most in-tune notes. THEN, practice your scales and arpeggios with the new fingerings. In college, you’ll be expected to prepare ‘Jury’ pieces, which are essentially recital pieces you play in front of faculty members (like a final exam for musicians). You will be expected to know these pieces in your own personal repertoire, should you ever apply to any professional ensembles.
Simply put, it is going to be worth your while to take music seriously. Admit that there will be great weeks and bad weeks, but as long as the overall motion towards success is consistent, you’re doing well. Understand that analyzing your own playing and comparing it to the ideal saxophone sound are key elements in your ‘quest for success.’
There is much philosophy to the often tiresome and difficult ritual of practicing, but it must be done to progress in any idiom. A few rules to live by:
1) “Are you practicing as hard as your competitors?”
Don Jaramillo
2) “The only shortcuts in life come from doing something right the first time.”
Dr. Bruce Eskovitz
3) “Make music become an art, not a system.”
Sean O’Kelley
Each of the following rules are thus explained. Rule number one explains the sincerity of the competitive spirit between you and your fellow players, if you aren’t working harder than they are, they have an advantage over you, and will probably get more gigs than you and perhaps make more money than you. But rather than spying on your competitors, spend that time evaluating yourself and practicing. Rule number two refers to the common routine in practicing of trying to cut corners and make shortcuts. Well, in the long-run, that is not the least bit productive or efficient. Simply because learning something the right way first means taking special care and giving attention to what it is to be learned. Eventually you will be tried for your knowledge, and if you don’t know something as well as someone else, this puts YOU at a disadvantage. Lastly, music is art, if you are not being creative with it or trying to make a statement with it, you are merely being technical and lifeless. Bring something of your own to each and every practice session.
Learn to question yourself all of the time: Is this what it’s supposed to sound like? Am I in tune? Am I in the right tone color? Am I in time (good pulse?)? Is this the easiest I can play this? What do I need to do to play this better than before?
Practicing versus Performing
When you practice, you are working on things that you otherwise don’t know... so don’t play the things you do! So what if it sounds bad, that’s the point! You play the things that sound bad and work on them in order to make them sound good. When everything starts to sound good, you are ready for rehearsal. At rehearsal, before the director (or your boss) comes up to the stand, you should go through your proper warmups and then maybe hit the spots that you want to be sure will be flawless (a.k.a. the harder parts). However, once the director is on the podium, you are performing and you must know how to play everything correctly. After a successful rehearsal or so, with regimented practicing, you are ready to perform. When you perform, you are playing the things you know very well, don’t try to play things you don’t know (that was what practicing was for). Countless people (myself included) have mistaken practicing for performing on numerous occasions. Avoid it at all costs.
Approaching the dreaded ‘Warmup’
You’ve just gotten your horn out of the case, it’s all put together, you put it to your mouth... what’s the first thing you do? Of course, you play the hardest lick you know. However, once you’ve gotten your jollies from that, now what? The best things to do sound the simplest and impress your friends the LEAST, deal with it.
1) Get air in the horn by playing some major and minor scales. A neat trick is to pick a random Key (A), play all the scales, modes, arpeggios, patterns and sequences that you can in major and all three minors (harmonic, melodic, natural). Then follow that up with the same exact thing in the key above it (A#) and the key below it (Ab). When you’ve finished, you will have trained your fingers in such a way that they feel as though you were playing all 12 major scales. Randomize the keys though, don’t keep playing in any particular key (strive for the one’s you don’t know so well).
2) Play long tones. Starting on the lowest note, play until you run out of breath, getting louder and softer as you go. Then do the same thing on the next note up. Repeat until you are at the highest note you know of. Play in front of a tuner and really strive to keep each tone in tune throughout the crescendo and decrescendo. Play from Bb to C (Altissimo) sax players since you will use these notes for the majority of your playing.
3) Play over tones. Finger low Bb and make the saxophone play an octave higher, a fifth higher than that, a fourth higher than that, a major third higher, a minor third higher, and a perfect second higher. Do the same on B natural, C, C#, and if you can, D. Then, match the overtones to their corresponding pitches and tones. That full-bodied sound you eventually hear is the true sound of your instrument, if you match that, you will have great tone and your tuning will become more consistent as you learn to alter pitch with your tongue and throat, not your lips and teeth.
4) Sight-read something. Find a jazz etude book or the Charlie Parker Omnibook, open up to a page, take a deep breath, set the metronome to about 2/3 the actual tempo, and play through it, making mental notes of places you falter. Keep going! When you’re finished, assess the problems (if any), and read it again. If successful, read it again at tempo, if not read it at the reduced tempo.
Practicing Material
Focusing on the Jazz idiom, there are several ‘sure-shot’ methods to practicing effectively when you’re finished with warmups and scales:
1) Song Transcription: Take a favorite song (preferably the type of music you like to play or want to learn), listen to it over and over again, be able to sing it (with or without lyrics), transcribe the solo and make it so that you sound just like the person on the recording.
2) Internalization: Even I have difficulty with this, but play the song to the point where you know the changes in and out, you can solo on quarter notes or longer and can hear the rhythmic harmonies in perfect pulse (a capella). The point is to gain the deepest understanding of a song. Having this understanding, it becomes difficult to solo poorly.
3) ii-V7-I Transcriptions: Take the transcribed solo and locate the ii-V7-I’s, learn to play and understand them in all 12 keys. Incorporate them in your solos.
The more charts you know, the more versatile you are as a player. As far as learning to phrase your solos, study the Lennie Niehaus Jazz Etudes and pay attention to the articulations while maintaining a good sense of ‘swing.’ As a Jazz Saxophone player, it is necessary for you to listen to music constantly. Go out and buy CDs of artists you want to sound like. Listen and analyze the music; little licks you liked, the tone, artistic style. Be sure to pick the songs apart. Adopt everything you like and incorporate it in your playing.
From the Classical Viewpoint
Familiarize yourself with the Ferling 48 Etudes, buy Marcel Mule books and practice them slowly, working your way up to tempo. Become anal about everything you do with music. Pay strict attention to dynamics, articulation, texture, tone, how the parts blend with other parts (if any), phrasing and especially intonation. Play every note on your saxophone against a tuner and write your own fingering chart according to the most in-tune notes. THEN, practice your scales and arpeggios with the new fingerings. In college, you’ll be expected to prepare ‘Jury’ pieces, which are essentially recital pieces you play in front of faculty members (like a final exam for musicians). You will be expected to know these pieces in your own personal repertoire, should you ever apply to any professional ensembles.
Simply put, it is going to be worth your while to take music seriously. Admit that there will be great weeks and bad weeks, but as long as the overall motion towards success is consistent, you’re doing well. Understand that analyzing your own playing and comparing it to the ideal saxophone sound are key elements in your ‘quest for success.’
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