Archive for January 18, 2012
Many times when we’re practicing, the way we’re using our time could be spent more efficiently. For example, when you’re playing a new groove and you’re having trouble with one small part of it each time it comes around, you can get way more out of your practice if you would focus in on only the problem spot.
You see, music is a language, and when you began to speak English (or whatever your native language might be) you started with short, simple words. You didn’t say, “Mother, if you would be so kind as to bring me that toy automobile over there, I would be forever grateful and in your debt.” You said, “Momma” and then “car” and then “Momma, car,” etc., until you could create a more complex sentence with all of the nouns, and verbs, and adjectives, and so on.
And this is what we tend to do when we’re practicing a groove. We want to get the whole thing down RIGHT NOW. I understand, but if you slow it down and break it down, you’re going to have a far better result far quicker. Which is ultimately what we want, we just don’t see the quickest way of getting there naturally on our own.