A POSITIVE APPROACH TO PRACTICING

by Bobby Shew
Practicing a musical instrument has had a bad reputation, especially with
youngsters, for more years than probably any of us can recall, and notably in my
own early years as a beginning player. I don’t remember ever really enjoying the
idea of plodding through a technical exercise book such as Arban, St. Jacome,
Schlossberg or the Clarke series, to name only a few. Having taken only three or
four lessons as a kid, I was never in a situation of having a teacher push me
through all of the exercises. I did love to play, however, and spent many hours just
playing for the sake of my personal enjoyment, mostly playing along with every jazz
record I could get my hands on although occasionally picking up the Arban book if
only for brief periods. To this day, I’ve never really gotten into a consistent routine of
daily practice, although, by having come to realize a few of the problems regarding
practicing, I now manage to accomplish considerable gains in some of my weaker
areas of playing without a great deal of effort and with little time wasted.
On of the first and primary concerns with practicing is the attitude one maintains
regarding the activity, both while in the practice room and while away as well. If
practicing has a feeling of drudgery and frustration while doing it, the emotions will
affect your attitude in a negative sense and surely won’t be advantageous to the
learning process nor the enjoyment of music. Similarly, when you think of practicing
when away from the horn, the thoughts are generally nothing more than recalling
the agony, boredom, frustrations of the past practice sessions, thereby making your
attitude one of dreading the next session all the while knowing you SHOULD do it.
It’s not a very pleasant conflict to be sitting in the middle of while you’re playing and
thinking about playing. One way I’ve determined can be helpful in this area is to
start setting simple goals for each session rather than being overly concerned with
the time element. These goals must be specific, such as exercises #1-3, and also
must be realistic enough that you are fairly certain that without tremendous exertion
and energy you can accomplish that goal in a reasonable amount of time,
especially in one sitting. For instance (based on your level of current ability) decide
to PROPERLY get through the exercises #1-5 (or even less if need be) and stick to
it until you do so, all the while avoiding concern with the clock on the wall.
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Merely focus your attention on what you’re doing, pay attention, and LISTEN to how
you sound. When done to your satisfaction, accept the completion, pat yourself on
the back for having done it, put the horn down and walk away with a smile on your
face and a good feeling in your head about your relationship with your horn, with
practicing, with taking responsibility for your talents, and with music in general. If it
takes you only fifteen minutes to accomplish your goal, still take a break, enjoy the
win, maybe listen to part of a record/cd and then go back to another goal and work
further. The key here is not to try to take on too much at first, but to start at a simple
level and gradually build some good positive thoughts and attitudes rather than the
negative ones.
The size of your goals will increase as your discipline stabilizes. This, strangely
enough, applies just as strongly for someone who has been playing for many years
as it does for beginning or young players. It works at any level.
Most teachers generally tell you to practice an hour a day to that you will build
strength and learn to enforce discipline on yourself, because many beginners lack
the patience or understanding to do it on their own; but the real plan here is to learn
that having personal goals and overcoming obstacles, known or unknown, is what
produces happiness and good results. Basically, if your attitude is good, you’ll find
that you’ll learn much more quickly than when you’re feeling down-and-out or
depressed.
As you continue this system of practice, you’ll notice that, although it may go slowly
at first (which you must be willing to experience), it’ll start to “snowball” or pick up
speed and then your goals must gradually increase in size accordingly but still on a
reasonable gradient. Just don’t allow your momentary goals to get so big that you
set yourself up for a series of frustrations, thereby causing the negative attitudes to
return. This is actually something YOU CAN CONTROL.
The amount of time that you spend is only of concern if your attitude is good.
Fifteen minutes of good feelings and accomplishment are surely superior to one
hour or more of daily boredom and frustration. As the system “snowballs,” you’ll find
yourself WANTING to spend more and more time with the horn, and your progress
will astound you. Generally, you should enjoy playing. If you don’t, it’s probably
because you’re not taking responsibility for what “game” you’ve decided to play.
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Practicing can be varied in many ways to enhance your expansion of the many
areas of music. Technical ability is only a small item in relationship to the entire
scope of music. Technique is necessary only to the point of being able to execute
easily those things that you normally come in contact with and, especially in jazz
soloing, to be able to execute the ideas that pop into your head while
spontaneously improvising. Many people have spent years mastering technical
facility only to discover that they failed to learn anything about emotional
expression, styles, sound quality, and intonation in each situation. It’s sad to see the
disappointment in someone having played for years when they realize that they
worked for ten years on the wrong things. Keep a good attitude and have a ball with
the music. Don’t become one of the above.