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Practicing in and practice out
Mar 25, 2011 technique Leave a comment
Posted by
seth
If something that goes in does not work it must come out; but how? For me practicing has become something I now think about as much as I do and it has made me a better practicer. These thoughts have led me in interesting directions and recently while teaching a lesson I began thinking about how to get things into one’s hands.
As I tried to explain to a student why something was not working for him I stumbled upon the notion that what wasn’t working was something he already had in his hands and that in order to change it he had to replace it. Simply put, if something needs to go, or be practiced out as I referred to it, something else has to be practiced in. This to me then has become an extraordinarily simple way to think about practicing. In order to improve something we have to know how we are going to do it. I think of it in terms of assessment of our own playing and being proactive in the solution to any problem whether it is as large a problem as not working at all or as common as an area in need of improvement.
I think about the idea of practicing in and practicing out aspects of my playing that do not work like this:
1. Deciding what it is that needs some alteration and then deciding if there is an aspect of it that does not work, i.e. needs refinement or as a whole does not work.
2. Clearly identifying not just one way, but multiple ways in which to replace the aspect of technique or playing with exercises, both technical and musical, that lead me in the direction I need to go.
3. Not just spending one session on the problem. Once there is an identifiable goal it must be achieved over a period of time, a week, month, perhaps longer depending on the size of the issue.
4. Making sure to revisit the problem even after it has seemingly been fixed; it is very easy to slip back into old habits.
Practicing in clear focused ways ultimately leads to more productive and effective practice sessions. The great players aren’t actually great players, they are great practicers. The fewer the reps, one can use to make something work in their hands the better. It will lead us to longer playing careers, but often times fall into the trap of more is better. Better is better. We cannot become brilliant in one session of practicing but we can become brilliant at an aspect. I like to think of it in terms of a house; if there is a brick house that needs work, cracks in the brick, discoloration anything, simply removing the bad brick does not fix it. It needs to be replaced with a new and more pleasing brick. The same goes for our playing; we simply cannot remove an aspect of our playing without putting something back in, and frankly you would never remove a brick from a house without having one to replace it with. The same goes for playing guitar, you cannot take a part of your playing out with first knowing what you are going to put in and having it ready to go! Happy practicing!