Do you get enough practicing done every day? Unless you’re blessed with unlimited time and none of those “real life” interruptions (those pesky things like jobs, family, and friends…), you probably don’t. But short of dragging your instrument with you everywhere you go, what can you do? Try Mental Practicing. I’m not talking about mental preparation, like a football player would do before a game to psych himself up, but mentally practicing other musical skills without your instrument. Here are some ways to productively pass the time while stuck in traffic, waiting at a long red light, or sitting through your daughter’s 3rd grade dance recital (except her part, of course).
Memorization – are you or your band learning a new song? Are you still reading it from a chart or scribbles on a sheet of paper? Try running through the whole song in your head from beginning to end, while visualizing it on your instrument.
Transposing – think of a song with a chord progression that you have memorized. Now move it to a different key. If you know your music theory, think of moving the chords using intervals. If you don’t, figure out how many frets you need to move your chords to be in the new key – then figure out each chord and name it out loud. Music theory – If you’re studying music theory at all, there are several mental exercises you can do:
Rhythm play – This exercise is a fun way to work on hearing and feeling different rhythms. They challenge you both physically and mentally. (Warning: if you're in a carpool, this may drive the other people crazy.)
When you’re comfortable with one hand, try it with the other hand and switch back and forth.
Once you get it going and can feel the flow of the parts, try these variations.
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A lot of musicians don’t like metronomes, and I can understand why. Who would want to spend time with something that is never wrong, and constantly points out your mistakes? But I always encourage my friends and students to resist throwing it against the wall, and realize that IT’S JUST A TOOL, and you only need to figure out how to use it correctly. If you pound in nails crooked every time, it’s probably not the hammer’s fault, right? Rhythm is one of the three main elements in music (the other being harmony and melody), and it’s what makes us nod our heads, tap our feet, and want to get up and dance. Some people think it’s the consistent pulse of music that appeals to us on a very basic level, reminding us of our own heartbeat. On top of that pulse, there are all the sub-divided rhythms dancing around that make a piece of music unique – the bass line, the rhythm guitar, the melody, etc. And all those parts line up mathematically with the pulse. Fortunately, it’s not complicated math, but it’s logical and precise just the same. As a tool, metronomes can help train us to get those sub-divisions accurate. “Ah, but what the human element? Metronomes will make me sound like a robot and stifle my creativity”, you may say. Playing music like a robot is a legitimate concern, and being able to play “in between” the beats with expression is a worthy artistic goal, but I would argue this: If you can play solidly and consistently in time, then you can break the rules and play in and around the pulse without losing it. If you CAN’T play solidly and consistently in time, then you’re not in control of the rhythm, and you’re not servicing the music. You’re not necessarily being creative - you’re just not playing in time. Reasons for using a metronome:
How to Use a Metronome as a Tool, Not a Dictator It seems simple, right? A metronome clicks, and you play on the clicks. Then, for some reason, it speeds up or slows down, and it just won’t stay with you. The next thing you know, there’s a dent in your wall and it’s in pieces all over your floor. In addition to breaking your metronome, you broke the first rule of the metronome: The Metronome Is Never Wrong. The Basic Technique If you only learn one trick from this article, this one will be the most helpful. Let’s start with practicing a song that you already know. You can either play the bass line, strum the chords, or play the melody – just pick something you’re familiar with.
Advanced Technique If you just use the basic technique above during your regular practice, that alone will have a tremendous impact on your playing. But if you really want to get a command of rhythm and timing, try incorporating the following techniques. They can be challenging, but the musical rewards are awesome. Sub-Dividing Rhythms These exercises are more mechanical than musical, but don’t let that keep you from using them to create your own musical ideas. To start, pick out one of these to work with:
Once you have selected what you're going to practice:
Flying Without A Net Once you feel comfortable switching back and forth between the variations above, you can make things a little riskier by having the metronome click on just the first beat, and not on beats 2, 3, or 4. This way, you’ll have to feel beats 2, 3, and 4 in your head, and hopefully you’ll be lined up with beat 1 when it comes around again. Unfortunately, most metronomes only go down to 40, or maybe 30 bpm, so if you’ve been practicing the previous exercises at 60 bpm, your tempo is going to be faster. (15 bpm would be the equivalent tempo to 60 bpm for this exercise). But you can still use this practice technique for the one per beat and two per beat patterns, and possibly the three per beat.
The Backbeat This last exercise helps develop a feel for the backbeat, or beats 2 and 4. The backbeat is the foundation of rock (listen to the snare drum) and jazz (listen to the hi-hat cymbals), and it creates the movement and groove that gets lost when you emphasize beats 1 and 3. Practicing against a metronome that clicks on the backbeats can be tricky, but it’s also a lot of fun. To practice on the backbeat:
Hopefully you’ll find these exercises helpful and fun. And remember, a metronome is just a tool. By itself, it won’t make your playing robotic, but used correctly it can make your playing crisp and in the pocket, while giving you the freedom to be creative.
I have a friend who never does her dishes. Not all at once, at least. She gets up and washes seven dishes, then gets ready for work, and washes seven more. After dinner, it’s seven more, and before bed… well, maybe six. As a result, she always has clean dishes, and never has to face a pile of dirty dishes. Many of us, though (we know who we are), tend to let our dishes back up and then do them all at once. So once in a while, our kitchen is nice and clean, and the rest of the time, it’s a mess. Our music practicing habits can fall into the same pattern. Some of us practice every day, and some of us wait until the day before our lesson and try to cram three hours of practicing into one night. If you’re part of the first group, congratulations! But what about the other 90% of us? Why do we wait and put it off, even though we may love playing our instrument and truly want to get better? Do you find yourself saying things like:
Maybe it’s cleaning out the garage, or doing your laundry, or writing a letter instead. Procrastination takes many forms, and I don’t claim to have a cure for all your procrastination woes, but if you’re having trouble getting around to practicing, try this: Do Seven Things, and then stop.
Some other tips that might help:
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