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The
Principles of Practice
Based on "The Principles of Correct
Practice for Guitar"
by Jamie Andreas
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| IN
THIS ISSUE |
December
9, 2001 Volume 67
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Tips on Memorizing
I have been preparing for a concert these past few weeks, and one
of the pieces is a four page work by Slyvius Weiss, his "Passacaglia"
in D major. I have never played the piece until about a month ago,
so I find myself in the unusual situation (for me) of having to
deliberately memorize something for performance. (Usually, I allow
memorization to occur "naturally", simply by playing and
practicing the piece).
As I am going about this process, I am of course following all of
my own advice in my essay "On Memorizing". I wanted to
talk a bit about one of the aspects of memorizing mentioned there,
one which I find I must utilize to a great degree in my efforts
to successfully memorize this piece, and that is eye or "head"
memory, which is the memory of the actual notes on the page, and
the mental cognition of the music, to the point that I could verbally
name all the notes if required.
This piece has a peculiarity which makes it very difficult to memorize,
and this peculiarity is one that all players should know about and
understand, because often, a breakdown in memory will be caused
by it. And that peculiarity is this: a passage that occurs frequently
in the music with slight variations. Because of the way the mind
organizes information, it is extremely easy to substitute one of
these variations for another while playing, especially under the
pressure of performing.
This can lead to some drastic results. For instance, if I am on
page one of the music, and instead of the notes on that page, I
play the similar but slightly different ones from page four, then
my muscle memory will continue on from that point, straight to the
end of the piece. I will have left out most of the piece I spent
all that time practicing!
So, the only defense against this is an extremely strong grasp of
the music in all its details. I must consciously KNOW the difference
between each re-appearance of this passage which is almost but not
quite the same. I must be able to say "in section 5 of the
music, there are 4 16th notes in the top voice, whereas in section
6, there is a 16th note rest followed by three 16th notes for the
almost similar passage".
Now, I remember the first time I heard a music professor talking
about that kind of awareness while playing and I thought "man,
that seems like an awful lot of work! Is that really necessary,
or even possible?" The answer to both questions is YES!
For the full story on memorizing music, read my essay "On
Memorization".
The Necessity for Feedback and Knowledge of Results
A while ago, I spent a year studying a 600 page textbook called
"Motor Control and Learning"by Richard A. Schmidt, a PH.D
in the field of Kinesiology. The book is full of scientific, laboratory
studies of how humans (and animals) develop motor skills, which
means basically how we learn to do different things with our bodies,
from walking to sports performance to learning to play the guitar.
What I learned has been of great value to me, and I filled a notebook
with summaries of the important concepts.
One concept above all was emphasized throughout the book as being
THE most important factor that must be present if actual learning;
actual improvement through training is to take place. That one most
important factor is called "Feedback", or "Knowledge
of Results". As with most profound ideas, this one seems simple,
and for that reason will not be properly understood or appreciated
by many people (most people are looking for that big complicated
secret of becoming a great player!).
Knowledge of Results simply means that the person undergoing training,
whether it is shooting a basket, hitting a target, or playing a
scale on the guitar, that person must become aware, of everything
that actually DID happen as a result of the effort they made to
achieve a particular goal. They must also become aware of all the
details of how their effort deviated from the goal. If they missed
the basket, how much did they miss it by, exactly where did the
ball go instead? If they do not receive this information, they simply
are not going to improve.
The reason is simple. The human nervous system is a "cybernetic"
system. That is, it functions by these steps:
1) Defining a goal;
2) Making an attempt to achieve the goal;
3) Evaluating its attempt;
4) Making a new attempt, in which adjustments will be made based
on the information received and evaluated in step 3.
Now, if you really understand this, you will understand why so many
people make no progress in their practice on guitar. One, they do
not have the goal clearly defined (see "The Need For Crystal
Clear Conception of the Music"). Two, they are not really listening
to what they have done in the attempt they made, and so, three,
the new attempt is merely a repetition of the last failed attempt
(plus increased muscle tension and mental frustration), rather than
a new, improved effort of the brain and body, based on a clear evaluation
of the results achieved.
This is all a very scientific way of saying what I said in "The
Principles of Correct Practice For Guitar", when I defined
Correct Practice as:
"Practice means knowing the right thing to do, and making
sure you do it."
The person who practices and gets no improvement does NOT know the
right thing to do, and is usually not paying enough attention to
know if they did it anyway. And this is especially true when we
have a problem in playing, something we try over and over to do,
and keep messing up. All we know is we messed it up, we don't know
the details. We don't know exactly WHAT note was missing or damaged,
or rushed by a fraction of a second (throwing everything else off".
We don't know exactly what note was hit so lightly with the pick
or finger that it was hardly heard (revealing hidden, minute tension
in some muscle).
If we did know these things, we could then trace back the "wrong
result" to it's hidden causes (all principled players define
a mistake as simply "an unwanted result"). But this usually
doesn't happen. Usually, the person making a mistake will define
it as "wow, that's hard", or "gee, I don't think
I really have the talent to do that", or even worse "
I don't think I could ever even be CAPABLE of doing that".
Getting Knowledge of Results
Our greatest and most primary tool in getting knowledge of results
is something everyone has, in fact, we have two: our ears! I have
expanded a bit upon this concept in my writings, and have said that
we must develop "Microscopic Awareness". This means a
greater than average awareness of not only what we are hearing,
but what our physical body is really doing, and how we are really
feeling when our body does what it does.
Anyone who is practicing with no improvement does NOT have this
awareness developed sufficiently. There are all kinds of things
happening that they do not know about. There are all kinds of things
wrong with the sound they are making, or not making (as in missed
notes) that they are not aware of, and so will never understand
how they are creating those results, and will never be able to improve
them.
We can go a long way to developing our Microscopic Awareness by
simply learning how to really focus, really concentrate when we
practice and play. But, there are some aids, some mechanical aids,
that have been developed that can dramatically accelerate that development,
when used properly and consistently.
The first mechanical aid that should be used for practicing is a
metronome, and using one properly for motor learning is mandatory
for all my students. The second mechanical aid should be something
that truly acts as a "microscope" to our playing, and
develops within us that ability to "hear", really hear,
what we are doing, AND what other great players are doing.
To do this, either use a micro-cassette recorder with 2 recording
speeds and record at the fast speed and listen back at the slow
speed, or, use a software program designed for this purpose.
This way, it is possible to get this Feedback/Knowledge of Results
delivered to your ear and your brain with absolute clarity, enabling
you to do what you should be doing when you practice: carefully
refining each new attempt to bring you closer to the goal: the right
notes at the right time!
You will be amazed at how sloppy your playing really is once you
really start listening! Yes, there will be many who will hang their
heads and cry, maybe even get close to fatal frustration. Well,
hopefully you will get over that, and realize that this is the true
path to excellence and "perfection", and certainly professionalism.
In fact, the willingness to go through this sometimes annoying process
of constant refinement of our playing is what makes us professionals
the professionals we are, and keeps the slackers out! Remember, it's easy to be mediocre, that's why there are so many
mediocre players! It is much more difficult to be excellent, that
is why excellent players are in the minority. I hope you will begin
the journey to your excellence. Using the practice approaches outlined
above, and understanding why they work, can be a major help in moving
you in that direction.
Spanish Romance Help
I have summarized all the help materials I have created for those
working with the "Practice Secrets For Spanish Romance".
They can be found here.
Between the Practice Secrets and the support materials on the site,
I think this is one of the most unique and powerful resources available
for those who really want to experience Vertical Growth in their
playing ability, and master a beautiful guitar solo in the process.
Especially with the week by week practice log of John Parsons, followed
by my comments and corrections, there is a wealth of practice and
playing wisdom waiting here for those willing to give it their time
and attention.
As you will see in the latest mp3 John sent in, he is beginning
to make music now, and has brought the tempo of the first half up.
His reports are a model to everyone of what careful, thoughtful,
and organized practice is all about. Anyone who does not feel they
are making progress in their practice should check out this material,
and find out why!
All
material copyright © 2003 by Jamie Andreas, GuitarPrinciples.com |
