The Practice of Practice by Jonathan Harnum

Author:Jonathan Harnum [Harnum, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Sol Ut Press
Published: 2014-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

Infusing creativity into your practice doesn’t have to be as ambitious as songwriting with a four-track recorder. Let’s take playing scales as an example. The experience of many people with scales goes something like this: we learn a scale by playing it one octave from the bottom note, with an even rhythm. Maybe we’ll get out a book and look up an exercise, or a teacher gives us one, and we practice that scale exercise over and over. If we’re especially diligent or driven, we might do it in all keys, often looking at the sheet music the whole time. Ugh. No wonder people find practice unpleasant! The sooner you can escape from that boring, repetitious, “I’m-doing-what-someone-else-tells-me” mentality, the better. Abandon the sheet music as soon as you can.

Take control of the material by inventing your own patterns and your own ways of going through the notes. Why do you always start at the bottom of the scale and go up and down the scale with evenly spaced notes? Boring! Mix it up!

You’ll probably invent many of the same exercises that already exist, but so what? Some experts might say that since they already existed, you’re not being “truly” creative, but I say that’s a bunch of hooey. If it’s new to you, and you made it up, you’re exercising your creative muscles. You automatically get ownership of the pattern because you created it. So what if someone else did, too. Great! It means you’re on the right track. Creating your own exercises is more engaging, more fun, and produces better results in less time. What’s not to like? Don’t “be creative,” just try some stuff and see what you like. Entertain yourself.

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