David Kish - Practicing with Purpose: An Indispensable Resource to Increase Musical Proficiency

Published by

Meredith Music Publications

a division of G.W. Music, Inc.

1584 Estuary Trail, Delray Beach, Florida 33483

http://www.meredithmusic.com

MEREDITH MUSIC PUBLICATIONS and its stylized double M logo are trademarks of MEREDITH MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, a division of G.W. Music, Inc.

Reproducing or transmitting in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher is forbidden.

While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission, this has not been possible in all cases; any omissions brought to our attention will be remedied in future editions.

Copyright 2017 MEREDITH MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

First Edition

October 2017

Text and cover design: Shawn Girsberger

eBook ISBN: 978-1-57463-463-1

Print ISBN: 978-1-57463-462-4

To my mentor, John R. Locke
with immense gratitude and appreciation

Contents

This book is divided into three sectionsthe first section is filled with philosophical tips designed to help you think about practicing and the journey toward personal music fulfillment. The second section includes practical strategies for improving your practice sessions. The final section puts it all together with useful tools to help organize each practice session.

Quick Reference List of Practice Methods

Learning new musical material

Refining musical material

Memorizing musical material

Beginners

Introduction

The way to win is to work, work, work, work and hope to have a few insights.

Charlie Munger

Thousands and thousands of hours in a musicians life are devoted to individual practice. In the practice room, music skills are learned, refined, and retained so we can perform to the best of our ability. While nonmusicians never see this private aspect of musicianship, musicians are well aware of the significance of practice in their profession.

Take a moment and think about all of the people in your life. How many people do you know that actually go all in on a single skill or goal? Can you name any? In my experience, very few people exhibit the tenacity, persistence, and perseverance to practice one thing for an extended period of timefor thousands and thousands of hours. Many people dip their toes in the water with the latest diet craze, workout routine, college major or career path. Then, after a few months, they jump to the next new thing and never reach true mastery of anything.

Warren Buffett runs the multi-billion-dollar investment company, Berkshire Hathaway. He is sought after for investment advice and occasionally shares nuggets of wisdom developed over his lifetime. Buffett often discusses his 20-slot rule for investing. He says, I can improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punchesrepresenting all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once youd punched through the card, you couldnt make any more investments at all. He says, Under those rules, youd really think carefully about what you did and youd do so much better.

The point Buffett is trying to make applies to practicing music too your odds of success improve significantly when you focus your attention on fewer tasks . If you want to master the skills and techniques of music, then you must direct all of your energy and attention toward music-making and practice. Award-winning author, Malcolm Gladwell argues that it takes about 10,000 hours of purposeful practice to master something (roughly 10 years of focused effort). That is a serious commitment of time and energy, and as I consider the various pursuits in my life, I can confirm that this rule is an excellent guideline. With 10,000 hours awaiting your investment, you must cut away less important distractions and make your music investment one of the 20 slots that you get during your lifetime. We have a short amount of time on this planet. Are you ready to truly master something? Are you ready to start Practicing with Purpose ?

Section Philosophies

Philosophy #1

Practicing with Purpose

Developing talent is like taking a cross-country hike. You will encounter challenges; you will hit snags, plateaus, and steep paths; motivation will ebb and flow. To sustain progress, its necessary to be flexible one moment and stubborn the next, to deal with immediate obstacles while staying focused on the horizon.

Daniel Coyle

For many centuries, society has believed that musicians and athletes were born with certain innate abilitiesan it factor (whatever it is)while others lack the same talent. This historical tradition can be traced to the Renaissance when artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci claimed that God-given gifts made them predestined for artistic endeavors. If we take this view, then individual practice will have minimal effect on music training. Over the last several decades however, researchers have discovered that extended practice in performance activities is absolutely necessary to attain an expert level. You dont have to be born with certain genetics to reach higher levels of performance. In fact, longitudinal studies have shown that performance increases gradually over time (not in sudden jumps) with even the most talented individuals achieving high-level performances after about ten years of intense involvement.

When researchers dug a little deeper, they realized that it was not simply the amount of time invested in practice activities that created high performers. Instead, it was a vast amount of time working on specific skillsa particular type of practice that Ericsson et al. (1993) deemed, deliberate practice . Deliberate practice is an approach to learning guided by specific activities and well-defined goals that are monitored carefully to determine if they have been met.

In order for you to integrate deliberate practice into your musical life, you need to have the following:

1. Sufficient access to appropriate training facilities
2. Appropriate training exercises and proper sequencing of instruction
3. Sustained concentration and effort
4. Ability to maintain an inherently effortful process (experts engage in no more than four to five hours of practice per daychildren practice much less)
5. Motivation

During deliberate practice you must have:

1. A mental representation of the performance goal (how the piece should sound)
2. Ability to produce the performance goal (with control of the instrument)
3. Ability to monitor and reflect on your performance

Achieving high-level, expert status as a musician requires a deep commitment of time and energy. It is a slow process that requires an investment of time as well as expert guidance. Most of all, time spent in deliberate practice appears to produce the most efficient performance results. This book provides many techniques to help you focus on deliberate practice.

Philosophy #2

Motivation

At some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it.