How to Practice

I can only play and write with the tools and the personality and the sensibilities that are mine. No sense in trying to be anyone else or create anyone else’s music.

pic from tour :D 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I feel like this whole tour really helped me reevaluate my feelings on practicing. I've been learning from the other band members: practicing isn't a crapshoot. It's not something you can rush, because you're literally training  your body. So like an athlete, you have to go slow, and you have to be nice to yourself when you don't pick up something right away - you have to do as much as you're comfortable with, and then gradually add the rest.

I've also been doing a lot of practicing on bass :)  I really, really like Victor Wooten's groove in this song (it's a youtube link, check it out!)  - I've never been that great at Afro-centric grooves, so it's been a lot of fun exploring it.

Another thing I've learned: methodically breaking a skill into minute things to learn and perfect, one at a time, isn't really the best way to learn because you over think it; the skills never get relegated to your subconscious.

MCing, calling songs, making sure everybody was on the same page, going back and forth between the wedding coordinator and the couple and the band, picking songs, picking tempos, calling solos...

It was exhausting. I'm not a detail-oriented person, nor am I very organized, and having to keep track of everything going everywhere was almost more than I could stand. A lot of times I was more focused on the flow of the event than the music, which wasn't good at all for my playing (although it would have helped if I'd learned the songs better before the actual gig -_- We played Minor Swing, and you know how it goes 1-4-5-1? I was so distracted I accidentally played 1-2-5-1 over and over again. Whoops...)

But, oh, man! I'm not a bad leader, I don't think. A couple of the players were all like "wow, you're a great bandleader!" and idk if I would go that far, but I'm good at interacting with a crowd, and I'm good at (well, at least I'm working on) being completely translucent when giving orders so that I'm taking advice from the other band members into consideration rather than just giving isolated commands from on high.

Plus I really needed that paycheck, haha.

I'mma be on tour for most of Summer. So it might be tough to pull off.

that's what my cello teacher says about her own playing!

LIke, for musicians who are classically trained, the ability to improvise is a sign that you're extremely advanced, right? For others it's just the way you've practiced. 

Or, the ability to think about music chordally..

Or the ability to pick up on specific types of rhythms and grooves...

Or the ability to arrange, even; if you train your mind to understand form and structure and build, arranging becomes so much easier (and less of a "holy shit only people that are specifically talented at that shit can do it" thing.)

It all depends on perspective; the attitude with which you approach music.

The amount of energy you put into your playing and the amount of caring you hold for the music; the amount of passion you have for the music, are proportionate, right?

But what if they're one and the same thing?

Shhhh I know it sounds like a highdea but I promise I'm sober. Honestly, the idea came to me on Tuesday when I was playing a gig and I realized that my time was much more locked-in when I thought about the music as something I cared so, so deeply about that I was 100% plugged in; it gave my music a thousand times more energy. Everything felt much sharper. 

So basically, if you care genuinely about the music you are playing, that 'care' comes out in the form of energy.

BAM

the realization that where I want to go is hours and hours and hours and years of practice away

and it's always kind of hard to pick myself back up and say, okay

"it's possible to do this. I can do this. it's just gonna take work."

Practice to become free on your instrument, not so that you can become "good".