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When asked a question like "how can I improve my game?" It is my experience that most music teachers and musicians respond to the "practice" or "practice makes perfect." And I agree in substance. There is no substitute for practice, particularly the practice where the musician is entirely focused on the task at hand, focusing on different aspects of music they are learning and listening Even scholars of their play music with strange powers, such as music and photographic memory apparently true perfect pitch must complete years of intensive practice before being ready for performance (1). One of the greatest pianists and composers, Rachmaninoff could transcribe compositions by Harold Schonberg together after one hearing. (2) Even if, when Rachmaninoff decided to make a living as a concert pianist, he did not dare go on stage until after two years of extra practice. Some musicians can boast that they do not practice much, but generally you will discover that they are lying or that the youth they sat all night while others were practicing on mucking around or sleeping. But what about the many cases of musicians who have the drive to a long and hard practice, but never up? I even had musicians tell me they can "get worse" after practicing. Most musicians have to be familiar with hitting "walls" where they find they simply do not improve even more effort. This is a likely reason that many musical instruments stop altogether, become frustrated, overwhelmed and believe that music is simply not for them. It is my belief that it is sometimes unwilling or mental effort is to blame, but the method of practice. Over the years I have sometimes heard an objection to the "practice makes perfect" shot. Some people like to say, "perfect practice makes perfect." Implicit in this statement is the idea that how you practice is important. Of course there are natural variations in the capacities of every human being and mental health, but in my experience anyone can play a musical instrument with a little perseverance to the extent that they go the right way. Interestingly, the researchers found significant differences between amateur and professional practices so (3) |. | The human body, have not evolved to play musical instruments. After all, most of the instruments are relatively new inventions in their present form and continue to evolve themselves. Contrary to the language and other mental functions, there is no "music center" in the brain. Many brain regions are needed to listen and play music. Playing a musical instrument is a complex task. A level of physical force is necessary, fine muscle coordination and muscle control are essential and training courses and extensive mental conditioning is needed. It is not good to be able to produce the best sound in the world if you have no rhythm. It is unnecessary to have a well developed musical appreciation and emotional sensitivity if you do not have the technical capability and vice versa. A good musician must master many skills and, therefore, know how to practice "perfectly" is a very complex and difficult. Like most musicians, throughout my childhood and adolescence, I just instinctively practice. The problem here is that sometimes you get lost instincts. In my experience, most teachers do not give extensive thought to the smallest details of how to practice. Most teachers simply tell students what to practice. However, as an adult is almost always pressed for time, I need to know that I am every time I sit behind the improvement of the piano or getting to the battery. As mentioned previously, this is a very large and complex, but let me share a few things I learned from my travels in the world of music. For clarity, I divided this topic into three main sections: the musicality, technical ability and performance. Musicality musicality I deliberately listed first because the aim of developing technical prowess to the instrument of your choice, you need to know what sound you are trying to achieve. When it comes to the musicality of the most important thing is to develop your listening skills. This may seem obvious, but it takes time and effort to be a good listener. A large amount of listening to music in our modern world is done without conscious thought at all, but as a child all the skills of listening to the music must be learned. Never heard a choir of students from kindergarten? They inevitably sing out of tune. Because their brains are still young to learn categorizations height of our 12 note scale. What would you ask a very young child to operate along the length of a song? This is something that can be controlled at a very young age, but nevertheless, even simple rhythms found in many songs using 4 / 4 meters must be learned. Notice how it can be difficult to keep typing perfectly in time when the music stops. For most, the sensitivity and awareness of harmony is the most difficult to learn, but deeply rewarding in terms of emotional reaction of the listener. So to develop your musicality, all you have to do is listen! But listening requires effort. Ideally, just listen to music without other distractions. Try listening to music in styles that you are not familiar with, and note the differences with other styles of music. For example, different types of dance music highlight a strong pulse or beat, certain types of dance music to reach a dance feel while placing several rhythms at once eg / Latin percussion. Classical music often focuses on developing thematic and harmonic jazz solo contains complex lines and the variation of pop music emphasizes catchy melodies. When listening to any type of music involving more than one instrument, focus on different parts of the music. For example, when listening to jazz or rock can you sing the bass line? Can you hear what the drummer plays the cymbals? Pointing lines different instrument in a piece of music will also help develop your sensitivity to the harmony of both homophonic and polyphonic. A 4-part fugue by Bach is a fairly complex piece of music through four distinct but related lines or "voices". It is not the type of room you hear on most radio programs. Why not challenge you with something like a Bach prelude and fugue or two? Or maybe a piece of Debussy and Bartok with the development and experimental harmonic complex. For advanced listeners, note the shape and structure of the piece of music. See if you can identify the phrasing of the melodies or patterns. Identify and repeat variations will help you understand and memorize the piece. By focusing on the larger structure of a song, you can make a simple song "map". Knowing the larger structure of a song can take you develop an appetite for listening to compositions with different shapes and structure. If you are a musician, knowing the structure of a larger piece will also help you know where and how to focus on the different sections. Note the contours of the music, for example, where are the climaxes in the song? Where are the pieces the strongest and sweetest of the song? Good listener is to anticipate what will follow. Your brain will do it automatically to some extent, but you can help. For example, trying to understand how rhythmic patterns repeat so you can predict them. How many repetitions are they? He takes the time to listen and experience to develop a portfolio of mental musical conventions that you can anticipate the music to come. And often, the way a piece adheres or vary your expectations will trigger emotional reactions from you the listener. A piece of music can put you up for a perfect cadence, for example, or to return to a melody already said. It is often when these "rules" or expectations are not followed by a piece of music becomes interesting and fun to listen. Try to identify words that is exactly what you like about your favorite music. The music is so powerful an art form because it can reach inside you and somehow illicit intense emotions and pleasure in the listener. The music goes well beyond just being "happy" or "sad." Subtle and beautiful emotional nuances may occur when listening to music you love. For example, I like music with a sad melancholy tone, which is reflective, poignant and beautiful, but I hate music pessimistic or sad. Yet both could be considered sad. I love music powerful, energetic and dramatic, but I do not reckless, raw anger. You fully absorb the music you love. At this stage it is useful to analyze and try to identify specific aspects of the music combine to give you that powerful emotional response. The timbre of instruments and rhythms used are important, but special attention should be applied to the harmony of the room. Is there chord progressions that really do it for you? Finally, when playing music, good listening habits are not easy to learn, especially for young children and fans in the early stages of learning a piece. Your brain focuses on many activities such as controlling your muscles, starting time, make sure you're hitting the right notes, relax and anticipate what is coming. Besides all that, you need to get out of yourself and listen to the sound you produce. So whenever possible, your attention is momentarily pretend you're a passive observer in the room and listen. Personally, I find it extremely useful to play the piano and drums with eyes closed from time to time. Do I play it exactly how it should be played? Develop your musicality is to be a perfectionist, always developing a fine attention to detail. Technical capacity: music teachers and sports coaches like to tell their students to relax. This is rule number one base for technical development in any enterprise that requires fine muscle control. Often, teachers simply shout "relax" to their students while the student becomes increasingly tense. Obviously you can not completely relax your body, or you'll quickly find yourself lying on the ground, limp and listless. Relaxation is the art of relaxing every muscle in your body that are not necessary to perform the music. In addition, muscles that are required should contract to the extent necessary and no more. The phrase "economy of movement" comes to mind. Relaxation is annoyingly difficult to master and it's something I'm working constantly every time I practice. Relaxation is the coordination of muscles. For example, / Your shoulders hunched? Is this your midsection or upper leg straight? While playing, you must observe the condition of your entire body. When you decide to play a note or hit a drum head, you have no conscious control over exactly the muscles in your body will contract to perform the movement. If you can not have full conscious control, in practice you've trained your muscles to move the way you want them to move through repetition. Concentrate on how it feels to play a particular passage. Experiment with different movements and motions to keep the small but not rigid. Practice slowly and calmly can really help you to relax. Try to feel the weight of gravity holding your hands down on the piano keys or your feet on the pedals drum. Often, when relaxed, you will feel to play from your arms or legs even if your ends are where all the action is. Try to learn what it's like to play relaxed. One of the biggest differences between hobbyists and professional practice is that professionals focus on the difficult parts of a song and cut into small pieces so that waste time trying amateurs to play a piece from start at the end. Small sections are a great way to do many rehearsals where it matters. In addition, you can often simplify the difficult passages. For example, / play hands separately at the piano is particularly essential when learning a piece. Or for drummers, try to get the right hand momentarily, or left hand or left foot etc. When practicing small sections, do not be afraid to play fast. Slow practice is ideal for relaxing and a fine attention to detail, but the game will slow muscles use the most likely different in different combinations for fast play. Ideally, small sections of a simplified piece should be played faster than the final tempo you are targeting. (4) In addition, varying the points of departure and arrival of these small segments. A smart musician knows that it is often the notes around a particularly troublesome causing problems. For example, / Have you a jump two octaves before having to play this long trill? Then, the practice of jumping and trill. Do you rotate from one side of the battery to the other before running the coordination model 4-way? Performance: If you play an instrument, sooner or later, chances are you can play in public. And occur in public is the true test of your ability as a musician. The scene presents many challenges such as a strange room, or even a familiar instrument, often no chance to warm up and nerves of course. Performance can be very stressful, but can also be an extremely rewarding and fun. The better you know your repertoire, the more chance you and the audience enjoy the show. To succeed, the save is always desirable. To help try to locate the memory and logic models in music. Work on the structure of the song. Agreements and identify harmonic elements can help. Memorize some sections both by repetition and try to remember the notes visually in your mind. To become performance ready, there are a lot of mental work, you can away from your instrument. Running across the room in your mind and try to imagine each note. It's actually very difficult to do, but it confirms that you really know a song. The renowned pianist Glenn Gould would go through songs in his mind, singing and fingering music on a piano fantasy. (5) Before the invention of radio and the gramophone, score analysis was much more common among musicians. It was much more common to analyze a score and sing the musical parts help learning a piece before they even play a note. It certainly helps you record preferably on video as part of your practice. The registration process is a good test in itself because the pressure is when you press the record button. And watch or listen to play yourself can help you pick the parts you want to change or errors that you make. Before proceeding to focus on the task at hand and take a few deep breaths. Run through the first song you play in your mind. Realize that you're probably a little anxious and nervous. Your heart is probably beating a little faster than normal and the adrenal glands may even turn on. Take your time and make a conscious effort to relax. Once you started, remember to keep focusing on the task at hand and you absorb the music. Do not spend your awareness to what is happening around you and do not plan how you play. If you find yourself drifting back focus on the music you play. There is a lot for your mind to worry about content in the tasks of running your music and so simply focus on the best music you can and you'll be fine. It may take some time before you start to feel comfortable but generally most people once they are away and goes, everything goes well and can be great fun. Try to keep just before the music in your mind, focusing on what is to come and listen to your sound. Try to relax before the difficult passages. Be too apprehensive of a hard part is not useful. Trust yourself in these situations, relax and let your subconscious take over. It is too late to improve now, you might as well have fun. If you make a mistake, never stop. The largest structure and mood of the music probably will not be affected. And maybe you can find some comfort in knowing that even famous concert pianists such as David Horowitz has been the odd mistake. I hope some of these tips were useful. S Tim Robinson http://www.timrobinsonmusic.com.au 1. Jordan, Robert, Music and the Brain Ecstasy p. 1997 200 2. Schonberg, Harold C. The Lives of Great Composers. 1981 p. 537 3. Michael JA Howe The origins of exceptional abilities, 1990, p. 92 4. Fundamentals Chang, Chuan C. 2007 1.II.6 practice piano 5. Documentary, In Genius: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould 2009