I’m in the woodshedding stage of learning a new instrument, and that has me wondering what the folks on the board see as the most effective ways to practice.
So far, I’m doing a little bit each day, and stopping when I feel myself start to get sloppy. Sometimes I pick it up again after a bit, and sometimes that’s enough for the day.
What other ideas are there out there?
“Woodshedding stage?” As in being taken out behind the woodshed, and given a good thrashing?
When a jazz musician comes wailing out of the gate, spinning riffs and complex runs, fellow musicians will appreciatively murmur: “Cat’s been shedding!” Alternately, when a player’s ego outmatches his technique, his peers may suggest he spend more time in the woodshed. Woodshedding is the nuts-and-bolts part of jazz, the place where you work out the techniques that form the foundation of your improvisational ability.
I honestly think this is the best way to do it. Usually, after about 30 minutes, you’re still doing fairly well and so you leave it with confidence rather than total frustration which could very well lead to reluctance in picking the instrument up again. Not to mention, more than likely you aren’t going to improve noticeably during that particular sitting if you put more time into practice, anyway. My problem is that I don’t even seem to find the 30 minutes each day to just practice, which is why my playing doesn’t seem to improve over time.
Simon,
What you are doing is definately better than if you continued to play sloppy. However, you could always try just slowing down when you start to get sloppy and getting the technique down at a slower pace.
This gives you the benefit of your continued practice time and keeps you out of bad habits.
I posted the following in response to a similar question. The Eddie Lewis essays are an interesting perspective.
The best advice I’ve seen on Chiff is:
Enjoy your music. Few of us are going to be recording in a studio, and even for those that are, this will keep the flame alive for a long time. So many beginners burn out in a week, month, six months, a year, and it is mostly due to losing the fun aspect of music.
The other tip for beginners is to practice every day. Whistles are portable so there is always time to be made. A few minutes here and there every day will usually result in more improvement than a couple of hours once a week.
Trumpet player Eddie Lewis has an excellent essay about practice methods:
http://www.eddielewis.com/trumpet/essays/basicpracticeprocedure.htm
Lewis’ keeping score essay is an eye opener and counter-intuitive, but it makes a lot of sense when I think about it:
http://www.eddielewis.com/trumpet/essays/keepingscore.htm
I would wager that the vast majority of beginners practice in the way that reinforces bad habits that Mr. Lewis first describes.
Wow. I’ve often done that business of playing the last few bars of the piece and working backwards. I thought it was just the way my mind worked. Nice to see it used by a real proper musician!
ISRA I can’t remember.
My mnemonic would have to be ISIS
Isolate
Simplify
Iterate
Step forward!
But it’s still Mr Lewis’ method.
These are excellent links; thanks!
Try playing some tunes you already know really well. Once you have a tune firmly in your head, you can more easily coax it out of the whistle. Good choices are simple, familiar things like Christmas carols, TV theme songs, commercials, folk songs, etc. You may surprise yourself how well you can play those right off the bat.
That’s also good advice. I’m not actually shedding the whistle; I’ve taken up the fiddle and I’m coming to gripw with it. At this point, I’m mostly getting used to handling the bow, working on intonation, etc.
So I’ve dug up my copy of Bill Ochs book and I’m working out the best of the simpler tunes it contains, like Mairi’s Wedding and the Eagle’s Whistle–I’ve been playing those on whistle and flute for 15 years, and I’ve found that my fingers just know where to go, most of the time. I’ve probably also fooled around with these on mandolin over the years, so I don’t have to worry much about what note comes next or where to find it.
Good advice on “play the familiar first”.
Though I can read music, I have a hard time getting it right from sheet music alone - poor natural rhythm, I suspect. But if I know a tune well enough to hum it/whistle it (pursed lips, not the instrument!), I can pick it up really fast with the sheet music serving mostly as a memory nudge. Whenever possible, I try to locate a recording of the tune I’m working on and do some intensive listening before I ever attempt to play it.
Playing a few minutes at a time really helps, too - I carry a whistle in my car’s glove box that I pull out when sitting at red lights, and keep a couple of whistles in my desk at work for breaks. Not a lot of time individually, but together they probably add 30+ minutes of practice time - enough to smooth out the details of whatever piece I’m currently working on.