professionals who practice

[Valde002]

Saunders,

that strategy for me would be a recipe for disaster! You must have been playing music for a long time and things must come naturally for you?

 

[Tom]

I like his approach too. I am not a professional, I play somewhere about once a month, almost all benefits. I probably average an hour of practice per day, no technical excercises, only trying to perfect my repertoire by repeated playing to keep songs in my old brain and working on songs I have not yet memorized. I realize that 1. If I am going to take my performance to the next level I need to change it up and apply myself more diligently, and have inquired of a teacher who looks promising. And 2. I need to add better vocals. I think that there is nothing wrong with solo accordion but I think vocals can generate way more interest (In my case, yours may vary). I have been taking singing lessons and have improved dramatically. This includes excercises, investigation of my physical situation, consultation, etc. I hope that you all find success, motivation and improvement in your chosen methods and endeavors.

 

[saundersbp]

i) never do any technical exercises or exams.

Could you elaborate a little bit about why? Thank you.

Certainly - the short answer human beings are all different, we all have different brains and motivations and for my kind of brain exercises and exams (or even worse competitions) doesn't motivate me at all.

Conversely I know for other types of brains, technical exercises and exam badges does provide motivation and a sense of modular progression. That is the right way for those sort of brains, just not mine!

A longer answer is that I get technically good at music by finding motivation in the music itself - hence I start with the bit that is the hardest of something I think is quality music and stick at that bit until I can do it - bomb proof! For example at the moment I'm working on an accordion transcription of Bach Sinfonia from Cantata 29. I made the transcription because I love the music itself and technically its making my left hand work as hard as my right and its stretching me. My motivation is the musical language and so I never get bored with the technical challenges in the hard bits because I want to make music. If you gave me a sheet of technical exercises I wouldn't feel the same motivation because there isn't the same immediate link to music, and I wouldn't practice. Equally an exam wouldn't motivate me as I'd see it as pointless, but I know for other people with different brains it is motivational.

I guess a good teacher can assess the psychology of the student and teach accordingly and that's where the real skill in brilliant teaching and motivating lies rather than someone that teaches to a dogmatic pedagogy.

Hope that elaborates a bit

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Saunders,

that strategy for me would be a recipe for disaster! You must have been playing music for a long time and things must come naturally for you?

As I said in my longer post - we all have different brains and motivations - no one size fits all. There is definitely something called talent but in the end I think most things are 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. The reason I like the accordion is it is new to me and therefore difficult to master so I'm motivated to keep at it until it starts to feel as 'natural' as the other instruments I play. For me, learning one instrument has always helped with another instrument in loads of respects because at the end of the day its all about making music - communicating in sound what we can't communicate with language.

 

[donn]

That sure makes a lot of sense to me. The only alternative, I think, would be to somehow find that musical inspiration in the technical exercise, as if it were great music. That's the sort of thing I can easily say, because I don't do exercises either.

 

[Tom]

I tend to find my motivation in excercises that I make up to help me learn a certain thing. For example now I want to learn accompaniment chords, so I pick one position, (index finger on G) and try playing chord patterns in G or C in different inversions. Because it is an exercise directly related to my current goal I can keep on it. Random excercises that "should" help me over time are more difficult to abide.

 

[Tor]

I think one of the challenges with exercises is that everyone has a different level of comfort, even toleration of them. For me, I come from years of playing a melody instrument (violin, moving to viola), so my skill at playing single notes far exceeds my ability to play pieces proper. I've also been in the local college orchestra for years, so that helps keep me honest about proper tempo.

When I started practicing more properly, I had to work to put the beginning of PH #2 together, despite being not far from sight reading most any treble clef melody with some speed. For me, I find the exercises are a good way to get concentrated work on areas I'm just generally weak, like RH chords and reading multiple notes ( without having to hunt down pieces that stretch those areas but aren't out of reach. Doing this, I can feel the benefits when I come to pieces that are more complicated, so that helps with motivation.

Like I said, I don't practice exercises according to rule. The closest I get to that is some scales that also serve for initial finger warm up. Beyond that, I have days I don't do any exercises, and others where I end up spending nearly a whole hour+ practice session on exercises.

If I hit a trouble spot in a piece, I'll often do like Tom does, and make up an exercise and spend several minutes on that right then.

 

[stickista]

The only alternative, I think, would be to somehow find that musical inspiration in the technical exercise, as if it were great music. 

Another way of thinking about it is to make the exercises musical. Unless you have a stern instructor rapping your knuckles I see only benefit from playing Hanon expressively (as long as it’s not an excuse for flat out sloppiness.)