Inventing practice techniques to address particular problems

[humannoyed]

This is a success story I just wanted to share and perhaps hear from others that do this too (invent your own practice techniques)and hear how well they worked for you.

 

Okay... here is the problem: POOR LH TIME KEEPING in solo and small drummerless combo situations.

 

To be blunt my LH time kept lagging HORRIBLY when soloing.

 

Now, I have been working on LH technique but it was not helping this problem much, so for a couple of days I tried a new practice technique:

 

I setup my motif with a split performance. For the left hand I used an upright bass voice that had a particularly noticeable percussive initial attack. For my RH I used a piano patch. I set my metronome to a fast 240 and faster bpm quarter note pulse with no accents and practiced just playing a walking bass line over chord progessions in strict time with the quarter note pulse. The pronounced attack on the bass sound helped me hear how well my time was in relation to the click....Okay fine, but... when I started soloing with my right hand, suddenly THERE WAS THE PROBLEM!... my right hand phrasing was affecting my left hand time keeping! I backed of the intensity of my right hand soloing, concentrating on my left hand making sure it was right on the money. Gradually I increased my right hand involvement without letting it affect my LH. I did this for about an hour or so for 2 days.

 

I had some gigs last weekend with my regular band (with drummer) and was very pleased with how much better my left comping was rhythmically. Actually, I must say I was amazed how only 2 days of practicing a new technique could make as much difference as it did.

 

Of course I don't think I am now "fixed" and no longer need to work on this, but now I know JUST WHAT to practice to maintain my LH time keeping.

 

I think it was simply a matter of (1) awareness of the problem and (2) coming up with a practice technique that addressed it directly - not just trusting general practice techniques to fix a particular problem.

 

Okay, anyone else with a success story? What practice techniques have you created and to address what?

 

Day

 

[GovernorSilver]

Thanks for sharing. I find coming up with exercises to address problems I encounter while taking on a piece of music is indeed more productive than practicing "dead" technical exercises that have no specific musical goal.

[Dave Horne]

The only thing I've come across which worked like a charm was simply practicing with a metronome where the clicks represented beats 2 and 4. That advice was given to me by a sax player many years ago and it really improved my time.

 

 

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Oh, and my little success story:

 

As a beginning violist in community orchestra, I struggled with several passages of one of the pieces out of Messiah by Handel. What worked for me was this:

 

1. Identify the specific measures where the technical stumbling block(s) take place.

 

2. Practice each measure separately with a metronome. Turn it wayyy down to super slow tempo if you must. Do at least 3 reps of each measure.

 

3. Now practice playing two consecutive measures with the slow metronome. Usually I run into trouble with measure-to-measure transitions. Go for at least 3 reps of mistake-free execution.

 

4. Now practice playing 3 consecutive measure with a metronome. Go for 3 reps of mistake free execution.

 

5. Continue until you are playing all the measure of that passage mistake-free at the slow tempo. If you still find yourself stumbling (usually, it will be in transition), break the problem down into smaller problems again as described above, and practice smaller chunks of measures or even individual measures again.

 

This can be very tedious, but I've found this to be effective medicine, especially if the technical problem is persistent.

[.......]

I remember once going to see Joe Jawinul give a pre-gig talk, and someone asked what the best technical exercises were. He said there was only one worth doing, and that was the chromatic scale, but only using the 3rd 4th and 5th fingers. A variety of 'work on the weakest element' principle.

I thought at the time that he was having a laugh, as there are obviously zillions of decent useful challenging exercises, but now I think that what he meant was that its best to work at playing music and not technical exercises.

[delirium]

for hand independence I use to take one melody and play with left hand and completely different melody, preferably in different measure I play with right hand. When you got that right - start singing third melody simultaneously...

Once you get fluent in that, start tapping with you leg on 2 and 4 beat.

[oscarr111111]

The only thing I've come across which worked like a charm was simply practicing with a metronome where the clicks represented beats 2 and 4. That advice was given to me by a sax player many years ago and it really improved my time.

 

I also do this to work on my time, I mainly use it on bass but as my keyboard confidence grows I'm sure I'll use it more when practicing that.

[Byrdman]

I set my metronome to a fast 240 and faster bpm quarter note pulse with no accents and practiced just playing a walking bass line over chord progessions in strict time with the quarter note pulse. ... I backed of the intensity of my right hand soloing, concentrating on my left hand making sure it was right on the money. Gradually I increased my right hand involvement without letting it affect my LH. I did this for about an hour or so for 2 days.

 

 

 

Being able to make a lot of progress in just an hour a day for two days should be very encouraging. It takes most people much longer.

 

Its worth recording yourself (to MIDI if you can is best) and reviewing your playing afterwards. That way you will find deficiencies you did not notice when busy playing but more importantly hear the good stuff you did that also goes unnoticed when busy playing.

 

When working up a set I keep a spreadsheet that records when I last played each piece and where I am with it from 1=hopeless to 2=I know the chords, 3 = basically learned, 4 = I would perform this out and 5=strong.

 

That way I can easily see what needs most work and also what I have not looked for a while so I can refresh.

 

 

[Jazzwee]

At each practice session, I'll try to hit multiple problems at once, focusing heavily on each one.

 

The last few days, I've been focusing on phrasing. I noticed I was letting my fingers control the phrasing based on what was comfortable. So I purposely focused only on repeating a phrasing pattern no more than twice and then use some different phrasing the next time. This involves the mix of note lengths, rests, different points for breathing, etc. Takes a lot of concentration for me to make sure I never repeat something. Seems to work. The end result seems to be that I can hear all the phrasing variations in my head ahead of time. I'll need to do more of this.

 

 

 

 

[lerber3]

My jazz teacher gave me this exercise...

 

Scales, both hands changing directions independently whenever you feel like it... LH triplets against RH 16ths... switch to LH 16th and RH triplets and back every 2 bars... great for hand independence, changing gears, and getting your LH soloing chops in shape.

 

Start off w/ triplets & eighths if the 16ths are too whack.

 

Lately, I've been spending an hour or 2 a day learning to play AKAI EWI wind controller... it makes me actually *think* about each note I play (hmmm... the next chord is a #11 and I can only play one note at a time... so I picture playing the note or run on a piano keyboard, convert to a note name, pick a way to play that note, then... waaay too slow to do anything much more interesting than play within the scale). It's funny, I can read and play music off a page, but cannot improvise anything tasty because there's too much mental wiring for piano (and the damn thing has several ways to play any particular note, so you have to be thinking about where you're going to pick the right fingering).

 

When I come back to keys, I have a whole new appreciation for melody and the ability to stack tones to create texture & rhythm. ... and the simplicity of 1 key = 1 note. My playing has improved more in the last month (of not spending much time on keys) than it has in a long time.

 

I'm curious, do you multi-instumentalists get piano practice benefit from playing your other instruments?

 

 

[Byrdman]

I'm curious, do you multi-instumentalists get piano practice benefit from playing your other instruments?

 

 

Training the ear is instrument independent. Other than that I don't think there is any advantage.

[delirium]

I'm curious, do you multi-instumentalists get piano practice benefit from playing your other instruments?

 

sure, if you want to blow the piano...

[oscarr111111]

To practice I often do an exercise where I'll play a riff or motif on bass or keyboard then immediately play it on keys, then I'll play something on keys and go play it on bass. Switching between the 'even semitones' on bass and the 'staff set out' on piano has given me a much better approach to playing each instrument; its very easy just to play an instrument as it falls beat under your hands, or get stuck in familiar patterns etc. and this has helped me break out of this. I also took up bongo drums as a minor instrument to help me further develop my rhythmic ability but I've been letting this slide while I've been working fulltime.

 

I also write a lot of stuff for bass on piano and likewise I often write the bassline of a piano part on bass. It keeps pushing you to innovate and it keeps the music fresh.

 

Another major advantage of playing other instruments is that it makes you much better at playing with that instrument.

[humannoyed]

 

I'm curious, do you multi-instumentalists get piano practice benefit from playing your other instruments?

 

 

A definite yes to that. I have another success story even better than the one that prompted this topic.

 

....It was back in the early 80s when I bought Roland's first programmable drum machine the TR808, and feeling somewhat intimidated by it, I decided to simultaneously buy some drum books to learn more about drumming. At the time I already had some old congos. I added a practice pad, a cowbell, and some sticks. I had no idea that studying rhythm and drumming would go far beyond just helping me program that drum machine. I think I can safely say it was one of the smartest things I have ever done in helping my developing musicianship....highly recommended!

 

Also drumming with sticks for some reason is a keyboard warm up....perhaps because stick technique uses the fingers.

 

I will try the metronome on 2 and 4 when pracicing keys.

 

Thanks for the suggestions,

 

Day

[suds]

"I setup my motif.."

 

I hear ya loud and clear...have problem your timing buy a Motif!...Motif ESX6 HERE I COME!!!