RE: Five Minutes/day

[Douglas Tate <douglas.tate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It works.

As Steve Shaw said (and many others have intimated)... (paraphrase) don't 
give the excuses that you are only an amateur, you don't need it 
etc.   That's not what this is about. It is about people who are interested 
in progressing... note, I didn't say fast or to pro level or anything like 
it... progressing.  It is particularly useful for people who really do have 
little time, but it is also a small discipline which leads to larger 
disciplines if you are one of those people who daydream your way through a 
'practice'.

It works in almost any discipline ... write for 10 mins per day with a 
specific goal, exercise your spine for 3 mins a day for extra suppleness, 
eat one slice of toast less per day for slow weight loss...

The three important factors are:-

Aim ... Set an achievable small goal
Regularity ... A set time length in a set time period of each day
Concentration ... Keep your mind on the goal

Aim might be as small as 'getting a smoother transition from 6B to 7D'

Regularity means setting an achievable set of time slots of the same length 
throughout the week. (where your personal timetable will not allow the SAME 
time each day)

Concentration.  It is actually quite hard to work in a concentrated manner 
with real, critical, listening to what you are doing for five minutes. 
Luckily, as you get better at it you find you can concentrate well for 
longer periods.  In fact you will find it difficult to stop at five 
minutes! Discipline yourself and go on to something different.

One of the great spinoffs from this, so far as I am concerned, is that it 
helps make you more aware of how you do the rest of your workouts!

Yes, if you really want to progress to the heights ( or even the semi 
heights) you won't do it on 5 mins a day, you need longer... but NOT 
DEEPER!  The great players on all instruments/voice work for long hours 
with depth of concentration.   To try and avert a storm of protest about 
'natural' musicians I must also say that the really greats don't phone in 
performances... each one is a learning and VERY concentrated learning and 
exploring process... in whatever genre.

Do I do it? I haven't for a long time but I will be getting back to it.  As 
a late starter (I got my first harmonica from a trash can at age 17.5) I 
would PLAY an hour or so before I went to work (after a year I did this bit 
on a silent harmonica), during morning 'tea' breaks (10 mins twice a day), 
during my lunch hour (about 40 mins), about an hour after my evening meal 
before I went to tech college and up to an hour when I got back before 
going to bed. Then at weekends I would work most of the day from about 8am 
to 6-7 in the evening with meal breaks and church break on Sunday. 
(couldn't afford to do anything else as an apprentice :)))  It was a couple 
of years of a zigzag course through learning and finding out about the 
chromatic before I found I could get further and progress faster by aiming 
at goals rather than thrashing through piles of music. But, I had developed 
some Governor of California playing muscles in that time!! Speed only came 
when I did an Iceman and got myself aims and regularity. (but I still did 
long hours :))

One thing you might find helps to make the 'Five Minute' bit work even 
better is to incorporate it inside a regular practice if you can.  You will 
have noticed that you warm up after something like 15 mins... try popping 
it in at that time, not at the beginning, it will be that much more valuable.

Douglas t