Re: [Harp-L] Oy Vey - More on Getting Good and Getting Better

[Pierre <plavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oups, wrong button.

Ken said:

> One interesting bit:  It seems researchers on the subject of talent and 
> practice "suspect that what many people think of as "talent" may just be 
> the motivation and commitment to continually challenge yourself."

Now if talent was not important then a motivated and committed musician 
could just change course and become a sculptor, a mathematician or a 
basketball player.

The best example of the need for up front talent is in signers (well not 
Britney types), if you're voice is not fresh and interesting, you are not 
going to get far no matter how hard you practice. But; a voice is just a 
start as there are 50,000 people out there with great voices out there.

"the motivation and commitment to continually challenge yourself."

That's not everything, take an interior decorator, what if they have a poor 
sense of taste or a poor sense of what others like. They could come up with 
new bad ideas constantly. New musical ideas is not enough; it's more a need 
for the right ideas or ideas that work.

Not easy,

Pierre.





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Deifik" <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 2:35 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Oy Vey - More on Getting Good and Getting Better


> First, I'd like to say that everything I say below is well known to many 
> of the musicians on this list.  Not that they might not get something out 
> of reading it, but it's posted especially to encourage newer players.
>
> I don't know that I agree with everything in the article linked below, but 
> it is germaine to the discussion I initiated last month.
>
> http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392857
>
> The main theme of the article is that serious, focused practice is 
> something the experts share in common.
>
> One interesting bit:  It seems researchers on the subject of talent and 
> practice "suspect that what many people think of as "talent" may just be 
> the motivation and commitment to continually challenge yourself."
>
> And one of the important places to challenge yourself is away in your lab, 
> practicing new ideas, coming up with newer ones.
>
> I work with lots of graduates of the Berklee School of Music.  They are 
> all amazingly technically proficient as players and as composers.  And yet 
> very few of them are really exciting musicians.  Too many of them graduate 
> and never learn another new thing, and it shows in their playing, which 
> becomes more and more academic and boring.  The ones who keep studying and 
> growing are the ones that make the exciting music.  The best of them, an 
> extrodinary and very successful guitarist, continues to practice as much 
> as 8 hours a day into his 50's.
>
> I can't practice 8 hours a day, never have in my whole life.  But I do 
> practice every day, and I NEVER only practice what I know, I'm always 
> reaching for new ideas.  Jerry Wexler, the great record producer, said 
> that one thing all the great musicians he worked with had in common was 
> the tendency to 'get sick of their own smell,' meaning get sick of the 
> licks and feelings and whatever that they have been playing for too long, 
> and come up with new stuff to replace it.
>
> Playing lots of gigs is good practice, but if you mix it in with alot of 
> solo practice, and alot of 'rehearsal' with other cats, you will get 
> better and better at coming up with new vocabulary.
>
> Last night I read a book about Glenn Gould, the wonderful piano player. 
> He is quoted as saying he practiced rarely.  However, another pianist, 
> Gary Graffman, spent a few days at a Steinway piano facility in Europe, 
> and he said Gould practiced a great deal during the time they were both 
> there.
>
> Remember the kids who said they didn't study, and yet still got all A's? 
> Remember how that was a load of baloney?
>
> It adds to your mystique if you say you never practice, but if you really 
> never practice you ain't gonna excel at harmonica playing.  I didn't FEEL 
> like I was practicing those first few years, neither did you.  But if you 
> don't want to get bored, keep practicing.
>
> There's a link in this article to another article titled "Expert 
> Performance and Deliberate Practice."  Very worthy.
>
> http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html
>
> Now, when I was a sprout I believed that thinking about such things might 
> actually hurt my playing.  Someone either on-list or off mentioned to me 
> that there were certain things that they were afraid if they learned it 
> might affect their playing adversely.
>
> I highly recommend learning everything you can about everything, as it 
> will all have a positive effect on your music.
>
> Ken
>
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