This Article Was Printed in the American Federation of Musicians

This article was printed in the American Federation of Musicians,

Local 325 (San Diego) newsletter, The Sound Post. It was written by

Jack Wheaton, president of that local. It was reproduced on

the

internet, purportedly with the author's permission. Even though it

was written to be read by professional musicians, there is a LOT of

valuable information in the article that will benefit all musicians.

HOW DO YOU GET TO

CARNEGIE HALL? PRACTICE!

By Jack Wheaton

INTRODUCTION

It takes a lot of nerve to lecture seasoned professionals on how to

practice. Still, more has been discovered on how to learn

faster,

easier, and permanently these past few decades than in the past 100

years. The human brain is the model for the modern computer. To

build better computers, we need to know more about how the brain

functions. The brain, our own "bio-computer", functions like any

other computer—garbage in,

garbage out! This means that the more we

know about the learning process, the more effective we can be in our

daily practice habits.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

This subject cuts across all styles of music, levels of experience and

ability, as well as age, sex, and race. Learning new and effective

ways to practice is fundamental to improving your chances of success

and professional opportunities in today's world of music, regardless

of the style of music you play. We are already seeing the results of

this with a new wave of young, precocious artists, performing way

beyond their years.

OLD DOGS

For our older members, science has proven that you can teach old dogs

new tricks, that is if they are not too lazy or too intimidated to try

on these new ideas.

Many concepts regarding aging and the brain have

also been tossed in the garbage can as a result of these studies. Now

we know how Giuseppe Verdi composed the opera FALSTAFF when he was 85

years old., Arthur Rubenstein performed a complete series of the

Beethoven Sonatas in recital in a two week period when he was in

his

eighties, and ragtime pianist Eubie Blake was able to knock our socks

off with his rendition of John Phillip Sousa's STARS AND STRIPES

FOREVER when he was 93.

SUCCESS

One of the primary keys

to musical success is knowing how to practice.

Curiously, there are few books on the subject. Fortunately today, as

a by-product of all this brain research, we now have extensive recent

research on memory, motivation, concentration, tonal memory,

kinesthetic activity (muscle memory) and other subjects related to

successful practice techniques.

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS

As a professional, constantly looking for new and better ways to

improve my musical skills, as well as improving my teaching abilities,

I soon discovered that I and my students knew very little about how to

practice. Until now, those of us who are successful in music have

intuitively or accidentally stumbled into good practice habits. Those

who failed to do so, in spite of their innate musical skills or

conscious motivation to succeed, eventually quit or failed to reach

their true potential. I soon learned that teaching myself and my

students how to practice had become the number one priority. In fact,

one could go far as to say that unless a musician learns not only how

to practice, but to actually love practicing, their odds of success in

this business are minimal. John Lennon, the late Beetle, would get so

caught up with practicing that his mother would often have to take the

guitar out of his hands because his fingers had started to bleed. To

a true musician, practicing is like a scientist going into his

research laboratory. One enters their practice routing each day

looking for that new and exciting breakthrough that propels you to a

new and higher level of performance. Pablo Casals, the great cellist,

teacher, and conductor, was asked in an interview shortly before his

death (while in his eighties) why he still practiced at least three to

four hours a day. His answer was, "Because I'm just beginning to see

a little progress!"

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

If you haven't already, you must learn to "love" to practice. This

commandment comes first. This is not always easy, when practice

itself has often been associated with punishment or painful memories,

particularly in younger years. You must learn to look forward to

practicing on the same level as eating, sleeping, making love,

worshipping, or enjoying your family or friends. It must become an

indispensable part of your life. Grant Johanssan, the great concert

pianist, was asked what caused him to devote his life to playing the

piano. He answered by explaining that he had discovered that whenever

he missed a day of practice, he actually became physically ill. He

had no choice—he had to practice to stay physically and mentally

well!

If practice had been used as punishment, or is in any way connected

with a

past unpleasant experience, you may find yourself resisting the

act of practicing and not knowing why. This is natural. The

unconscious mind in us all tries to protect us from past unpleasant

experiences by suppressing them and will go to great lengths to do so.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

The unconscious mind has no sense of time. If you repeat an action

that is associated with earlier unpleasant experiences, you will call

up the feelings associated with those experiences. You may

consciously want to practice, but you may be fighting unconscious

resistance due

to unpleasant experiences associated with practicing.

These early experiences need to be located, isolated, analyzed, and

replaced. Fortunately, we can do that today. In the meantime, apply

the following for immediate results in improved practice techniques.

SMALL BITES

Learn to practice in short, but highly concentrated periods of no

longer than fifteen minutes at a time. Then take a short break (10 to

15 minutes). Walk around the room, do some deep breathing exercises,

calisthenics, or take a short, brisk walk. Then return to your

practice routine. Recent studies reveal that the average adult

attention span is less than twelve minutes. Pushing it past this

point is counter-productive to long-term learning and results in

subtle, subconscious resistance to learning, as well as a dramatic

drop in concentration after 12 to 15 minutes time.

TINY BITES

In the case of extremely difficult passages or boring, repetitious

exercises, cut it to ten minutes. This way you slip through the

subconscious censor that says that this is a boring, dull, depressing

activity, activating resistance to

further study. Painful or

resistant practice passages should be restricted to a maximum of five

consecutive minutes, no more. That five minutes can be repeated at

distant intervals two to three times a day.

DISTRACTIONS

When emotionally or physically depressed, or when you are distracted

by others or by environmental problems (noise, lighting,

interruptions, etc.), keep your practice bites to five minutes or

less. When you find your mind wandering, get up and walk around for a

minute or two. Take deep breaths. Think pleasant thoughts. Review

(in your mind) previous musical triumphs, exciting experiences.

PHYSICAL ASPECTS

Always stimulate circulation in the active body areas through massage

and stretching exercises. Never start out without warming up

properly. Most sports injuries are caused by lack of proper

circulation in the area being exercised and tendons that have not been

loosened up by stretching exercises. Although the muscles and tendons

used in playing musical instruments or singing are

smaller, they are

still subject to the problems professional athletes face. Failure to

build physical warm-ups into the beginning of your practice routine

could shorten your career. Today, many pianists, violinists,

clarinetists, guitarists, singers, and those that play other

instruments have had their professional careers cut short because

of

tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other physiological

conditions. In most instances, these physiological, career-ending

problems could have been avoided.

BRAIN HEMISPHERES

One of the most exciting discoveries has been that the two hemispheres

of the brain function differently. The left hemisphere (which

controls the right side of the body) is linear, unemotional, logical,

and comprehensive. This is the hemisphere we rely on most when

reading or sight reading music or doing repetitive drills and/or

technique exercises. The right hemisphere (which controls the left

side of the body) is emotional, spontaneously creative, and non-linear

in function. It is this hemisphere we most rely on when playing from

memory, improvisation, or playing by ear.

ALTERNATE

Learn to alternate left-brain skills, such as technical drills,

sight-reading, or reading over difficult written passages with

right-brain skills, like playing by ear, by memory, or improvising.

For instance, do 10 or 15 minutes of written technical drills, then

alternate with trying to play a simple piece "by ear", or

improvising

on a familiar tune. By alternating, you will discover that fatigue

will disappear and learning will dramatically increase. You will also

enjoy practicing more. Lack of alternating the hemispheres in

practice is one of the primary culprits in becoming bored or feeling

that you are

wasting your time.

PRACTICE VERSUS PLAYING

Many musicians "play" and call it practice. We need to do both.

However, we should know the difference between the two. Playing is

reviewing something you already know,

polishing up the details.

Practice is digging in, recognizing, marking, isolating, and drilling

on the difficult measures until they zing along with the rest of the

piece. Playing should be a reward for spending a few minutes of

highly intensive, concentrated practice time. You can play for much

greater lengths of time without suffering

negative feedback than you

can when practicing. Practice segments should be short, intense, and

separated by rest and playing.

PRACTICE

After you have done your physical and musical warm-ups and daily

technical drills, go next to the most difficult piece you are working

on. Highlight the most difficult passages. Go immediately to those

highlighted passages. Play each passage five to ten times, slowly and

smoothly (like slow motion). Make sure that the rhythm, notes,

fingering, and intonation are

correct. Do this daily. After a few

days, alternate playing the difficult passages slowly, then quickly.

Never play any passage faster than you can keep the rhythm and notes

correct. This is called musical "drill". Drill will do wonders in

helping you master difficult passages. Remember, each day

after

warming up, go immediately to the most difficult piece you are working

on and drill on the most difficult measures in this manner. Difficult

passages should be no more than one to four measures in length. If

the passage is longer, break it into two or more shorter sections.

Remember, practice takes more concentration. Keep practice (drill)

segments short, no longer than five minutes. Always reward yourself

for having the discipline to drill by "playing" a familiar tune or

part of a work that you particularly like.

PLAYING

Playing assumes memorization and/or learning by ear. All playing

should be done with your eyes closed. When you close your eyes,

several positive things happen—your sense of hearing becomes more

acute (sensitive), you sense of touch is heightened, and you have

transferred the primary brain activity from the left to the

right

hemisphere. The brain automatically increases sensory stimulation in

other areas when one sensory input is cut off. When you close your

eyes, your sense of hearing and touch are greatly increased as

compensating factors. As musicians, we can take advantage of this

situation by practicing as

much as possible with our eyes closed.

Play with your eyes open only when you need to read music, watch the

conductor, or perform in front of an audience.

ANALYZING MISTAKES

Most basic mistakes are a result of either a wrong rhythm or a wrong

note. Other considerations are tone, intonation, and volume. Analyze

your mistakes. Use a tape recorder and record at least one selection

a day and play it back for self-analysis. This is a difficult thing

to do. Most of us have a hard time listening that critically to our

own playing or singing. However, learning to critically, but

objectively listen to ourselves often is one of the most important

skills we can develop as musicians.

EMOTIONS

Never practice when you are emotionally upset, tired, irritated,

or

distracted. Stop immediately. When you find your mind wandering

while practicing, do something else. Return to practice when you are

more composed. Play selections that calm, inspire, or excite you

until you have your negative emotions under control. If you must

practice when tired, cut practice segments in half. Nothing should be

longer than five minutes without a break. Walk briskly, take deep

breaths, do calisthenics, or find something exciting and distracting

to do between ten-minute sets.

WHEN TO

PRACTICE

One of the most exciting discoveries in learning is that our basic

metabolism reveals whether or not we are morning, afternoon, evening,

or late-evening people. By taking our temperature with a good

thermometer every hour (except when asleep) for two or three days and

then noting when it is consistently the highest, should reveal our

metabolic preference for practice or study. Once you discover which

category you fit into, try to arrange it so your most creative and

concentrated work is done during these times. This includes lessons,

performance, auditions, and recording sessions. The brain can

actually learn twice as fast during these peak periods, which

generally last one to four hours. If you haven't discovered whether

you are a morning, afternoon, or evening musician, do it as soon as

possible. It's critical to your success.

ENVIRONMENTAL

CONTROL

Never allow family members or friends to interfere with your practice.

All distractions, such as radio or television, must be eliminated

from your practice environment or you will have to find somewhere else

to practice. Electronic keyboards with headsets can help students

practice without disturbing others. I would highly recommend the

electronic drum set with headset, as well. Some students claim they