Practicing

[Bilbo]

The thing that I practice most is the one thing that eludes me the most.

When you make noise on a bass, it requires two fingers to act in unison; the finger that determines pitch and the finget that determines volume, dynamics etc. Once that note has been played, other fingers do other things but, at the point of creation, your two hands are working together to create a single sound. If you are playing minims on the first beat of every bar, its not too hard to get your hands working together. When you are playing something complex, however, you are required to make your two hands operate as one in a unified way, in a way that makes each note as long or as short and as loud or as quiet as it needs to be. If I don't practice, even for a couple of days, THAT is what I lose first. The longer I go between gigs, the less sharp this becomes and the harder I have to work to get it back to form. On top of this, however, comes the brain; getting the mind to think clearly enough and quickly enough to formulate ideas in real time then getting that brain to make choices and to tell you hands to do the things required to execute the idea that is forming in your head; that is the thing.

So, if I do a gig that requires the execution of complex ideas, I need to be mentally sharp and physically sharp. As an improvising musician, I don't practice what I am playing, I practice playing things that are hard so that when I need it, my hands and my head are working together as one. The scales and exercises are about muscle memory and getting used to and internalising note sequences, intervals, sounds that I can use in my playing. To be honest, its not the technique that matters as much as it is the ability to bring the idea to life. The more you practice, the less you have to rely on cliched patterns and the more you can let your head and your ears guide you. But regurgitating the practice regime on stage is uninspiring and uninspired. Its then that you are seeking to go beyond yourself. Virtuosity, in my mind, is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. How fast you play in doing it is completely irrelevant.

[Marvin]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='747416' date='Feb 16 2010, 04:31 PM']The thing that I practice most is the one thing that eludes me the most.

When you make noise on a bass, it requires two fingers to act in unison; the finger that determines pitch and the [size=6]finget[/size] that determines volume, dynamics etc. Once that note has been played, other fingers do other things but, at the point of creation, your two hands are working together to create a single sound. If you are playing minims on the first beat of every bar, its not too hard to get your hands working together. When you are playing something complex, however, you are required to make your two hands operate as one in a unified way, in a way that makes each note as long or as short and as loud or as quiet as it needs to be. If I don't practice, even for a couple of days, THAT is what I lose first. The longer I go between gigs, the less sharp this becomes and the harder I have to work to get it back to form. On top of this, however, comes the brain; getting the mind to think clearly enough and quickly enough to formulate ideas in real time then getting that brain to make choices and to tell you hands to do the things required to execute the idea that is forming in your head; that is the thing.

So, if I do a gig that requires the execution of complex ideas, I need to be mentally sharp and physically sharp. As an improvising musician, I don't practice what I am playing, I practice playing things that are hard so that when I need it, my hands and my head are working together as one. The scales and exercises are about muscle memory and getting used to and internalising note sequences, intervals, sounds that I can use in my playing. To be honest, its not the technique that matters as much as it is the ability to bring the idea to life. The more you practice, the less you have to rely on cliched patterns and the more you can let your head and your ears guide you. But regurgitating the practice regime on stage is uninspiring and uninspired. Its then that you are seeking to go beyond yourself. Virtuosity, in my mind, is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. How fast you play in doing it is completely irrelevant.[/quote]
Crickey you're gonna have to practice a lot if you've only got finget's, are they that small?

Seriously, understand and agree with that.