Ye Olde Music Major and the Need for Distance

There are times when being your own worst critic can turn into you becoming the very roadblock that you're trying to get past.

It's an odd thing that often occurs in the practice room. A musician hits a sticking point of some sort and a variety of self destructive behaviors can potentially kick in. 

• The musician is clueless on how to fix the problem and shuts down
• The musician tries to force their way through the problem and simply reinforces bad habits
• The musician rationalizes 'Oh, that passage is just not going to get better. I'll just sort of fake it through there.'
• The musician has a pedagogy degree and spends more time trying to come up with fifteen effective practice solutions than they do actually working out the problem *AHEM*

   I have experienced all of these. Most recently, it's the bottom one. They are all frustrating and none are really effective ways to work through, well, frustration. All have long term negative implications. The third was a big problem of mine in my undergrad days. I can tell it now in recordings of me. I'll listen and think "Wow, I didn't fool anyone there!".  Currently it's the last situation which is my hold up. Coming up with 15 practice strategies would be great.....were I getting another pedagogy degree. I'm not. I'm a grad student majoring in PERFORMANCE. I need to get better at PLAYING here; not just teaching. 

(Can you see now that this blog, though I write it to hopefully help others, is mostly about my own journey and struggles?)

Ok, so back to the matter at hand. Logic and reason tell us that if we know those are going to be issues in the practice room to simply avoid them.

Yeah, right.

When have musicians ever been known for logic and reason?!

The issue here is that we need to be able to review the situation from a distance. Yes, you can journal the problem in your practice journal but even then in the heat of the moment the journal entry might be more "I stink and need to take up knitting instead" and less 'Here's the issue. Here's where I'm having problems."

So, how to get past this?

Fortunately, the vast majority of us have a solution right in our pocket. The good old smart phone.

Sometimes, the best place to review and game plan a practice room issue is not in the practice room. The smart phone allows us to video ourselves playing. Give this a try.

Look at the passage that you're working on. Set the phone up on another music stand (or some other stable area) so that your fingers and embouchure are clearly visible. Give yourself 3-4 attempts at the passage; good, bad, ugly, it doesn't matter. Turn the recorder off. Don't watch it.

SEVERAL hours later, when you are no longer really emotionally invested in the situation, transfer the video to your computer and watch and listen closely. Make careful notes of what you see and hear. These notes allow for two things. 1: Now that you are out of the situation you can take the info you gathered and in a less emotional state, come up with practice strategies for the next day. 2: You have something to share with your teacher that goes beyond "I just can't" or "I suck". You can even share the videos with the teacher to allow them to see what goes on in practicing and not just the lessons.

By the way, if you aren't satisfied with the sound quality of the recording, a bit of searching and $50 will get you a microphone which plugs into your phone and really upgrades the quality and detail of what you're hearing.

Try it out. Distance yourself from the problem and solutions often become clearer.

Get it done.