Category: Practice Stuff

A word about trying

Nicole Neal4 Comments

Jedi Master Yoda (or at least George Lucas) was on to something when he said “Do. Or do not. There is no try”.

 

Just like Luke learning to use The Force, when I ask some of my students to sight-read something, or play something in a different way, I often hear words along the lines of “I’ll try….”

Well, let me tell you, that’s one of the most non-committal things you can say and you’re really holding yourself back by approaching something with the attitude of “trying”. By saying that you’ll “try” to do something you’re actually sitting on the fence. You’re actually saying “look, I’m really not sure if I’m going to be able to pull this off and I don’t want to lose face/ embarrass myself/ get laughed at if it doesn’t quite go as planned, so I’ll just hedge my bets here and give myself an “out” just in case, at least I’ll be able to say I tried”.

If that’s what you’re thinking then I can say why you’d want to say “I’ll try” – it’s a lot fewer words so it’s a lot more efficient! However, if you’re serious about learning a new skill or changing an approach to playing something or playing something in a different way then “I’ll try” just isn’t going to cut it. “I’ll try” is hedging your bets in case it doesn’t work out.

And if it doesn’t work out, whatever it is you’re “trying” to do, then so what?! Just give it another go or do it a slightly way different next time. Just decide and commit – am I going to do this? Am I not going to do this?

You’re also actually confusing your brain by saying, or thinking, or coming at something with the attitude of “trying”. Your brain is this awesome goal-chasing machine – it’s looking the whole time to help you at a subconscious level achieve those goals that your conscious mind feeds it, however big or small. Trying is confusing for our poor ol’ brains!

Want an example of that? Well, give this a go.

Place an object in front of you – a pen, a cup, your computer mouse, anything will do. Right, now I want you to pick up that object. Done that? Good. Put it back down again. Excellent. You’re a natural at this!

Now then, take a look at that object again. This time I don’t want you to pick it up. Do not pick up that object. Right. Doing that? Doing “not picking up”? Excellent. You really are very good at this!

Now then, one more instruction for you – I want you to try to pick up the object. No, no. Don’t actually pick it up. That’s not trying. Just really try. And don’t not pick it up, that’s not picking it up. Really try. Come on!

Do you see what I’m getting at here? Asking yourself to committing to picking up that object, and then to not picking up that object, it was very clear what you needed to do and the outcome that was expected. Easy. However, asking you to try to pick it up was a different story, it was quite peculiar. Not really sure what you should be doing?

OK this a reasonably simplistic example, but perhaps the case may be that this is the kind of process going on in your mind (that you’re not even consciously aware of) when you say things like “I’ll try to practice more” or “I’ll try and play that phrase more piano” or “I’ll try this piece of sight-reading”.

So to paraphrase Yoda – Do play. Or do not play. There is no try.

 

 

Make friends with your metronome

Nicole Neal5 Comments

That pyramid-shaped clicking device, which back in the day used to be a hefty, wooden, wind-up device (well they still are…) and cost at least half an arm, if not a full one plus a leg too. These days anyone with a smart phone, which is pretty much most folks, can have their very own metronome for just the price of a coffee. I personally use a metronome app on on my iPhone called Tempo – a very useful little app indeed.

Metronome with guitar
Metronome with guitar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So with these kinds of apps out there at literally the touch of a button for a minimal cost, there is absolutely no excuse not to be using one!

So why are they so important?

The metronome is a great indicator of the following of whether:

  1. you’re actually playing in time
  2. that interesting rhythmic bit in bar 42, that set of grace of notes, that syncopation,  that triplet or quintuplet, or that bit you could swear blind is really in time actually is in time
  3. you do really know what you’re playing – when playing everything at the same tempo one can realise where there are perhaps a few stumbling blocks or little “knots’ in the music that need a bit of attention and teasing out
  4. you’re speeding up because a section is “easy” or perhaps the nature of the music lends itself to that if you’re not careful
  5. you’re slowing down to allow for a technical challenge rather than for the purposes of expression that you might be doing when playing without the metronome

Well, I most definitely advocate for my students to use a metronome whilst practicing scales, at least a couple of times of week, particularly to engender that sense of pulse, resisting the urge to speed up and ensuring evenness between the notes. The metronome is also particularly useful in training one to play faster tempi whilst maintaining evenness, for example, in scales.

To do this I set the metronome at a comfortable tempo and play the scale at that tempo. I then notch it up say two or three beats per minute, and play the scale at that tempo – always listening to the sound quality I’m creating of course – and being aware of the evenness of the notes. I then continue to keep notching up two or three beats per minute until I notice I’m tripping up – this reveals where there may some attention required to the movement of the left hand, the right hand and/ or the two in combination.

I don’t advocate, however, that the metronome should be used all of the time. Far from it.

Once that feel of the tempo and the pulse in a scale or a piece has become more engrained, and that playing straight ahead is mastered, then it’s time to put the metronome away. That’s when you can begin to shape and refine the music you’re making, the subtle pushes and pulls in phrases, the rubato, the rits and the ralls.

But you’ve first got to know where your boundaries are, so you can push beyond them. Is it time you made friends with your metronome?

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