Tag: learning

My “Real Life” Benefits of Playing Classical Guitar

Nicole NealLeave a comment

For those of you who read the blog regularly and follow me on Facebook will know that in the last year or so I’ve been travelling a heck of a lot with my work. That has its ups and downs, but mostly ups because it’s pretty cool work (environmental management and development of sustainable infrastructure in a nutshell), I get to work with some great people and see some nice parts of the world (including 4 Australian states and both islands of New Zealand in the last month alone!). **

On my recent travels over to New Zealand to deliver some training on sustainability I had time to mull over the fact that my experiences in learning classical guitar, playing classical guitar and teaching it really do cross over into other areas of my life, particularly my work life.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the intrinsic value in learning and playing the classical guitar (or any other instrument for that matter) is highly valuable in and of itself. And the title of this blog post is a little bit misleading – music making is definitely a part of “real life”. There’s no denying that from me for sure! But it’s great that there are also added benefits, if you like, that the process of music making can teach or show you and can really help you in perhaps your working life.

During my mulling (which is helped by some quiet down time on various aircraft!), I came to realise that there are some key aspects of the musical journey that have crossed over and definitely shaped (and continue to shape) the way I work. I thought it was an interesting reflection so thought I’d share with you today.

P1080403

Here are my top 5 observations of cross over benefits in my journey:

1.There is no substitute for consistent, persistent hard work, or rather smart work – the application of ones energy in the right direction at the right things. Along with the appreciation that new skills take time to master, but can be mastered with the right mindset.

2. Presentation and stage presence – deliver what ever it might be that you’re playing or presenting from the heart, knowing that you’ve put solid work into (you definitely have to number 1 above). Then hold yourself with poise and confidence in its delivery and your audience will be listening.

3. When working with others on new approaches or concepts, show them the ropes but let them hit upon realisations for themselves and find out the best way to do something for themselves (but provide positive guidance along the way).

4. Working with others produces results that just wouldn’t happen playing solo.

5. When working/ playing with others go in with ideas on the outcomes you want, but also be prepared to listen to differing thoughts. The outcomes, musical, work or otherwise, may produce interesting results.

I might come up with some more of these, folks, as I muse on it a little further!

** As a little side note, as a result of my hectic schedule you may notice that I’m not posting with as great a frequency as in the past. Rest assured that I am continuing on with the blog, but for the sake of my sanity and writing posts that are actually useful for you, dear readers, the less regularity thing will continue to be the case for the time being. I’m sure you understand 🙂

8 Things Top Practicers Do Differently

Nicole Neal3 Comments

I read a great article recently that really supports some of my own thinking and experience in practice and playing and what really gets you bang for your practice buck. Or in other words what actually works and what doesn’t. The article references a study undertaken a few years ago at the University of Texas at Austin looking at pianists. Different instrument admittedly, but the same principles most definitely apply.

One of the most important of these 8 things that apparently top practicers do differently that I find works extremely well for m (and used to recommend highly to my students), is not practicing in mistakes. Play something through very slowly, be confident of where you’re placing your left hand and right hand fingers before playing. Even if it means you’re playing reeeeaaaaaaaaallllly sllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwly. Much better this way, that encourages the correct learning of a phrase or piece, with the correct physiology, building the correct habit, than literally practicing in a incorrect movement and then doing the work all over again to unpick it and learn it correctly.

Yes, it may not sound so fluid initially, but stopping and just taking the time to make sense of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it will pay musical dividends in the long run. I promise you.

It also has a couple of interesting concepts that I had been thinking about too recently, including does aiming to play with ‘feeling’ right away assist in the learning? My instinct in has been yes for some time, and there seems to be something to it according to this study referenced by the article. My figuring is that you’re not only using your practice to build in a physiological habit, but also a musical one, and getting to know the music itself not just the fingering. That can only strengthen ones learning of a piece in my opinion.

Classical Guitar

So here are the 8 things that top practicers do differently:

1. Playing was hands-together early in practice (OK this is quite a piano-based one, but in applying this to the guitar think knowing what fingering you’re using for both left and right hands, not just your fingerboard hand)

2. Practice was with inflection early on; the initial conceptualization of the music was with inflection. (See!!)

3. Practice was thoughtful, as evidenced by silent pauses while looking at the music, singing/humming, making notes on the page, or expressing verbal “ah-ha”s. (i.e. don’t just go through the motions – 10 minutes of thoughtful, focussed practice is worth way more than 30 minutes of just going through motions)

4. Errors were preempted by stopping in anticipation of mistakes. (Stop playing those mistakes in every time!)

5. Errors were addressed immediately when they appeared. (And again stop playing those mistakes in every time!)

6. The precise location and source of each error was identified accurately, rehearsed, and corrected. (Shall I say it one more time?!)

7. Tempo of individual performance trials was varied systematically; logically understandable changes in tempo occurred between trials (e.g. slowed things down to get tricky sections correct).

8. Target passages were repeated until the error was corrected and the passage was stabilized, as evidenced by the error’s absence in subsequent trials.

To read the whole article, and I strongly encourage you to do so particularly for the top three practice strategies and one strategy to rule them all, head along to:  http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/8_things_top_practicers_do_differently