Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
|
|
|
Some Inspiering Wisdom on Practice
|
You are logged in as Guest
|
|
Users viewing this topic: none
|
|
Login  | |
|
   
Florian
Posts: 9282
Joined: Jul. 14 2003
From: Adelaide/Australia
|
 Some Inspiering Wisdom on Practice
|
|
|
This was said about 8 - 9 years ago...and I thought it was so good and well articulated that I saved it on a text file so I would never forget it (i dont do that very rarely but I do do it sometimes when something you read is so good that you wanna be able to recall it)...this was more useful than any tab book or any instructional book.....they all speak to what do with your fingers but not how to think and how to asses yourself....with this kind of mentality and discipline you can do the most basic exercises on open strings all day and still achieve good results.....so imo its not what you do with your fingers its whats going on in your head as you doing it....most of the exercise takes place in your head.
Came across today when I was looking for something ...so before I move on and forget to post it...here it is for those that might have missed the original ...( or maybe he said it to me in messenger, I cant remember)
You know when you sometimes get a piece of advice that changes your whole outlook on things and ultimately you as a player...this might have been one of those moments for me....hope it does the same to some..thought it was worth bringing up again.
"
The most important thing in practice is practicing right. Which means with correct hands position, good (and full) sound and NO TENSION. If you feel discomfort - stop. Try to find out where it happens. Than ask yourself why. Listen to your playing very carefully, as if transcribing a piece from recording. Don't let one note pass unheared. Let your ear guide you as much as your hands (or more). It takes a lot of concentration, but once you start doing it regularly, you won't want to turn back. This way you not only train your muscles but also your mind. This way you set your aims high.
The second most important thing is the variety of material in your practice. Do you spend 2 hours practicing scales with the metronome, or do you work on arpeggio, tremolo, shifts, stretches, slurs, rasgueado, your thumb and scales with the metronome? I would go for the second. And then, if you have time, play more of scales or whatever.
Ahh, almost forgot! You have to practice your repertoire SLOWLY. Divide it equally among several days (depending on how large it is), and play one part each day. Don't forget the dynamics, tone, timing and everything that you do at normal tempo. If you think this is boring, play this game: imagine that you are in incredible shape and are, in fact, playing very fast, but your mind is so powerful, that you perceive everything slow. And now that's your chance to get everything perfectly."
Grisha
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Aug. 3 2012 5:21:48
 |
|
Erik van Goch
Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands
|
|
RE: Some Inspiering Wisdom on Practice (in reply to Ricardo)
|
|
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
I only add that statement "practice makes perminant"...rather than 'perfect". So When Grisha says practice CORRECTLY....that becomes super important as there are more than one correct ways to hold the hand and move fingers file nails etc etc.
The one absolute I have found, and ties in to metronome use is RHYTHM. More than just practicing evenly and coordinating movements in time, you need to always FEEL a groove of sorts in the techniques you work on. So I find more efficient time spent not going super slow all the time, but rather looping small phrases at a MEDIUM tempo groove of some sort. .....Of course if you have a phrase that is just impossible to groove on at medium speed you need to take the tempo down...like your superman as Grisha said with music we get that chance to experience slow motion to focus on precision....but I just think no matter how slow you go, try to make it still FEEL like a groove of some sort.
Ricardo
I practiced like that for years, it helped me to master and maintain material and to become more consistent and experienced. It also helped me to reach and maintain a high level, but only to a certain extent. One day (close to my yearly exam) i decided that i wanted to become at least 10 times better and more drastic measures were needed.
I decided to forgot everything i'd learned during the previous 20 years and to start from scratch. I was intended to learn myself to play the guitar again from level zero. From Paco de Lucia i went back to simple exercises like 1234, but this time with FOCUS. Soon i discovered that playing 1234 was still way to difficult because no one can focus on 3 things at the same time (left hand,right hand and rhythm)....and with focus i mean 200% concentration. So i studied left and right hand separately, only to find out 4 fingers were still a lot to deal with. So i went back to 1 finger and from 1 finger to parts off fingers and from...well you goth my drift.
The first week i studied 1 hour a day....very simple exercises (blinking an eye would come close) investigating every cell in my body and my guitar. I did tonal experiments (just find yourself a perfect tone and listen to it's development), surged and found better ways to generate/transpose energy and i started to adapt mental trainings. Everything i did with incredible focus, absorbing all new elements and as soon as i new the right feeling i abandoned my guitar to continue practicing in my head only.
Every single day i emptied my glass (you can't adapt new knowledge if you are full of old crap) putting in enormous amounts of energy, guiding, monitoring and evaluating events with complete focus. 1 hour of "on focus" training equaled 40 hours of "normal repetitive training", both in input as in output. I went to hell and back. I studied complete relaxation of fingers, hands, arms, feelings, thoughts, energy generation/transposal, techniques (scales,gripings, bindings, tremolo, arpeggio, pulgar you name it) tonal generations, tonal development, acoustics, feeling string energy etc.etc. Just like Grisha i favored variation, absolute focus, absolute relaxation and absolute control over rhythm or direct results. As a matter of fact i didn't only play slowly, i actually played without rhythm, favoring absolute control and awareness over all other aspects.
The next week i practiced 2 hours a day. 1 hour of mental, technical, energetical, tonal and acoustic experiments and 1 hour of adapting music, but ones again prevailing absolute control in energy input, relaxation, movements and thought over all other aspects. As it turned out focusing on extremely small objects in combination with mental visualization brings one in a higher state of awareness allowing you to spot even more. As a result various laws of nature revealed them self to me that were completely unknown to me before. I could see, understand, handle and visualize more and more complex situations.
The third week i raised to 3 hours a day. At the end of week 3 (40 hours of training) i did indeed raise my level from level 1 to level 10 on a workable base
In stead of 6 strings and 12 positions i (more or less) felt 1 string and 1 position.
Unlike before my left hand little finger became my new point of reference for positioning, replacing the regular index finger.
My right hand could execute all techniques from almost 1 position.
I generated and transposed a "completely" different kind of energy.
I could mentally run trough complete pieces, feeling fingers, string energy, guitar resonance you name it.
I could even spot string vibration and discovered that you can only add new energy on very specific moments...it felt like pushing someone in a swing, If you push at the right moment you add energy, if you push at the wrong moment you block energy. I did that with trembling strings like i had a build in oscilloscope slowing down time.
Dynamics was "replaced" by energy levels (which is quite a different thing).
Rhythm was "replaced" by meticulous energybalance control.
After i passed my yearly exam i went to the beach, 1 day became 2 and soon i lost everything i gained. Like before i continued playing chess 12/7 (with zero results, no talents on that field i'm afraid) only attending weekly lessons at music high school and doing some occasional routine exercises. And every year (4 years on a row) i managed to rebuild myself from scratch in the last 4 weeks with above harsh regime and with consistent results.
So for me it works. None of this ever came to me performing "mindless metronome repetition"*. Obviously one can adapt this approach again as soon as one is re- calibrated..... if one still feels the need :-)
I know first hand that 30 hours of "power study' with THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND (both it's strength and it's weakness) beats years of medium tempo drillings. Unfortunately i lost my lust/ability to study like that 20 years ago because the amount of energy exchange is nerve ragging. So right now i restrict my training to medium tempo drillings as well, accepting and suffering all it's limitations.
i'll tell more about some of the exercises i applied later.....keep posted
*actually this is not true... i once had to play two directional index strokes for 2 hours on a row (at a dancing school situation) and after two hours of mindless repeating i suddenly found a different way of generating energy which combined LESS input with MORE output. It felt like going from manual to electric. Unfortunately i had to focus on the dance lesson and had no time to analyze and safe that feeling at that very moment. I never was able to re-find that superior way of playing in later "expeditions".
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Aug. 3 2012 21:54:30
|
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Forum Software powered by ASP Playground Advanced Edition 2.0.5
Copyright © 2000 - 2003 ASPPlayground.NET |
0.109375 secs.
|
Printable Version
from Russia said and my name, and where my fingers for exercises are and anything to do with anything......yeah yeah yeah whatever... practice with mind or something i got it....go away 
...OHH it was apples 
...i dont see why i should give myself special treatment