Practice time and skill output

[christianm77]

I think there are two kinds of people TBH 1) "I’m still very much on the journey" 2) Non-musicians

[guitarbuddy]

I say this with modesty because I’m still very much on the journey, but this article completely changed my approach to practicing. I organize my time better, I set goals and practice themes, I document what I’m practicing in a journal, track notes of things I learned, and I now frequently record myself (just on iPhone) so I can critique myself. David Liebman is one of the greatest educators and I recommend checking out what he has to say: Practicing Philosophy | David Liebman

that said, the same approach doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.

That is a fantastic article. It's good to hear someone giving credence to the hard work portion of the program. I had an aspiring professional jazz student quit lessons with me once because I called him out on repeatedly not practicing what I was assigning. He emailed me and said "music is always supposed to be about fun, and today wasn't fun." Oh, well!

I had the good fortune to play a concert with Dave Liebman when he came to my then-home of Boise for the Gene Harris Jazz Festival. I played three years in the Gene Harris Superband, and Dave was our guest artist that year. The music was quite challenging for everyone, but especially for the woodwinds, who were featured on one tune playing one of Dave's solos from Elvin Jones' Live at the Lighthouse harmonized for the entire sax section. As cool as the concert was, it was equally cool to hang out afterwards, have some food and drinks, and listen to Dave's stories about Coltrane, Elvin, etc. A living jazz history lesson.

[rpjazzguitar]

I have done this perhaps 20 times. Got a group of my usual band guys and we chipped in to hire a top pro for a combo lesson.

Typically, we go for 2 hours or more and hang out a little bit afterwards. Sometimes, hearing musicians tell stories is more fun than playing.

Once we hired top pro bass and drums to get the experience of feeling what it is to play with guys at the highest level.

Here's one of the most interesting moments. We're trying to play Brazilian jazz, playing like our usual American selves (all of us have been studying and playing Brazilian jazz for some years). Then, a top pro Brazilian kb player joins in (two kbs at the same time) and suddenly the light in the room changes and we sound like Brazilians. We can all feel it. So much is about feel.

In every case we were able to contact the teacher by some kind of personal connection. Somebody knew somebody, or had taken a class from somebody, or something. I think the personal introduction really helps.