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Don Ellis
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Joined: 15 May 2023
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 Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2024 1:28 pm Post subject: Practicing is often getting your Brain to work. |
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| Often practicing your instrument is 20% your instrument and 80% figuring out how to make your brain work. |
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stuartissimo
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Joined: 17 Dec 2021
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Location: Europe
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| Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2024 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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Disagree on the 20%. My instrument already knows what it needs to do, so it's more like 100% my brain catching up.
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Robert P
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 4:56 am Post subject: |
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Yup - you're training the entire neuromuscular/auditory/cognitive feedback loop. That's why with repetition & familiarity you get better.
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Doug Elliott
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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That's assuming you actually do get better.
Repetition and familiarity with the wrong stuff only gets you more familiar with doing things wrong. |
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Robert P
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Doug Elliott wrote: | That's assuming you actually do get better.
Repetition and familiarity with the wrong stuff only gets you more familiar with doing things wrong. |
It doesn't change the fundamental process. Even in the worst days of my struggling with chops dysfunctionality I made progress within my range comfort zone working on Clarke's, Arban's, scales, articulation, etc. and was able to do things I couldn't before.
Solving the chops issues in itself has been an ongoing process that involves the same elements - familiarization, repetition, getting used to new sensations and expanding my awareness of what's going on.
Altering my teeth was a game changer and I had to explore and become familiar with how things worked differently.
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JayKosta
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Joined: 24 Dec 2018
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Location: Endwell NY USA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Doug Elliott wrote: | That's assuming you actually do get better.
Repetition and familiarity with the wrong stuff only gets you more familiar with doing things wrong. |
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That's why it is very helpful to know 'what is supposed to be happening', and having a good guide about 'how to make them happen'.
Knowing those things and practicing slowly enough to be aware of 'what is happening' can go a long way towards improvement.
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KNOW (see) what the next note is BEFORE you have to play it.
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stuartissimo
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| Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Doug Elliott wrote: | That's assuming you actually do get better.
Repetition and familiarity with the wrong stuff only gets you more familiar with doing things wrong. |
That's the reason why I prefer to put the instrument into the case and call it a day on bad chops days, rather than try to force to make it work somehow. One of the things I personally struggle with is old habits ingrained by years of practice creeping up during my normal play, so I try to be concious of what exactly I'm trying to reïnforce. It has worked well for consistency, as the really poor chops days are mostly a thing of the past.
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abontrumpet
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Joined: 08 May 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:08 am Post subject: |
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| Doug Elliott wrote: | That's assuming you actually do get better.
Repetition and familiarity with the wrong stuff only gets you more familiar with doing things wrong. |
Below are some disorganized thoughts that I am still working developing:
"Why do we practice?" My conclusion is that "we practice to physically coordinate what is in our head with the act of playing the trumpet." In other words, we are reconciling and connecting the ideal musician in our brain with the physicality of playing the trumpet; the goal is that we get that neural connection to have a 1:1 correlation as soon as possible.
I highlighted Doug's quote here because he is 100% right, but often people interpret "wrong stuff" mainly to mean wrong notes. What (I think) he is talking about and what I want to highlight is that "consistency in approach leads to consistency in product" or another way to put it is: you must develop and standardize your "form" to be incredibly functional and consistent and that will make your product consistent. Doug's emphasis on this forum is in embouchure function but it also extends to all the other stuff too, like breathing, mouthpiece placement, and all the little bits you can think of (which I'm sure he factors as well, apologies if it sounds like I'm saying otherwise).
A little more on "gets you familiar with doing things wrong." This is huge! Depending on the quality of your "ideal musician in your brain" a lot of people can make something that is "doing things wrong" (as it relates to form and approach) to sound really really good. In fact, most people approach improvement in this way: they take something less than optimal and try and become very good at it (their form is bad but they hear improvement in their product). In reality, they should be shedding their bad "form" habits and simply (lol) approach the trumpet in the "ideal" way.
Summary: You must have an amazing trumpeter/musician in your head and you must also have great and consistent physical form (embouchure, breathing, etc.).
Ok, so what implications does "get that neural connection to have a 1:1 correlation as soon as possible" have on our practice? I'll let you unravel that for yourself, but my approach drastically changes when my aim is to coordinate physical with brain ideal. Implication #1: our "brain ideal" must be really good. You have to be able to imagine trumpet at a professional level to move towards playing at a professional level. Implication #2: The balance of brain ideal and physical form: I must be hyper focused into what I want to come out of the bell but balance that with habit building on the physical side of things. So, when we are practicing to correct habits in "form and approach" we need to go slow and simple enough that the "brain ideal" takes up 50% or less of usable brain space. When our form is repeatable and consistent, we can then turn up focus on the "brain ideal" to then move towards that 1:1 correlation. That means you move towards 1:1 coordination after the physicality of what you want to do is consistent and "ideal." In other words, we imprint our brain ideal onto our form. But, in order to create those neural pathways we need to be in the "creation" mode of playing trumpet, not the analytical.
So, what can the reader do to take this into practice and to improve:
1. Listen to great players and really understand what makes them great. I have met many students who do not realize that what they are playing does not sound good.
2. Start playing the way they would "ideally" like to play. I argue that we all intrinsically know what it "feels" like to play in a "natural" way (please, let's not argue about that terminology). If we simply blow (like blowing out a candle) we can get a good idea of how easy it is to "move air." Try and play that way and we can start making strides to playing in the "way you want/think trumpet should be played." I see so many people bringing such dysfunctional preconceptions and approaches towards breathing.
3. Embouchure/vibration is an essential part of the system as well. We need to consistently be allowing the ingredients that allow for the vibration of the lips to be ever-present. Without the watchful eye of somebody knowledgable, this is the hardest thing to fully realize. In lieu of that, the concepts that air needs to flow and that the lips need to vibrate for sound to occur can have implications on your approach here.
4. To create those neural pathways that we use to perform, we need to be "creating" not analyzing. So we must also balance our practice to be mostly (70%) fun/low brain effort/making and a bit (30%) analyzing. I suspect many on this forum spend the opposite amounts on those modes.
It's not all fully fleshed, but those are some thoughts. |
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kehaulani
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Joined: 23 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:42 am Post subject: |
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It's that second cup of coffee that gets my brain working.
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Trumpjerele
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Joined: 20 Feb 2019
Posts: 171
Location: Spain
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| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 9:57 am Post subject: |
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I believe that to pose the art of trumpet playing as right/wrong is false.
The ideal in essence is unattainable and we can only aspire to approach it, in that sense we will always play the trumpet in a suboptimal way.
But there comes a time when we play acceptably incorrectly. That point is different for every musician, from the world class professional to the most careless student, everyone has a different goal, and it's all good.
Anyway I imagine Doug meant that many people with one type of embouchure play with incorrect mechanics. I don't know anything about the Reinhardt school.
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abontrumpet
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Joined: 08 May 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:00 am Post subject: |
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| Trumpjerele wrote: | I believe that to pose the art of trumpet playing as right/wrong is false.
The ideal in essence is unattainable and we can only aspire to approach it, in that sense we will always play the trumpet in a suboptimal way.
But there comes a time when we play acceptably incorrectly. That point is different for every musician, from the world class professional to the most careless student, everyone has a different goal, and it's all good. |
Well said! +1 |
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