Practicing For Artistic Success
by Burton Kaplan
Since I was young the act of practicing has been instilled upon me. To improve as a musician I must be diligent and patient and put in my time in the practice room. This is a known fact to our community, but what gets so many of us is the use of time in that practice room. It is so easy to go through the motions, put in the quantity of time, but not the quality of time.
This book gives a pedagogy to the practicing. Kaplan gives you tools to develop to improve your ability to practice. Practicing is about putting in the time, but the time has to be utilized to its fullest.
Some of the fresh perspectives that Kaplan gives in his pedagogy are how to set goals, how to actively listen to your practicing, being positive about your successes. He speaks of settting OBTAINABLE goals. Don't look at all the work you have to learn and say you'll learn it in one day. Pick out specific problem areas and work note by note, measure by measure, phrase by phrase. Then be POSITIVE when you've improved those four measures. Your goal was to improve those four measures and you nailed it! Great job. Don't look at the fact that you still have not perfected the whole movement, work bit by bit. While practicing learn how to listen to what you are playing. Your ears (or a recording device) are your best friend. As a musician you have to be able to hear what you are playing, hear the things you did well (maybe intonation and expression), but then find the things you came up short on (maybe rhythm and articulation). Active listening is imperative to practicing and performing.
This book goes into much greater detail on the philosophy of practicing. This book is a great asset to how to refresh your approach to the monotony of practicing. I highly recommend you give it a read!
