Good morning everyone!
I am happy to be back to blogging. It has been a while since I last wrote anything for you guys (I've been involved in a really cool arrangement for clarinet choir, which was sent to a publisher yesterday) but I am back with some tips to help you sharpen your skills, musically OR athletically.
A little overview... while I've mentioned it before, I can't stress enough the value of books like Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and it's sister book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens." These books really lay it all out there and make it so you don't have to spend 20 years trying to reinvent the proverbial wheel. I don't think any of these tips are new or are complicated but when applied properly, they can help you achieve your dreams.
1. Here we go. The first item of importances is find yourself a teacher, coach, mentor, guru, etc. These are people who have walked the road you are walking and can probably lend some advice. I never improved as much in running as when I started training with a well-known South African coach in Boulder. He really knew how to get his athletes to perform. Additionally, he had the heart of a teacher and would explain to me the practical aspects of things I'd only discussed in science class (like mitochondria... who knew those little guys were so important). I will never forget him drawing me a picture of a muscle cell in the dirt behind the track after a workout one day. My musical development was a little different but both my main teachers led me down a path of self-exploration which led to dramatic improvement. These people know their stuff and, like the coach, helped me find my own path. People literally slingshot into high performance when they start working with an expert. Find someone you respect and can, sometimes blindly, trust to guide you where you have clearly communicated that you would like to be. If you are fairly self-motivated, maybe a once a month meeting or phone call will suffice. Other people prefer a once a week lesson and yet others would prefer to meet 5 times a week. You must figure out exactly where you are on that spectrum and clearly communicate that to your new guru. Additionally, make it worth their time. If they are good, they are busy and if they are busy, they are probably good. If you can afford daily coaching and are willing to put in the requisite practice or mileage (or whatever daily actions your pursuit requires), do it. You will not regret it. If you can't afford that (and most can't) then you will have to have a stronger degree of personal discipline to make this happen.
2. The second aspect is almost more important than the first: listen to your guru and do what he recommends! All the great teaching in the world is for naught if you ignore or don't practice what the experts you trust are recommending. A story of two students: Both came to me with a high degree of natural talent. One had a mediocre work ethic (at best) and the other works like a dog. As you may imagine, the dog-like worker has improved ten-fold in the short time we have known each other. This student comes to lessons prepared, asks lots of great questions, and has won accolades of which no one in the history of his community has ever even dreamed. I am 100% confident that if this student continues this upward trajectory, they will complete their goal of a DMA in clarinet one day. As you may expect: The other student has stayed about the same. There have been some improvements but they are few and far between. Am I feeding magic beans to the first student? That must be it! Or (reality check) the diligent student is trusting the mentor (me). I've seen this with athletes as well. They show up for training and then go home and either a.) sit on the couch with a bag of chips and a six pack of beer or b.) go out for another long run their coach has no idea is happening and think they'll somehow improve on his plan. The diligent athlete asks the coach: "what should I be doing in my downtime?" (the answer is usually hydrating and recovering). If you have a great training plan or think you know how to play your instrument perfectly, why do you employ a coach/teacher? If you are just filling in credits for a degree, is this fair to yourself, your school, your teacher or your future students? In my humble opinion, there are way too many clarinet teachers out there who can barely play the instrument and squeaked (small pun intended) through college. If you do not have a firm grip on it, what business does a private teacher have spreading bad habits on to students who, unknowingly, pay them to do that? Additionally, if you are on scholarship either for athletics or music or anything else and can manage to half-butt your way through your degree while keeping your scholarship, have you really helped your school (who is paying you the scholarship)? This is not uncommon at all but this self-centeredness is really bad behavior. Out of respect for your teachers and coaches, please adhere to their plans as best you are able. Don't feel bad about clarifying and re-clarifying your goals with your guru but if you trust them enough to pay them for their services and take up their time, you owe it to them to do the work!
3. Realistic reflection. Realistic reflection on this blog comes in several forms. The easiest and most measurable is the time trial. If an athlete can run a solid time trial, alone (especially on a track), they are capable of at least a 5-10% improvement on race day. This is an extremely hard discipline to master for me. We all reach that moment where the brain says "ah, it's ok, you can let off the gas a little and pick it up later." Someone needs to smack that guy in the face! That is exactly the moment to do as our high school sweatshirts formerly advised "Shut up and run!" Training for an ultra-marathon in this way can be tricky but not impossible. The aforementioned South African coach told me: "Josh, you have to run like a musician." There is really much in common: cadence of foot strike, rubato for climbs and descents, timing of nutrition and hydration, heaviness of the set up and relative comfort of the activity. I practice all of these at some point in my week. A week of running for me equals about a day of clarinet practice in terms of items practiced. But athletes aren't the only ones. Musicians face the same obstacles. Recordings are our time trials. A major difference being that we usually play better in practice than in concerts. I advise students to buy a cheap recorder that is easy to use and learn to make yourself sound good on it. If you are having trouble with a rhythmic issue, put the metronome on, start the recorder and play the excerpt. Notice where you and the metronome differ. Most likely, it's one small spot tripping up the rest of your performance. Go back and fix that spot by whatever means possible. When you're reasonably sure you have it turn on the metronome and recorder again. Is it right? Keep repeating this until you get it. This doesn't usually take long. Now record a larger section with and without the metronome. Remember that in an audition, you won't have that luxury. You can also practice pitch issues but putting the metronome on a drone pitch. Play the excerpt into the recording and you should be able to tell very quickly where your pitch is not quite right. Practice, re-record, repeat. Self-reflection is easy to understand but really hard to do when our ego gets in the way. The only way I've found to remedy this is to dissociate and talk to myself as though I were one of my students. The guys in adjacent offices must think I have multiple personalities. Either way, it works. Look in the mirror... is that the product you want? If not, what would you like to improve?
4. The final tip of the day is to remain a student. Even if you have a bunch of degrees hanging on your wall, remain a student... or as T.S. Elliot said in The Wasteland:
I am happy to be back to blogging. It has been a while since I last wrote anything for you guys (I've been involved in a really cool arrangement for clarinet choir, which was sent to a publisher yesterday) but I am back with some tips to help you sharpen your skills, musically OR athletically.
A little overview... while I've mentioned it before, I can't stress enough the value of books like Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and it's sister book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens." These books really lay it all out there and make it so you don't have to spend 20 years trying to reinvent the proverbial wheel. I don't think any of these tips are new or are complicated but when applied properly, they can help you achieve your dreams.
1. Here we go. The first item of importances is find yourself a teacher, coach, mentor, guru, etc. These are people who have walked the road you are walking and can probably lend some advice. I never improved as much in running as when I started training with a well-known South African coach in Boulder. He really knew how to get his athletes to perform. Additionally, he had the heart of a teacher and would explain to me the practical aspects of things I'd only discussed in science class (like mitochondria... who knew those little guys were so important). I will never forget him drawing me a picture of a muscle cell in the dirt behind the track after a workout one day. My musical development was a little different but both my main teachers led me down a path of self-exploration which led to dramatic improvement. These people know their stuff and, like the coach, helped me find my own path. People literally slingshot into high performance when they start working with an expert. Find someone you respect and can, sometimes blindly, trust to guide you where you have clearly communicated that you would like to be. If you are fairly self-motivated, maybe a once a month meeting or phone call will suffice. Other people prefer a once a week lesson and yet others would prefer to meet 5 times a week. You must figure out exactly where you are on that spectrum and clearly communicate that to your new guru. Additionally, make it worth their time. If they are good, they are busy and if they are busy, they are probably good. If you can afford daily coaching and are willing to put in the requisite practice or mileage (or whatever daily actions your pursuit requires), do it. You will not regret it. If you can't afford that (and most can't) then you will have to have a stronger degree of personal discipline to make this happen.
2. The second aspect is almost more important than the first: listen to your guru and do what he recommends! All the great teaching in the world is for naught if you ignore or don't practice what the experts you trust are recommending. A story of two students: Both came to me with a high degree of natural talent. One had a mediocre work ethic (at best) and the other works like a dog. As you may imagine, the dog-like worker has improved ten-fold in the short time we have known each other. This student comes to lessons prepared, asks lots of great questions, and has won accolades of which no one in the history of his community has ever even dreamed. I am 100% confident that if this student continues this upward trajectory, they will complete their goal of a DMA in clarinet one day. As you may expect: The other student has stayed about the same. There have been some improvements but they are few and far between. Am I feeding magic beans to the first student? That must be it! Or (reality check) the diligent student is trusting the mentor (me). I've seen this with athletes as well. They show up for training and then go home and either a.) sit on the couch with a bag of chips and a six pack of beer or b.) go out for another long run their coach has no idea is happening and think they'll somehow improve on his plan. The diligent athlete asks the coach: "what should I be doing in my downtime?" (the answer is usually hydrating and recovering). If you have a great training plan or think you know how to play your instrument perfectly, why do you employ a coach/teacher? If you are just filling in credits for a degree, is this fair to yourself, your school, your teacher or your future students? In my humble opinion, there are way too many clarinet teachers out there who can barely play the instrument and squeaked (small pun intended) through college. If you do not have a firm grip on it, what business does a private teacher have spreading bad habits on to students who, unknowingly, pay them to do that? Additionally, if you are on scholarship either for athletics or music or anything else and can manage to half-butt your way through your degree while keeping your scholarship, have you really helped your school (who is paying you the scholarship)? This is not uncommon at all but this self-centeredness is really bad behavior. Out of respect for your teachers and coaches, please adhere to their plans as best you are able. Don't feel bad about clarifying and re-clarifying your goals with your guru but if you trust them enough to pay them for their services and take up their time, you owe it to them to do the work!
3. Realistic reflection. Realistic reflection on this blog comes in several forms. The easiest and most measurable is the time trial. If an athlete can run a solid time trial, alone (especially on a track), they are capable of at least a 5-10% improvement on race day. This is an extremely hard discipline to master for me. We all reach that moment where the brain says "ah, it's ok, you can let off the gas a little and pick it up later." Someone needs to smack that guy in the face! That is exactly the moment to do as our high school sweatshirts formerly advised "Shut up and run!" Training for an ultra-marathon in this way can be tricky but not impossible. The aforementioned South African coach told me: "Josh, you have to run like a musician." There is really much in common: cadence of foot strike, rubato for climbs and descents, timing of nutrition and hydration, heaviness of the set up and relative comfort of the activity. I practice all of these at some point in my week. A week of running for me equals about a day of clarinet practice in terms of items practiced. But athletes aren't the only ones. Musicians face the same obstacles. Recordings are our time trials. A major difference being that we usually play better in practice than in concerts. I advise students to buy a cheap recorder that is easy to use and learn to make yourself sound good on it. If you are having trouble with a rhythmic issue, put the metronome on, start the recorder and play the excerpt. Notice where you and the metronome differ. Most likely, it's one small spot tripping up the rest of your performance. Go back and fix that spot by whatever means possible. When you're reasonably sure you have it turn on the metronome and recorder again. Is it right? Keep repeating this until you get it. This doesn't usually take long. Now record a larger section with and without the metronome. Remember that in an audition, you won't have that luxury. You can also practice pitch issues but putting the metronome on a drone pitch. Play the excerpt into the recording and you should be able to tell very quickly where your pitch is not quite right. Practice, re-record, repeat. Self-reflection is easy to understand but really hard to do when our ego gets in the way. The only way I've found to remedy this is to dissociate and talk to myself as though I were one of my students. The guys in adjacent offices must think I have multiple personalities. Either way, it works. Look in the mirror... is that the product you want? If not, what would you like to improve?
4. The final tip of the day is to remain a student. Even if you have a bunch of degrees hanging on your wall, remain a student... or as T.S. Elliot said in The Wasteland:
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