The Music Education Podcast
Listen for authentic and challenging conversation on all things music ed. Brought to you by Charanga. Hosted and produced by Chris Woods of The Chris Woods Groove Orchestra.
The Music Education Podcast
Episode 43 - 'How to Practise Music' Andrew Eales
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In this episode Chris chats with Andrew Eales about practise. Andrew is the author of 'How to Practice Music' and hosts the blog https://pianodao.com/
Welcome to the Music Education Podcast. I'm Chris of the Chris Woods Groove Orchestra, and this podcast is brought to you by the Soundstorm Music Education Hub. In this episode, I chat with Andrew Eels about practice. Now, of course, uh Andrew, as the author of the book How to Practice Music, is particularly well placed to have a conversation about these things. Practice is such an important part of every musician's life. So by default, it's a really important subject for us as music educators. Now, this conversation takes the idea of practice apart and examines it from different perspectives. And Andrew also offers some wonderful takeaway tips. So I hope you enjoy listening. Let's get stuck in. Andrew, thanks so much for joining me this morning. Can we start off with a bit of uh who you are and what you do?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you, Chris. It's it's great to be here and uh an honour. Um, so I'm basically a piano teacher. Um, that's that's what pays my bar tab. Um, but you know, kind of beyond that, I've got quite wide interests, um, many of which had sort of ended up on my blog at um www.pianodow.com. Um where you know people are interested, they can find out my views on all sorts of things there. Um and from the writing that I've done on there, that that kind of uh opened some doorways for me to write more more widely. Um, so my book How to Practice Music, um, which I think was the the stimulus for us having this chat, um, that's out from Hal Leonard. Um, and I'm doing some other work. I've got some composing and music editing and stuff like that that I'm doing um with Hal Leonard as well. So kind of I've moved beyond just teaching in my studio to trying to get the word out there um, you know, much more widely in terms of the the values and the views that I have um and the creative things that inspire me, really. Uh so that's that's about me.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful, thank you. I I'm very excited by the fact that you uh described your work um as covering your bar tab, uh suggesting that you prioritise that above where people would usually say covering the rent. Or maybe that your bar tab is higher than your rent. I'm interested. Um unfortunately not, but but quite right. The stimulus or or the inspiration behind the conversation was to talk about practice, and being a chap who wrote a book on it would suggest that at the very least, you know, we're gonna have a good chat about practice. It's a huge one for music teachers, isn't it? It's a point of sort of much frustration for music teachers, ironically, who usually probably don't practice much themselves. Um what's the you you you mentioned views, for example. You know, what what are your views and feelings on practice?
SPEAKER_01Well, that that's that is a like a really interesting introduction, in a way, because uh kind of what I found with uh when I sat down to write the book, um, because because how Leonard actually came to me with the idea for the book, um, and I thought, well, I'm a music teacher, what do I know about practice? You know, as we quite rightly say, most can teachers don't spend three hours a day practicing. Um, but I wanted to make sure that in writing a book it was actually appropriate for people right across the board from the smallest child having their first lesson on the on the on the violin right through to the conservatoire student um who's practicing for hours every day. Um and some of those things are quite a quite you know buried in my past somewhat. Um so obviously I started to sort of research this and think through the brief. Um, and the more I thought about it, the the the bigger a topic I realised practice is, um, because it really covers everything, I think. Um, and so although although the book is like a small 80-page sort of pocketbook, um, you could literally fit in a guitar case. Um it really does attempt to answer all of the big questions in the simplest way. Um, but really starting with the question, what is music? Where does music even come from? Um, so when we think about that question, uh, you know, we might think well, it comes from your instrument, and then you think well, it comes from your playing. Um, but actually you can go a lot further and think, well, you know, perhaps perhaps music comes from the psyche, from our intention, um, from the heart, uh, from the creative spark. Um, and praxis is is gonna be anything. You if if that's our definition of where music comes from, practice is gonna be anything that feeds and improves that process, um, you know, from right, from the that creative spark or from that intention. So I think practice isn't just about technique um and playing your scales for 10 minutes a day, um, but it's really about where does music come from and how do we improve the music that we make. Um, so I took took really the broadest view, and then from that from that starting point came down to answer all the basic questions like what do you do about your neighbours and where do you go to practice? You know, what what sort of stuff do you have in the room with you when you're practicing? Um, and right through to breaking down a piece and learning a piece, doing your 10 minutes of scales, whatever it is, all that stuff's in the book. Um, but my view is that we need to take a really widescreen kind of look at this. Um, so ultimately, ultimately in the book, it sort of covers everything that sort of covers how we although it's called how how to practice music, I guess you could use it as a focus of how we teach music, how we perform music. It's it's kind of all in there in a way.
SPEAKER_00Because did you it you sort of did a uh did a little bit of a definition there um very briefly, which I think I heard correctly. Did you say improving or focusing attention or something like that? Did I hear that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um so if you take uh improvising, for example. Um improvising is something that that we might practice. Um most people don't walk on stage and improvise without practicing improvising as a skill. Um but where does that come from? So it comes from our creative intention. Um and really good improvisers, they have an idea in their head before it comes out of their their mouth or their fingers or or you know, whatever instrument they're playing. Um and uh and the book is actually written for all instruments and vocals and and through to all the instruments, it's it's it's very generic. Um so yeah, intention. What what do we want to hear? What's what's the music that we've got kind of inside, however that works. Um what what is it that we want this music to sound like and how do we get from here to there?
SPEAKER_00And that feels like your sort of uh definition, if you like, of what practice is at the at the core.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So it's it's not just um the things that the teacher's written in a notebook for the student to go away and work on. It's it's so much more than that, really. Um and I I touch on just all of those things as much as I can in a book, but it's uh you know, the brief of the book is that it's a tiny little handbook, um, but that it covers all of those things. Um so there's sections on, for example, what do you do in a break? You know, if you if you've got a two-hour practice session, you're gonna hopefully have a break. Certainly I recommend you do. Um, but what do you do during that break? Um, you know, that's that's the question, because it's gonna have an impact on what you do when you come back from your break.
SPEAKER_00Well, let let's before we get into the the mechanics of it and your sort of recommendations of that, because I think that'll be a a fascinating sort of little toolbox to almost um move towards in the sort of second half of things. But we seem to have stumbled upon straight away this sort of philosophical question about practice because that's certainly what I was um thinking about over the weekend ahead of this conversation was just reflecting on how I practice. Now I practice quite a lot because I go out and play and try and not look rubbish or be rubbish. That's that's like that's the main focus, but it may uh I find and have described before that there's sort of a practice element uh where I am trying to directly improve something, um, and then there is a purely creative and creation element, if you like, of where there is no there is no intention. Um and I try and sort of separate those two things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is that sort of unique? Is that do you think that's wrong?
SPEAKER_01Do you think you know no? I I I think that's um I think that's wonderful. Um what what do you play, Chris?
SPEAKER_00I play a little bit of guitar. Uh you shouldn't probably know that, don't worry. That's good. Yeah, guitar's my thing, but um I I actually play lots of instruments um, you know, at a sort of a minimal uh tet level of technicality, but guitar, in a for want of a uh better phrase, you know, sort of virtuosic level, if you like, you know, technique obsessed. So it is kind of I must practice to reach that ability, but then I have to sort of keep the creative bit over there to stop me just becoming a you know a machine, if you like, and try and separate those. And it's quite I just always quite interested by that that difference and with students as well, of separating whether it's even positive to separate the creative bit of just playing for the joy of playing because that that always feels weird as well. Talking to a young kid of of you know seven and saying, Well, go and practice. It seems kind of absurd because it feels like, well, just go and play this word play. You're uh you're you're seven years old, that's what you like to do, so just go and play, go and enjoy and explore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, that's um that's all of that is wonderful, and and music to my ears and exactly at the heart of what I write about, actually, in the book. Um, because I think play, um, if we can get to the play state, then then we're there. Um, and actually, um, it's great to hear a guitarist because I think guitarists are possibly the most rounded practisers out there, in my experience.
SPEAKER_00Um, I've got to I mean we're really great people, Andrew. Guitarists are the best, they really are.
SPEAKER_01I I think also guitarists sort of they what what I love about the guitarists I know when it comes to music practice is that they understand both sides of it. You know, they want to learn all these sort of um modal scales and things, and they can really obsess about that, but at the same time they can jam for two hours without thinking what they're doing, and I think both those things do have a place. Um, so exactly what you've said about your practice is is spot on. Um, and in the book, I kind of I define that, and and in my own practice and teacher, I define that as actually having two different styles of practice session. Um, so first of all, you can have a routine practice session, and that's the one where you get your journal out if you have a practice journal of some kind, or you can use your practice app and tick all the boxes, um, and you can go through your list of things that you're supposed to be doing. So practice your scales, maybe a bit of sight reading, uh, work on the piece that you're on, get the you know, chunk with it, you know, break it down into little chunks and and do all the nitty-gritty stuff. Um, and I think that sort of practice is the sort of practice that most people mean when they use the word practice. Um but then I think there's this deep dive session you can have as well, which I see as a separate thing. And how I how I talk about this with my students is to say, look, try and try and do a routine practice most days, you know, whether it's 15 minutes or an hour, you know, or whatever it is, depending on on the level of the player. But try and do that routine thing as often as possible and have some discipline with it. But set aside an hour or two at the weekend when you've got nothing else on where you just sit down and play, um, and and don't have any goals. Because um, I mean, play um play is a topic that's um I've been reading a lot about and learning a lot about. I think it's a fascinating topic. Um, but play, generally speaking, it doesn't have goals. Um, so you're not ticking anything off the list. It it's almost like that's the definition of play, is that it's purposeless, it has no function whatsoever. Um, and we're not going to achieve anything in this session at all, you know, it's just purely for the fun of it, um, you know, for the giggles, as it were. Um, and so it kind of you've got you've got that to it, and also play, you make it up as you go along. So it's it's by definition it's improvisatory. Um, and if we sort of dial that down to other kind of um places in life, other bits of life, you know. Think think I I think back when I was playing as a boy in my back garden. Um, there was one summer where I learned a huge amount about ladybirds, um, just because I was playing in my back garden, and there happened to be a lot of them that year, and and then I sort of thought, well, this is interesting, some of them got more spots on them than others, and I started looking up a little bit about them, and it you kind of get the idea. Um, I think when we're playing, we inadvertently learn all kinds of things that we wouldn't otherwise learn or even think about learning. Um, and so it's hugely beneficial, even though it's apparently purposeless and doesn't have any, you know, kind of particular function or goal. So I think it's really important that we all do that as musicians, and unfortunately, I think a lot of musicians don't do that at all. Um, but uh no, I think I think it's spot on really that you do. Um that's that's definitely the goal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it's really uh really interesting that what you're describing there and what you learn from the play. And that I I know in a lot of conversations that I've had with other musicians, their story and their journey to being a musician or a composer has resulted in some kind of discovery themselves rather than through what a teacher has presented to them. Most recent podcast with uh an artist who works with synthesizers, um electronic music, but started off with piano lessons very rigid and structured, but then discovered something through their own play and then found kind of found the passion to then practice and to you know work away from you know to sound better. D do you do you think is is there a sort of a a structure to practice in the sense that there is a time to practice? So uh when it comes to a a stages of instruments, or we've just you've lesson one on guitar, you know, do you in your opinion, should there be no practice at the this point? Do you think this should just be discovery and play? And do you think practice should only come when there is an actual need to progress?
SPEAKER_01Um I think in terms of the routine practice, that's that's definitely the case. In terms of the broader definition of practice as being everything we do that contributes to to getting the music out, then I think that you know, uh for example, with that, then listening. Whenever you sit down and listen to music, that's practice, in my view. Because that's actually contributing to the overall thing that you're gonna do. Um, you know, whether you know it might be on in the background, even. But I think beginner players need to be listened to music, they need to be out there singing and doing all the all the kind of stuff that that we're passionate about in music education, that's gonna contribute to how they play. Yeah, but then the routine bit, I think that comes later. Um, I know I differ from a lot of piano teachers from conversations I have with them on this, but I I I never set practice uh in inverted commas for uh for the little kitties when they're first coming for their first lessons, because all I want them to do is go home and show their mum and dad what they've learned, what they can play. Um, and that that of course is practice, um, and anything they do from there is is a bonus, really. Um but there could there does come a point obviously within a few weeks where you maybe you started to introduce notation, so the little bit of independence begins to creep into their learning, they're not just dependent on the teacher to show them everything anymore because because that's I I think it's important we think about the independence curve, as it were. We think about the progress curve, you know. To what extent is this player, is this student becoming more uh you know, more advanced? They've gone through grade one, grade two, grade three, you know. We often think of progress in this sort of rather silly linear way. Um, but I think we need to equally be focused on independence. You know, how much music is this person making independently? What can they do? Can they pick up music and read it? Can they hear something on the radio and have a go at pick it up by ear? Whatever it is, but that that independence that doesn't happen until certain skills are in place, I don't think. So uh the kind of there is a shift of balance between the lesson and the practice during those early stages of playing.
SPEAKER_00So the is is what you're saying that the routine practice element has to come in then to to enable that independent development?
SPEAKER_01Um I think it's yeah, it's quite symbiotic, I would say. Um I th I think that one grows and and feeds the other, um, and so it becomes like a virtuous kind of cycle of the two things feeding each other in a way. Um but uh I mean uh but then the play bit, of course. Uh when I was very first learning the piano, my mum would um come storming into the room when I was doing my practice and say, go on with what you've been told to do.
SPEAKER_00Stop enjoying life and exploring things.
SPEAKER_01I think my earliest goal was when I got into music. I mean, I was nine when I started playing, but I wanted to compose because I'd I'd read the the Ladybird book of the great composers, and I thought these guys are quite interesting, you know. I want to do that.
SPEAKER_00There's a lady there's a ladybird thing. They've delivered a lot to you in life, haven't they?
SPEAKER_01Their publications are superb, as well as the work they do in the garden, it's it's all good. Um but but yeah, it was uh kind of so I quite early on I realised that with if you if you had a chord with three notes or an arpeggio or or whatever that you could improvise with this and do crazy stuff and sound like a virtuoso, you know, going up and down the piano. Um and it was much more interesting than the stuff in Canada Lessons Book One or whatever it was, you know. Um so but my mum would constantly just have to come in and try and put me back on track because for me the routine practicing um was never the most joyous part of playing an instrument. Um, and uh actually I think for for most people that manage to do something with music, that's probably true, you know. Um certainly from it the the creative musician. Um I don't know, maybe that sounds a bit controversial in a way, but I think creative musicians are oh you might I think it well we let's be controversial.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I certainly feel that man. I mean um if the the the long hard slog of this routine practice for me tends to focus around rehearsing compositions that I've created. So even though I'm actually rehearsing music that I might you know have a real stake in because I made it, it's a real it's a necessity. And I think with that, the fact that I I need to do that is almost everything that I didn't get into music for because I didn't need to do you don't need to do music, do you? It's just it's a it's a thing. There's no need to progress in music, is there? That's the the wonderful bit about it. And then when you're in a position where you have to, it feels well. Maybe I've got a chip on my shoulder, but I feel like, hey, no, you can't tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_01Right, that's that's that's true. I mean, even like the structure of my book, and you know, it's um it starts with as I say, it starts with this idea where does music come from? Um, and then it and then it goes on to like why do we practice? Um, and it starts to talk about motivation as a sort of chunk on that. And then it gets into the discipline stuff because obviously it needs to cover those things. You know, how do we go about practicing scales? How do we how do we work on sight reading? How do we start a new piece? All of those basic questions that that we want to know. But when we get to and then it's sort of a section on like practicing mindfully, having breaks, all that kind of thing. But it gets to sort of like the punchline, really, you know, that final section in the book. Um, and that just begins with playfulness. That that section is called how to practice playing, because that's where it really ultimately leads. You know, no one no one comes to me and says, I'd like to learn how to work an instrument. They they come to me and they say, I want to know how to play an instrument. Um, and that that really is the goal.
SPEAKER_00Teach me to play, teach me to be playful, teach me to.
SPEAKER_01I do I mean, I do get people who come to me and say, I want to be able to do grade three piano or whatever it is, and I think that's a bit sad as a goal, you know, as a place, but you want to learn how to play, how to play the piano, how to really engage with music and and do something wonderful that expresses yourself from deep within, you know. That sort of that that I think these these are the big goals, aren't they? These are the big ideas of music, ultimately where it goes. Um, and and I think uh it's easy to lose track of that in education because everything's about um kind of you know, we have curriculum, we have syllabus, we have you know assessment, uh, we have goals, we have targets, um, and we live in a culture that's very much driven by extrinsic external factors. Um, and when it comes to play, we're really talking about intrinsic things, intrinsic motivation. Um, and uh it's it's it's very dear to me to make sure that my students um are developing that intrinsic motivation, and I think we have to be careful um with with how we go about that, um, because it it doesn't have a goal, and you can't you can't get a certificate for it ultimately. Um, but it underpins everything we ultimately do, and it the two things feed each other, of course, because you know we don't want to just mess mess around in education, we do want to you know be able to look at what we've learned. Do we not? We do, but but it's it's those two things, isn't it? Always always symbiotic, yeah, intrinsic, extrinsic. If we do mess around, then we'll have something to show for it, you know, whether it's an encyclopedic knowledge of ladybirds, um, or an ability to to do a brilliant lead guitar solo, you know. But we'll have something that comes from that. Um, and that's the point where we can then sort of look at what we've achieved and assess that and say, yeah, that was good. Um the two things feed each other because it's the more we stick to curriculum, we'll we're we're putting more toys in the toy box, aren't we? So uh so these things have to go together. The the more we learn, you know. If you don't know your scales and arpeggios, then there's a lot less you can create. And when you come to learn a piece of music, then you don't recognise the pattern so easily, and it takes a lot longer, becomes a chore. You know, on the piano, you don't know what finger to put where if you've not learnt those technical skills. So I think it's it's a case of of looking at the whole thing and not neglecting either either side of that. It's like yin and yang, they they both need to be there. You've got to have the discipline, the routine, but you've got to have the play as well.
SPEAKER_00When when it comes to the guidance that uh a tutor or teacher offers to a student, and I mean guidance in the sense of literally guiding them down a particular path, what do you what do you think about that? And and what I'm referring to here really is the idea that is that the the teacher knows the goal and the the things that we suggest to a student that we correct in that playing. For example, in guitar, um thumb over the neck okay, is a real point of divisive uh debate, I suppose. And I've always been really fascinated by it's a very illogical, um physically uh limiting thing to do in some respects because your wrist is in this uneconomical position, but then in other ways it opens up other things. Hendricks did it, okay? But in the the sort of how to teach guitar book, we tend to keep away from that, but Hendrix did it. So when as teachers, when you're making those choices and you're saying no practice this way, um you know this that that comes with great responsibility, doesn't it? I mean, what how how do you feel about that in the direct that's what the word is I'm after, isn't it? Is directing practice. Um how how do you feel about about that?
SPEAKER_01Um that's that's an interesting question, because sort of you're talking about technique in a way. Um I think we have to be quite directional with it because um we don't ever want to be inadvertently responsible for a student getting some kind of repetitive strain injury. Um, you know, so we we we have to think about wellness, we have to think about you know developing a healthy technique. Um, and I think that applies to practice too, you know. I I mentioned earlier about taking breaks, you know. So again, I've got a whole chapter about breaks. You know, what do you do in your break? What do you do? Do you go off and you know, smoke a cigarette outside or what? You know, what do we do when we take a break?
SPEAKER_00It's fantastically inappropriate advice for a school, maybe for uh relevant to some of your older students. I teach a lot of adults, yeah. It's good, little disclaimer though, sort of like that.
SPEAKER_01But I think it's important that we you know give guidance, but I don't think I mean the the the point, the technical point you're making now, I'm not guitarist, but uh a piano equivalent would be how curved should the fingers be when playing the piano. Um, you know, and you've got these people that like this or like that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01You've got these people like Horovitz who played with flat fingers, um, and then you get people that play with very curved fingers. So where's the where's the balance? Well, there there are some some physiological factual things to say about that that you can go through with a student. Um but ultimately uh if you're teaching children and teenagers, their bodies are still developing anyway, their physiology is still um in flux. Um when we're teaching adults, then their physiology is is often quite rigid and and set, and and so the the potential and the possibilities are different. Um so I think I think uh it's important not to be dogmatic, I guess, is where I'm going with this. Um I think I think we have to treat every student as an individual, even if we're teaching in groups, you know, we have to think about every student uh individually, um as as much as we can and think, well what's what's does this student what what are they interested in? What music makes them buzz? Um and uh you know how does that fit into the bigger story of their life? Um, you know, all of that stuff. But also look at look at them, you know, physically. I've I had someone approach me recently who only had um nine digits on their hands, and had a finger missing, you know. So it's like, can I play the piano? Well, yeah, you can play the piano, but we're gonna need to we probably can't use piano lessons but one or whatever it is, because it's gonna keep telling you to use a finger that you don't have. So we have to adapt things, yeah, yeah. You know, and and uh that's a sort of a and a very simple uh uh kind of illustration that answers the question, but I think we just have to be really uh treat everyone as an individual, really, and not get too dogmatic.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. Can we go with uh Andrew's top ten tips for uh for practice? Well that would be dogmatic now, wouldn't it? Tips, tips there top ten tips uh and number one number one could be to uh you know take each one with a pinch and salt. In fact, I'll say top ten, and if you if you get to eight and you've run out, I'll go back and uh I'll edit in the over top eight.
SPEAKER_01This is um yeah, um this is an impossible question, Chris. Um or just words of wisdom. Words of wisdom. Um goodness. Well, I mean I think the first thing to do is to before you even practice, just make sure you've got all the things you need and the space to do it in and an instrument that's good and all of that, so that you can actually engage with what you're doing. Um, I think a lot of people just run up to the piano and start practicing or or you know get their flute out of the box, quickly put it together, try and get this done before you know, before Strictly comes on tele or whatever it is they want to do. Um, and and there's not a thoughtfulness about the space in which they're practicing and the stuff they've got. So my first tip would be think about that before you get started. You know, make sure you've got the things you need, um, you know, uh, so that you don't have to keep going off and interrupting the flow. Um and you know, there's a word, isn't there? Check check your neighbours aren't trying to record a podcast at the time, you know. Um just sort of you know be considerate, all of that stuff. So I guess that that would come first. Um and then try and approach everything. So tip number two, try and approach everything thoughtfully or mindfully, um, or with intention. So even if it's putting the rosin on a bow or or you know kind of tuning your guitar, try and make it a creative um and a musical experience. Think about how you can do that so that as you enter into practice, you're not just warming up physically and technically, um you're actually warming up musically in terms of your musical intention. Um and then so tip number three.
SPEAKER_00Haven't I can we can can we can we stop around one and two? Because I'm particularly excited by those, because you've you said flow in the first one, and you're talking about mindful, uh mindful approach, essentially like connecting with your instrument, aren't you? Yeah, you're I I f I feel like you're dusting over some profoundly um you know, almost really desperately for want of a better word, but I can't find it almost spiritual connection to an instrument here, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01And I think that I think that needs to start from day one as well.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, that wasn't it wasn't the question, I just wanted to draw that uh because it just I think it's wonderful that they're the first sort of points one and two, uh which is interesting because I don't really see that particularly often often written in you know school um standard practice diaries that are issued to the perries, you know, is that that the idea of the idea because I think um uh young people are particularly aware more than ever of mindful approaches of being able to shift focus from fingers to elbow to you know movements that they make in those things. They are things that young people are really aware of, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. Do you think they're do you think they're worth drawing attention to to even quite young students?
SPEAKER_01Um definitely, yeah. I've sort of skipped a whole section in in if I was gonna get my ten tips out of my book, I've skipped a whole section on planning, you know, planning your practice, which is probably worth throwing in very quickly and passing as number three, you know, plan what you want to do. Um but number four is I've got a whole section about warming up, and I think that's that's a point where um some of that takes place away from the instrument too. You know, how how wonderful if before you go and practice in inverted commas you sit down and listen to some music, you know, and get and get into that. Um how wonderful if literally dialing in, tuning in, exactly, yeah. Um, and tuning your ear in um or do some singing, you know, but also how wonderful. Um, so what was that? That's number four, number five.
SPEAKER_00Um we we did we seem to miss number three. I don't know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01You listen back, you'll find it was there.
SPEAKER_00Okay, alright. If it's not, I'm gonna be very disappointed actually.
SPEAKER_01It was it was planning.
SPEAKER_00We skipped over it, but yeah, that was there. Um why did we skip planning? Do we not like planning?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think I think probably most people listening to this understand about planning.
SPEAKER_00So uh you mean teachers have had enough of of planning. Okay, all right, fair play, fair play. All right, onwards then, onwards.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, so yeah, so where were we? About number five-ish, something like that. It's good to it's good to do some physical stretches and some breathing, that kind of thing. Um, again, in the book I've got some breathing exercises you can do. Um, and that's not just for singers and and trombone players and flute players and so on, but you know, pianists, guitarists, everyone. It's it's really beneficial to do spend sort of three or four minutes doing some breathing exercises. Now, if you've only got 10-15 minutes to practice, you're not going to do that, obviously. But if you're doing a longer practice session, why not just spend a few moments quieting down, stretching? You know, if you're you know, I I a lot of my piano students, I do a sim I show them a simple chigung exercise that they can use um that loosens the wrist and draws attention to tension and release within the wrist area so that when they then sit down Can you teach us for an audible could you teach us in an audible way or is that not possible? Um probably not, no, probably not. It is on the Piano Dell site somewhere that I've got a section about it with some qigung stretches and stuff, which are quite quite useful. Um I find that sort of it's interesting. If um in piano we talk about tension a fair amount, probably much too much. Um because if you talk about it, it probably makes you tense. Um but yeah, I mean if if the wrist is getting too locked and you're feeling some discomfort there, um, then there are sort of simple exercises you can do that just draw attention to those things. Because it's like walking down the street. We learn to do it when we're younger, we learn how we move, we keep moving the same way, we don't think about it any longer. And people do that when they're playing an instrument, they they we we go on to autopilot because the brain has got millions of things going on at once, or someone will write in and say it's only 10,000 or something, you know, but I don't know the I don't know the number, but there's lots of things going on in the brain simultaneously. Um, and so the things that we're confident with, we kind of zone out, you know. We don't think about how we walk down the street, but there's lots going on there. Um, yeah, so even more if you're walking back from the pub, um there's a lot going on in terms of thoughts um and and how we move. And so if we do some exercises that draw our focus back to how things feel, then that can be very helpful in changing the way we move. So that that comes down to every aspect of playing an instrument, the technique of it, that stuff. Um it's all very well. My piano teacher used to say, Andrew, relax your shoulders, but they never told me how. Yeah, how do you relax your shoulders? Um Relax!
SPEAKER_00Relax Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So just simply saying to someone, relax something usually makes them more tense, not less tense. You've got to find something to do. So so physical stretches and breathing can address that. Um, just you know, moving on, because I've waffled a lot about number five. Um so number six, I'd say practice some core skills. That's tip tip number six. Um I think it whatever instrument and whatever the goal is for a session, it's good to do some core skills, by which I mean um the things that address technique, uh, the things that address our understanding, um, and the things that address our creativity. I would say those are the three kind of the core treasures of being able to play um an instrument. So you know, pick one on one of those things and then see how you can integrate the other two into it. That would be my tip. So if you if you've decided uh well, we're gonna work on techniques, I'm gonna do some long notes, you know, on the flute, whatever, whatever you're playing. Um, I'm gonna do some long notes or do so to try and build into that some understanding. So if you're maybe not very advanced, you could pick notes on the stave and think, okay, uh that note is a high D, so I'm gonna play a long note with that note. So you're actually engaging the reading as well. Um, and then think about engaging the creativity. Let's play this long note quietly, let's play it loudly, let's crescendo, let's diminuendo, let's do all the different creative things, and then let's see if I can make a piece using just this note, um, you know, and start putting some rhythm in rather than just playing a long note. Um, so we can we can use core skills in a very holistic way as a way of launching into practicing something else. There's obviously a real danger that you launch into a free form play session at this point and that you don't do any of the routine practice at all.
SPEAKER_00Oh no! Oh no! They've gone down the rabbit hole of creativity and freedom.
SPEAKER_01But I think even when we're even when we're doing routine practice, okay, can we call this number seven? Because I'm running out of ideas already. I think it was number seven. So we're we're kind of even when we're doing our core skills and our routine practice, try to make it playful and enjoyable. Never it we call we could call it routine practice, but please don't make it routine. Try and make it interesting, um, and and keep a musical focus and everything. Um, so there we go. That's that's number um seven. So number eight is gonna be about pieces, because we've got all this way up to number eight, and we haven't played a piece, but playing a piece of music has got to be obviously the biggest focus of all, and that's why we're here. Um, so uh in the book, there's so many tips about how to play a piece, um, and it would be impossible to summarize all of those. So I'm just gonna leave this simple tip play a piece, um, and there it is. Um I I I'll add to that and I'll make this number nine because this is a distinctive thing. Um, play an active repertoire piece. So by active repertoire means something you can already play really well. I think that's a really key thing to try and put into practice because too often we approach practice with a list of things we can't do, um, and that can be a very corrosive negative experience, and we can come away thinking I got nothing done in that practice session, it was rubbish. Um, but how good to actually include something you can already play. I I encourage all my students to have three pieces that they can play. Um, I think as guitarists, you're you're great at this. If if if we were at a party and there's a guitar, you'd pick it up and play a hundred tunes and everyone would sing along. And and it wouldn't you wouldn't bat an eyelid doing that, I'm sure. Um, but if you get a pianist at a party and there's a piano in the room, and they say, Give us a tune, you know, a lot of pianists are just completely clam up at that point, and they they have no no clue what to do. Um, because it's like, well, I finished playing Allegro last month, um, but I haven't learned andante yet, and I haven't got my music book with me, and you know, so you you quickly get this whole long list of things that basically you say what can you play, and the answer is well, not a lot right now. Um, and it's it's crazy that people could play an instrument for years but not have a tune up their sleeve that they can just play if they see a piano in a station somewhere that they can't just sit down and play something. So I think it's really important to have active repertoire pieces, pieces we can play, um, preferably from memory um and certainly with confidence. Um, and it's it's good to include that in the practice. Was that nine?
SPEAKER_00Just just just um whatever. Uh I think it might be, yeah. Um do you mean just from a perspective of actually to um reinforce uh some motivation to lift morale, even just the fact that you've got something that you can get out of the bag and and enjoy playing, maybe even receive a bit of positive feedback, grow the ego a little bit, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all of that, all of that. I think it's sort of it if there's a goal, that is it, isn't it? To be able to play something and and give other people pleasure who if they have to be listening, you know, and and express yourself through that music. Um, and we rarely do that when we're practicing, which is interesting, isn't it? Um so I think that has to be now. That should probably be number one on the list, but I think it's number nine, so I'm gonna finish off number ten. Um, if a fire breaks out, um leave in a calm manner by the nearest exit. Um, and that's that's gonna be my number ten because you put me on the spot, and there it is.
SPEAKER_00I did I think you did fantastically well. Um I mean there was so much at the rest of the podcast anyway. I just like the idea of a little toolkit to go away. I I mean to be honest, Andrew, just this this whole uh perspective on just the word, the sort of semantics of practice and playing. Teach me to play, let's practice playing. Uh I think is I mean, that's just enough for me, and I reckon a lot of educators, whatever it is to do, just to go and think go and think long and hard about that idea of you know the intention of why you're doing this. Are you are we teaching people we're teaching people to play, to to do stuff without without intention almost.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely, to to to be able to spontaneously express ourselves with an instrument of our choice, um, to be able to recreate what other people have done, as well as creating our own thing. Um and and for that to be a deep, meaningful part of our life and and who we are as individuals, you know. Um a lot of people learn the guitar but wouldn't think of themselves as a guitarist, you know. But there there comes that point where identification sets in because it becomes a fundamental part of who you know, the music becomes a fundamental part of our identity and of who we are and of what what our life is really about. You know, if we go back another step, you know, what's the what's the meaning of life, you know? Um well maybe the meaning of life when we get beyond the basics is you know survival, is play. You know, perhaps perhaps that's you know I I think that must be a big a big answer to a big question, but it's and it's not the whole answer, of course. And you know, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean Andrew, we started talking about practice and you know we've managed to answer the meaning of life question, which I I want to say was unexpected, but somehow I knew I knew that would happen. Uh it's been an absolute joy. Thank you so much. Thank you, Tommy.
SPEAKER_01It's been wonderful. Lovely to meet you. Thank you.