If You’re Serious, Practice

The title of this post is taken from Ethan Iverson’s DTM blog. It’s a statement that haunts me. I had a teacher tell me once that if you practice one day and don’t practice the next, then the second day cancels the first. This can be a very depressing axiom to live by. If I do the math correctly that means I’m probably going backwards to a point in time before I ever picked up an instrument. That may be a little extreme but it’s a thought that I’ve pondered often.

But today was a good day. I didn’t have to use my AK. No…seriously. I got some good hours in the shed. Working on my chops. Running some tunes. That’s jazz talk for “I practiced a lot of music today.” About 5 hours worth, spread throughout the day with several breaks in between. This is ideal. If I could do this every day I’d be killing it in a few months. That’s jazz talk for “I’d be playing really well.”

It was a beautiful day today. The sky was bright blue and the sun was a blazin’. A perfect beach day. And the thought crossed my mind. But I’d been lazy and missed several days of practice. So I stayed home and went to work. First off, I’ll be the first to admit that I am lazy. I need to do this more often. And I need to put everything else aside and do this first. Daily if possible. That practice guilt sits over my head like a dark cloud. But after some coffee and breakfast, some emails, and just dicking around on the interenet for a bit (arrrrggghhh!!!) I finally dove into it.

Practice is hard for me and often frustrating. I have trouble focusing. I go off on tangents that I don’t realize I’m on until half an hour has gone by. Then I sit there trying to remember what it was I sat down to do. But today I really just got in there. Distractions or no distractions. If I went down one path, I tried to take it until I could go no further. Developing the idea until I had gotten what I needed out of it. I feel that this is the way to do it now. If you have the time and a notebook with a list of objectives that can always steer you back to the original path, then it’s best to maintain that energy that spurred you off into a tangent and just go with it. Wherever that immediacy is, you have to follow it. Otherwise, practicing gets dull and you get nothing out of it.

NO PAIN NO GAIN

By the end of the day my finger looked like this. You can’t see it well but that’s a nice callus I’ve developed on my right index finger. It comes from hitting the other strings with the back of my finger while doing heavy rest strokes with the risha. This is my favorite sound on the oud. Very Hamza El Din. At least I hope that’s what I’m sounding like. I put a new heavy string on the bottom. It’s a .54 Classical D’Addario. It barely made it in the groove of my nut. I’m sorry that sounds gross but it’s true. With the extra resistance now I can hit it hard and not worry that my hand is going to slip and hit the other strings which was happening to me a lot. It sounds awesome too.

FAT BOTTOMED OUD….you make the rockin’ world go round.

Practicing can also be emotionally taxing which is why I think so many of us put it off. You’re home alone all day doing repetitive motions and hearing the same song or phrase or exercise over and over and over and over….It’s kind of what a crazy person does. By the second hour I was anxious. Was it the coffee or is my brain on overdrive? My first instinct was to drink more coffee but instead I went for some chamomile. It did the trick. It’s my practice beverage of choice now. Clearly, I need to build up some endurance.

So perfect practice day is over. Tomorrow I work 9 to 5 (If only someone would pay me to be a musician, what a novel idea). Then I’m going to a friend’s gig. So my whole day is shot. Oh no!! If I don’t practice tomorrow then I have to erase whatever I accomplished today. Is that true? I hope not.