This article introduces new PartTimeMusician.com writer JP Montgomery. JP is a guitarist/bassist who will be contributing from time to time on a variety of subjects. JP’s hobbies include playing music, listening to music, and hanging out with his girlfriend…but not necessarily in that order. :-)
Sitting alone in a room with the door closed and drilling all-too-familiar exercises is no fun for anyone. When I started playing guitar (and later, bass), I wanted to get rolling as quickly as possible. Who doesn’t?!? And once I got to a basic level of playing competence…well, I still didn’t want to waste a lot of time with boring exercises. Here’s what I do.
Warm Up with Scales
Well, that sounds boring, doesn’t it? You have to know the notes, but playing them doesn’t have to be a drudge! Add some pep to it, change up the rhythms, slur (winds), run patterns of notes, etc. Mix it up! This gets you warmed up, reinforces your scales in your head, and keeps things from getting lame. :-)
Play some Challenging Music
After you’re warmed up, grab some challenging music from your stack and get busy. Whether it’s new music (for sight-reading, technique development, etc.) or just a piece you’ve been working on that remains just outside of your reach, this is the time to tackle it. Push yourself, but have fun with it. Work on that new chord, practice the riff your favorite lead player or bassist throws in during the best part of your favorite song, or whatever. Imagine yourself playing it for your buddies next week – that always gets me going!
Grab some TABs, Plug in the Tunes, and PLAY!
This is the dessert portion of the practice session. Plug your iPod into your amp via Line In (Editor’s note: See earlier article Really USE your practice amp for tips on this, especially if your amp doesn’t have a dedicated Line In plug), grab some tablature or sheet music, and just kick it! If you know the music well, experiment (remember those grooves we were talking about earlier?). If it’s a new piece you’ve been dying to play, just work your way into it and live in the moment! There is just something about playing along with your favorite artist/group that really gets the juices going. In fact, you may have to make yourself put down the axe once you’ve gotten to this point!
Simple as it is, it keeps me driving forward. Give it a try! Life doesn’t always have to be hard, you know. :-)
Peace,
JP
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Tags: bass, enjoy, fun, Guitar, JP Montgomery, practice, practicing, scales, secrets, TAB, three
Bass Guitar, General, Guitar, Learning | JP January 22, 2011 | 
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As the parent of some very talented musicians (as many of us are!), I am always interested to see news of educational opportunities for future generations of musicians, part-time or otherwise. As such this tidbit really caught my eye.
New Music School?
This article from our friends at Just So You Know claims that Michael Jackson’s former residence/compound, Neverland Ranch, could become a top-notch music school. Colony Capital, now owner of the King of Pop’s expansive property, has filed plans with Santa Barbara County and awaits approval, but it’s difficult (for me, at least) to envision a better use for the place or a nicer tribute. The intention is to develop a school of Juilliard’s reputation on the other side of the country. So…why not?
Assuming they can pull it off, and once the required investments are made and leading teaching talent assembled, would you encourage your kids to attend? Would you steer clear until the school’s (and not just its teachers’) reputation is established? Or does the idea of another music school just leave you shaking your head, wondering where all the graduates will go for work? :-)
Drop us a line or post a comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Keep playing,
Mark
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Transposition is a tough concept for those who haven’t done much of it. Learning music as it’s written often poses enough of a challenge! But learning to transpose, either “statically” before you begin to play or “on the fly”, can really take your musicianship up a notch. Let’s take one step at a time.
This article from our friends at CathysChords shows how to make a transposition wheel. Transposition is a handy skill for guitarists, as you’ll often want to play music in a key that differs from what is written on the music you have (for orchestral players, please see Transposing for Trumpet: A Handy Reference). Whether the chords are particularly nasty as written or the singer just needs to take it down a step or two, transposition can be used to carry the day. It’s a simple skill once you get your head around it, and the wheel can help getting started even easier.
The basic idea is that when you see a chord or key (for guitar) that you want to change to a more suitable one, you can just “dial it in”. Line up the original chord on the wheel with the one you want to use instead, and then use the matching chords instead of those written on the music. To try it, grab a pencil and a piece of music that you’ve always avoided playing due to the ugly chords and give it a try. Dial in the first chord, lining it up with an easier-to-play one (maybe A or C). Write in the “new” chord by the original one on the music, and then repeat for each subsequent one…maybe for a line or two. Then try playing it. Magic!
Have a transposing story to tell? Drop us a line! We’d love to hear from you.
Keep playing,
Mark
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Tags: change, chords, Guitar, how, key, make, to, transpose, transposing, wheel
Guitar, Learning | Mark November 14, 2010 |
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Practice. It can be fun and therapeutic at times…and it can be pure drudgery at others. We all want to play well, but how much practice is enough? How much is too much? Can there even be too much?
Well, yes. According to a paper published in the Journal or Neuroscience, practicing is important to developing skills of a cognitive and/or physical nature…but “osmosis learning” – or as Professor Harold Hill referred to it in the classic musical The Music Man, the “think system” – contributes greatly to mastering a task. In fact, actual practice time can be reduced greatly if the reduction is accompanied by an equivalent increase in passive learning (listening to relevant material, etc.) – which is quite effective, even if the passive learner is doing something else at the same time!
The practical upshot is this: make your practice sessions focused and effective, and listen to musical selections that contribute to your musical growth as well. Rather than try to find an hour every day to practice, accept that some days you’ll be lucky to find 15 minutes of available instrument time…and fill in the rest with selections from your iPod. As a trumpeter, listen to Wynton for 45 minutes. Or Maurice Andre. Or Al Hirt. Violinist? Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, or Hillary Hahn? Or maybe David Garrett. You get the idea. :-)
While there are no shortcuts to playing better, there is a difference between “working hard” and “working smart”. We shouldn’t be afraid to put effort into becoming better at something we love, but we should do what we can to enjoy the journey as well. If it happens to be a more effective way to learn, all the better!
Keep playing (and listening)…
Mark
For more information, please see:
How Much Should We Practice?
The Journal of Neuroscience
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Admission: I’m not your typical trumpeter.
After playing through college, I hung up my trumpets for a career with more perceived stability and potential: information technology. I enjoy what I do, and I’ve never regretted my decision. Between building a career and raising a family, I didn’t play for a couple of decades. And for most of that time, I didn’t realize how much I missed it.
Once our daughters began playing violin, I took up the trumpet once again. To make a long story short, I got some good instruction, invested a lot of time and study (and self-study), and have actually surpassed my ability when I was a “playa”. 
Not bad for a part-time musician, I suppose. But maturity (or old age, if you must!) brings a certain introspection that makes one acutely aware of every fault, great or small. There is no room for a “trumpeter’s ego” when you have a lifetime of polishing ahead of you.
During that same time, our daughters also had excellent instruction, and any “headstart” I enjoyed vanished embarrassingly quickly. Today, our oldest is a college sophomore majoring in Music Performance…and one of her courses happens to be a brass class. Which brings me, finally, to the topic of the post. How does one share knowledge with their more-talented kids??!?
I’m not really teaching my daughter how to play, of course. Her instructor for this class is an outstanding trumpeter and excellent trumpet teacher. But between classes, daughter #1 asks questions of me to “fill-in” the inevitable gaps. Topics run the gamut, from mouthpiece buzzing to building range, breathing to fingerings. I am careful to preface everything I pass along with “this is what I’ve learned/what works for me” and end it with “check with your instructor”…and say a quiet prayer of thanks that my daughter – already a better musician than I will ever become and just getting started, really – is so eager to learn and grow as a musician that she is willing to collect knowledge from even the unlikeliest of places.
Regardless of your past, your present, or your future abilities, I’d encourage you to recognize your abilities and your shortcomings…and proceed anyway. Groom and grow your talents, but be willing to share them, too. Give of what you have, whatever it may be. You’ll be glad you did.
Keep playing,
Mark
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