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Posts tagged: technique

YouTube for musicians: technique

This is the third in a series of articles about using YouTube to accomplish your goals as a musician. Many of these goals overlap, but today, we’ll try to keep our focus to using YouTube to learn technique.

There are numerous ways to learn new technique on your chosen instrument. Some things require a great deal of effort working with a good instructor to really learn and master. Others can be absorbed easily after just a short demonstration. In either case – and in all cases that fall between them – a good demonstration can really facilitate learning to do something new with your instrument…or just learning to do something better.

Our youngest performed Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen with two area orchestras when she was 13 years old. Anyone who knows violin repertoire understands the difficulty associated with this piece, and our daughter worked very hard to learn it. Along the way, she spent a great deal of time observing the “masters” playing this piece…and one way she did that was via YouTube.

While this video could also fall under the “inspiration” category, Itzhak Perlman demonstrates a great deal of technique in it. Between Mr. Perlman, Jascha Heifetz, and others, we had sources-a-plenty to which to turn for visual and audible guidance, in addition to the excellent tutelage of our violin instructor, a professional violinist herself. But back to YouTube.

This video is instructive throughout, but if you want to preview why video/audio demonstrations can contribute so greatly to learning new technique, skip to 7:50 and watch to the end. Once you do that, you’ll probably want to watch it from the beginning to see what you missed in the build-up.

Getting a sound or technique into your “mind’s eye” can help you get there, provided you put in the work to learn and master it. YouTube is a great way to do that, offering opportunities to see and hear experts demonstrate what you’re trying to learn whenever it is convenient for you…and as many times as is necessary. Can it be done without YouTube? Of course. Can you build a highway using only hand tools? How much time do you have?

Make use of this great tool to expand your horizons! It will only make you better.

Keep playing,
Mark

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Tags: musicians, Sarasate, technique, video, violin, YouTube, Zigeunerweisen

General, Inspiration, Learning, Strings, Videos | Mark September 22, 2009 | Comments (0)

Videogaming helps your mad music-making skillz!

I had an experience today that changed my outlook a bit on video games. In a good way. Today I “discovered” Guitar Hero.

I had shunned all of the “guitar god” games that have been released over the past few years, dismissing them as fads for those who aren’t committed enough to apply themselves to learning to play a real instrument (sniff!). After all, pressing a few buttons and “strumming” a flipper on a cheap plastic guitar doesn’t exactly translate to music-making, now does it?

Today, I spent the afternoon with some good friends who insisted that I try a round of Guitar Hero III. Frankly, I had little desire to do so…but I do consider myself a good sport, so after an exhaustive 30-second training seminar, I was turned loose on a, well, cheap plastic guitar with buttons and a flipper. And now, dear reader, I’m hooked.

It brought to mind old memories of our family sitting in the family room floor playing Donkey Konga. I had first seen an aspiring musician playing Donkey Konga at a local Toys-R-Us, and once the youngster walked away, I gave it a try. By the time I was joined by the rest of my family, I knew we had found the GameCube’s “killer app”. Not only was it fun, it really did boost your listening and rhythm skills. Long before Wii Fit came along, Donkey Konga made you break a sweat playing a videogame…and have a great time doing it!

Guitar Hero is like that, too – and better. I noticed immediately that my play/playing improved dramatically when I listened, rather than watched, what was coming up in the song. Before many measures had passed, I was locked on…and appreciating the value of the “musician games” on the market. Two of our daughters, both violinists and one an occasional guitarist, noted the same thing.

Musician games (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.) won’t make you a musician, but they will help you with your listening skills and timing, and may even give you some ideas for technical improvement; after all, there’s a pretty nice backing track with each song. Don’t put away the (real) guitar, bass, drums, or any other instrument if you want to continue to grow in your playing abilities. But for a fun diversion that really will help your playing, it’s okay to occasionally plug one of the many games in the Guitar Hero/Rock Band and similar franchises. You just might be surprised at the results. After all, learning is wherever you find it.

Keep playing,
Mark