PRACTICE DISCIPLINES

In this unpredictable world of changing everything (computers, synths, software,

hardware, MIDI you name it) I have observed one stable thing: Those who know to
study and practice progress the fastest! Is it just sitting down at your instrum
ent and jamming or what? The answer is it should consist of determining what fun
damentals in your playing are weak and then developing a program to handle them.
A correct evaluation has to occur first in other words BEFORE a workable soluti
on can be applied. If you re smart enough to do this on your own then great. If no
t, then find someone who can help you.
How many of you practice long hours and never seem to make any real progress? We
ll you re probably not practicing but simply playing things you already know -- yo
u know, just fooling around and not really confronting your real weak points. Th
is is actually why some people need teachers and some don t. Those who don t need te
achers simply have a native ability (probably past live talents but what do I kn
ow!?) to perceive their own weak points, confront them and find solutions to the
m. In fact I would go so far as to say that what we call genius talent here on p
lanet earth is simply our way of saying "that cat did it!" Boy, did he do it! Wo
w! He s a genius! Well yes he did it . But had you investigated further, you would h
ave found that it took a lot of hard work! This is true even with cats who say t
hey never studied. Maybe they never studied formally with a teacher, but they di
d study by listening to records, going to live gigs, reading books, and spending
hours in front of their instrument working things out. I don t believe we just do
something incredible without some kind of practice in the basics so if you think
you re going to become the next Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock or Gonzalo Rubalcaba
overnight, you re in for a big letdown. And thinking this can lead you of course b
ecause it s very easy when you fail to introvert and invalidate yourself and your
creations. No, it actually takes real conviction, real practice and real confron
t. Then when you have attained your goals, it will seem of course easy to you be
cause you did the work. You ve arrived and others might say "Wow, that cat s a geniu
s!"
You have to blow off any and all consdierations you have about time and how long
it s going to take. You have to be willing for it to take as long as necessary. W
orrying about time uses up both mental and physical energy and might lead you to
start practicing glibly and compromising with your integrity. To the degree you
r attention is on time, money, success, ego or anything other than developing yo
ur ability, it s off confronting and practicing! On the other hand, if you put all
your attention and intention into achieving your goals, it may actually even sp
eed up the process for you.
Remember, an incredible song, performance, or whatever is just perceived as incr
edible! No one cares how long it took to write or prepare. The audience doesn t sa
y "Well, hey that can t be incredible. It took too long to create." All they care
about is it blew them away! The business world, the bean counters on the other h
and, are the ones concerned with these matters of time and money and sales and t
he "hurry up and be great" attitude. So don t confuse the two universes the creativ
e vs the business. Yes, they have to work together but not initially at least no
t until it s time to go to market. It usually does take some time to create high a
bilities and create good effects; but once you do, they are timeless!