Iznaola on practising - a precious distillation of advice
May 12, 2015 18:04:26 GMT
Akquarius, brianr2, and 1 more like this
Post by creamburmese on May 12, 2015 18:04:26 GMT
So I thought I would review Ricardo Iznaola's book "on practising" (it's now marketed by Mel Bay) I continue to make a lot of mistakes and go blank under pressure, so thought it was time to try another approach.
What it is - a mini-size booklet consisting of exactly 16 pages of advice on how to practice, how to memorize, and how to have the right attitude (I already have all the attitude I need so ignored that last bit).
I was "encouraged" to read it by my guitar teacher - IOW he loaned me his copy in a not-so-subtle hint. Even though I copied his, I just received my own, even at a $1 a page it's worth it.
Here's what I finally took to heart...
1) working through a new piece incrementally getting it more or less right is a very inefficient way to learn
2) Playing it lots of times hoping it will stick is not building a memory that will hold up under pressure, even if you can play it perfectly in the practice room.
So I knew about practicing slowly first, but according to Iznaola, there are a couple of steps before that - 1) just playing the correct notes, ignoring the rhythm entirely but moving smoothly (my guitar teacher would no doubt say "preparing") - emphasis on correct notes 2) same thing slowly but adding rhythm and varying the tempo enough to allow you to play the difficult bits correctly.
- And to truly learn a piece..
Work out LH fingering and visualize the left hand without guitar
Work out the RH fingering and visualize the right hand without guitar
sing the rhythm without guitar
Visualize both hands together in correct rhythm without guitar
sight read .... finally you get to pick up the guitar!
you've learned it when you can visualize the tune and both hands working together without the guitar...
This morning I started to learn a new easy piece - perfect for this exercise (one of Thiery Tisserand's "spleen songs" - simple but beautiful). I can usually count on working on a couple of lines at a time, and "almost" getting it for several days but making mistakes. Today I decided to work through the listed steps instead - I found it did require much more concentration than usual. I really had to stop and think about how to play parts of it that I might have just scrambled over, and "noticed" some notes I was supposed to hold onto for the entire bar that I might normally have ignored. What really got my attention was that by the end of it I could play the first couple of lines "perfectly" albeit slowly. Admittedly it took me about 45 minutes, most of it not playing the guitar, but it's such an unusual occurrence for me (to play it note perfect before I've memorized it completely) that it made quite an impression.
Had to go to work so didn't get to the next stage of "visualization of whole thing without guitar" but I'm definitely thinking this stuff has merit!
What it is - a mini-size booklet consisting of exactly 16 pages of advice on how to practice, how to memorize, and how to have the right attitude (I already have all the attitude I need so ignored that last bit).
I was "encouraged" to read it by my guitar teacher - IOW he loaned me his copy in a not-so-subtle hint. Even though I copied his, I just received my own, even at a $1 a page it's worth it.
Here's what I finally took to heart...
1) working through a new piece incrementally getting it more or less right is a very inefficient way to learn
2) Playing it lots of times hoping it will stick is not building a memory that will hold up under pressure, even if you can play it perfectly in the practice room.
So I knew about practicing slowly first, but according to Iznaola, there are a couple of steps before that - 1) just playing the correct notes, ignoring the rhythm entirely but moving smoothly (my guitar teacher would no doubt say "preparing") - emphasis on correct notes 2) same thing slowly but adding rhythm and varying the tempo enough to allow you to play the difficult bits correctly.
- And to truly learn a piece..
Work out LH fingering and visualize the left hand without guitar
Work out the RH fingering and visualize the right hand without guitar
sing the rhythm without guitar
Visualize both hands together in correct rhythm without guitar
sight read .... finally you get to pick up the guitar!
you've learned it when you can visualize the tune and both hands working together without the guitar...
This morning I started to learn a new easy piece - perfect for this exercise (one of Thiery Tisserand's "spleen songs" - simple but beautiful). I can usually count on working on a couple of lines at a time, and "almost" getting it for several days but making mistakes. Today I decided to work through the listed steps instead - I found it did require much more concentration than usual. I really had to stop and think about how to play parts of it that I might have just scrambled over, and "noticed" some notes I was supposed to hold onto for the entire bar that I might normally have ignored. What really got my attention was that by the end of it I could play the first couple of lines "perfectly" albeit slowly. Admittedly it took me about 45 minutes, most of it not playing the guitar, but it's such an unusual occurrence for me (to play it note perfect before I've memorized it completely) that it made quite an impression.
Had to go to work so didn't get to the next stage of "visualization of whole thing without guitar" but I'm definitely thinking this stuff has merit!
Jo whoever he is.
