The Art of Practicing

This is a raw dump of the notes I took while reading the book:

Intro and Part 1

Regaining motivation
Remember the moment when you knew music would be a part of your life. Are there songs that bring that back?
Find the “unshakable confidence in your musicality”
“Passion, confidence and vulnerability are evidence of musical talent”
Are you repeating passages in your practice out of desperation to gain “technical security”? This can “destroy inspiration”
“the qualities of openness, uncertainty, freedom, and aliveness that characterize performing permeate practicing”

“One of the greatest challenges of making music is to maintain some cool in the heat of our passion and joy. It is easy to become impatient when it takes us longer to learn a beautiful piece than we would like. We ache to get it in our fingers, our voice, our body, to make physical contact with the music we love. This longing is our greatest asset. It is our communicative energy. It is the raw, throbbing energy of the heart.”

The difference between that longing and ambition. Ambition can cause us to drive ourselves too hard. “Struggle does not produce beautiful music”

What causes tension when practicing? Struggle?
- Trying to play too fast
- Trying to get perfect tone when you're just learning.
- Trying to force a “special kind of energy.” To force the emotion of the piece
- Practicing through physical pain. Use the pain as a “signal to relax or slow down.”

“The value of an exercise depends on your state of mind. If you don't find it interesting, then it is not useful.”

“Practicing exercises you don't enjoy is confining and saps your energy, whereas practicing a difficult but beautiful piece of music gives you energy”

Rather than playing perfectly X times in a row, try “practice performing for people and to become accustomed to making mistakes.” People are human, they make mistakes “Being note-perfect” is not the point, “making music involves a lot more than that.”

On practicing pieces you don't like as much:
“If you try to be receptive to a piece you don't love, you can expand your emotional range and grow as a musician.”


Part 2

1. Stretch

2. Settle down in your environment
    - Be present
    - Posture (upright, feet on floor etc.)
    - Breathing - notice the breath
    - Notice the environment around you. Feet on floor etc.
    - Consider meditation

3. Tune into your heart - “When you reflect on the impermanence of life, you feel the heart area of your chest open up—it feels warm. Once the heart is open, it is available for whatever activity you engage in. The warmth quickly floods your system. Your body feels more relaxed and fluid inside, and your movements become more gentle and precise. The energy of your heart fuels your actions.”
   - Appreciate your environment

4. Use your body in a comfortable and natural way - sit upright, don't lean and sway (watch the best instrument players, a lot of them look like trees) “all the leaning and swaying I used to do was a way of struggling against the music, that instead of letting it flow freely through my body, I had been trying to keep a grip on it, to force it to go a certain way.”
   - Try playing in front of a mirror to get awareness of posture
   - Take frequent practice breaks - 10 - 15 min every 45 (as if anyone is going to have that long to practice...)
   - Imagine yourself without your instrument, would you be positioned unnaturally?
   - Being emotionally intense is not the same as being physically tense

5. Follow your curiosity as you practice
    - Combatting resistance: “See if anything arouses your curiosity. It can be something as simple as how your hands feel that day. Try placing them on the instrument. Notice how they feel. Play one note or a few notes. See what each movement feels like. By relaxing with your resistance, you can gently break it down.”
    - On using a metronome: “Natural rhythm comes from being physically settled, mentally relaxed, and emotionally unrepressed. The first thing you can do for your sense of rhythm is to let yourself be, to let your breathing and your body settle down before you practice.”

6. Recognize three styles of struggle
    - 1 - “Overstated passion in which we cling to the music”
    - 2 - “Avoidance in which we resist dealing with the music”
    - 3 - “Aggression in which we attack the music”

7. Drop your attitudes and be simple - “when we drop our guard and are just ourselves, we reveal a deep humanness and gentleness that connect us to humanity, and the music we make is uplifting.”

8. Apply three listening techniques
    - 1 Sing the notes and lines
    - 2 Place your attention on the vibrations. Play very slowly.
    - 3 Place your attention on each sound as it resonates in the space around you. Music as meditation.

9. Organize notes into groups, phrases and textures.

10. Place your attention on the sensations of touch and movement. Basically, imagine that you are blind. Your eyes shouldn't be what tells you where to put your hands and fingers.

Part 3
- Playing from memory / by heart