Feet of the Week (TM) – Week 3

The H’s haven’t let us down yet! All those cool shoes, all those combinations.

Red Leaf: The Meaning

Red Leaf refers to the writings of Japanese philosopher and swordsman Miyamato Musashi’s (1584-1645) “Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho).“

Red Leaves refers to autumn leaves. Musashi calls to swordsmen to, like falling leaves, fall into the enemy with “subtle yet overwhelming” strategy, while releasing preconceived ideas about the process. This speaks directly to our feeling that to learn music, we need to shed many notions that we have about ourselves and music in general. For instance, if we have low self-esteem about our music abilities, we have to find our confidence. If we have an excess of ego, we may need to learn more humility. Also, there are seasons to learning, and we must be prepared to accept and perservere through our own natural rhythms/seasons to learn fully.

Red Leaf Philosophy

We will meet each new student with a clean slate and curiosity about what is right for them. No two courses of study will be the same. We want your time at music lessons to be among your favorite each week. Your lessons will always involve some aspects of ease, and some that are challenging. Most of all, we will bring love and enthusiasm for music. More than anything else, we would like to see your own passion for the instrument grow.  There is no better motivator!

Feet of the Week (TM) – Week 2

Gargantuan Chord Chart List

Here at Red Leaf we’re big fans of the blog “A Guitar Teacher’s Lesson Notebook.”  Rob Hampton, who teaches in Seattle, has an incredibly useful bunch of information posted…everything from theory to technique to simple tips.  He also has a Gargantuan Chord Chart List.  There’s a little something for everyone on it, and a great place to get inspiration for learning your next tune.  Check it out.

Feet of the Week (TM) – Week 1

The H’s are a great father and son who take guitar lessons at Red Leaf — they take a private lesson together (awesome family time idea!) and each one also participates in a group session. They’re champs.

They also wear REALLY cool shoes. Most of the time, they coordinate. It puts the rest of us Red Leafers’ footwear to shame, and I think the staff’s shoe choice has all been a little bit influenced by the H’s.

“I love you Piano”

Our students love coming to Red Leaf because it’s a fun place to be.

Our greater purpose, though, is to help them build an even greater love for music and their instrument.

We love that.

A Music Teacher’s Glance at the Learning Cycle

Quotes:

“Ignore your instrument for one day, it will ignore you for two.” – source unknown

“If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it.” — André Previn

If you are a prodigy, stop reading. This is a waste of your time. Go play something perfectly, while making coffee and answering your email. For the rest of us mortals, it’s still very possible to be a very able musician. It takes a little more work than you might think, but luckily not as much as you might fear. This pattern is based on my almost 20 years of playing and 10 or so of teaching. It’s not researched by Harvard, but I’ve seen it time and time again.

First of all, there’s the big question: How much do I need to practice? That is such tough question to answer. I am not going to get into how subjective that can be. I am just going to take the ideal numbers for most of my students. If you fall into the other ends of the bell curve, you probably know that about yourself by now. Try these numbers, and add or subtract based upon your results. Sprinkle in extra sessions to taste, and go see live music to add inspiration. Field trips rock!

Here’s the non-scientific scientific answer:

3 hours per week, or 1.5 hours per week per concept

It’s best to have two clear simple objectives per week. That means, “G major scale in 3 forms.” “Practice jazz” is not a clear, simple objective. You need to spend 15 minutes per day on each concept. These two 15 minute sessions DO NOT need to be in a row. If necessary, even the 15 minute sessions can be broken into 5 and 7 minutes bits between diaper changes and dinner and during LOST commercials. This is aimed at full time workers or students, or both. If you are an aspiring professional musician, that’s a whole ‘nutha entry that we’ll approach in the future. Unless you have gobs of time or aspire to play professionally, I think it’s unwise to tackle more than two major new concepts per week.

Here’s what a practice could/should/would look like:

Day 1:

Practice some the day of the lesson. This is SO key to absorb what happened. If your teacher is not recording your lesson, YOU should be. There is NO way you can take in everything they told you. Remember, they are not responsible to learn this for you. You must take ownership and responsibility for your studies. RECORD the lesson. Every lesson. Put them in a neat order. A large CD holder, or a great MP3 file is ideal. Practice that day or night. Listen to the CD again. Even if you don’t have tons of time, go over the lesson for the few minutes before you fall asleep. Your rentention will increase ten-fold
(the number “ten-fold” is not determined by Harvard research, either). This session is purely review and retension.

Day 2:

Mostly review again. Often feels uphill and arduous.

Day 3:

Our mind starts to grasp the idea. Our hands have not quite caught up to our mind. Still uphill. Persevere. Trust me!

Day 4:

Mind meet hands. Hands meet mind. How do you do? Nice to meet you! Satisfaction and success begin to increase. Hurrah!!!!

Day 5:

We’re making music!!! Sense of flow begins. Lessons enter long-term memory and muscle memory. Sense of ease begins.

Day 6:

Can play for an audience (teacher, family, friend) with few or no mistakes. Can experiment with not looking at guitar. Control over dynamics and technique can be added without loss of accuracy.

The Harsh Reality:

SKIP 1 DAY- THAT’S FINE. YOU WILL MAINAIN

SKIP 2 DAYS – MOVE BACK ONE STEP IN THE PROCESS

SKIP 3 DAYS- BACK TO DAY 1

REMEMBER:

Everyone will respond differently. Don’t comment that you had a different time frame. This is a guideline.

Warming up and noodling are just that and do not count at all as practicing. Both are important and fun though. If you get brilliant song ideas during your practice, great. You make the call. Either catch it on the tape recorder you already have since you take responsibility for recording all lessons are rehearsals. Sometimes it’s genuine inspiration to pursue, and sometimes it’s laziness disguised as brilliant inspiration. Most good song ideas don’t go away after 15 minutes. Be suspicious of your monkey mind, especially on days 1, 2, and 3.

Breathe from below the belly button while practicing. You will learn better with deep rich breathe, and relaxed muscles.

Even if you can’t see it exactly in your mind’s eye, spend idle time on line at the bank or during boring conversations visualizing what you are working on. Remember ANYTHING you can about the lesson. Fingerings, feelings, sounds, previous practice sessions. Any of these will help your brain absorb the lessons.

Watch live music or live DVD’s with a specific intention of imagining what the musicians FEEL like as they are playing. Try to imagine what playing freely and beautifully feels like in the head, hands, and heart. This will give your nervous system clues at to what to aim for.

Please, please, please disagree with me. Just play beautifully and tell me how you learn faster and more completely. I’ve been looking for the shortcut for almost 20 years!!!

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all. – Michelangelo

Daniel Barrett is co-director of Red Leaf School of Music and member of Austin-based band porterdavis.