BREAKING THE GLASS BARRIER IN JAZZ WITHOUT HURTING

Great, modest jazz pianist, Don Friedman talks about practising.... 

A PERSONAL CONFESSION
I've given up practising jazz piano, and I feel bad about it. A bit ashamed really.

Don't know why. Just don't feel like doing it.

Two years ago I spent 9 months practising quite hard in different ways, and it worked. It worked well. There used to be a time in the workshops where I didn't want to solo on the more difficult songs, but that is not a problem now. And, sometimes, I sound ok, even I can tell that.

I play in the workshop each week, and use weasel thoughts to imagine this is practise. But it does not have the intensity or application of proper practise. I've hit the glass ceiling and will not get any better unless I try.

So I had a look at sports psychology on the internet and thought a summary would be useful.

GLASS CEILING BARRIERS

Motivation is the key and the biggest problem is what the psychologists call "amotivation" This is where there is no drive to do it. An amotivated athlete might be heard saying, ‘I can’t see the point in training any more – it just tires me out’ or ‘I just don’t get any buzz out of competition whatsoever’. That's me. This often needs an outsider to help such as other players, or a good coach. I need Geoff or Andrew to tell me off. For others, playing in a new band or with different people might be a help. Or finding a coach.

PRACTISE IN A DIFFERENT WAY
Repeating mundane drills would be a killer for me, but for others it might be a useful re-starter process. Maybe I could be helped by trying something very hard indeed. For example, I could try to play a difficult piece very fast perhaps.

FLOW
They say the ultimate in motivation is to achieve "flow".  That is complete immersion in an activity. You can't hear, see, or experience anything else. The aim and the task must be realistic. I know about the groove, often called the zone. Once you are in the groove nothing else matters. Yup, important for jazz. You can tell when a soloist is in the groove. Even the whole band. We've hit it a couple of times recently in the workshops.

SET SOME GOALS.
Pointless expecting to get better if I just keep playing what I can play already. I'll need to pick a few short term goals, say "within the next week I'm going to work on...." Even a daily goal, "By to-night I'm going to have completed....." Set it up on a spread sheet perhaps.

This is the spreadsheet I was using when I was practising. The x's do not represent success, they just tell me whether I tried what I intended to do. I tried them over different songs.

SHORT INTENSIVE PERIODS OF PRACTISE.
I've always believed in the studies from education which show that students remember the beginning of the lesson and the end of the lesson. The middle bits are forgettable. Maybe I'll break up the practise into short sessions. Nothing wrong with doing 15 minutes early morning, 15 minutes at tea time, and 15 minutes before bed.

BE PLEASED WITH MYSELF
I ought to set up a routine whereby I can copy what I'm practising on to the laptop then replay it. I might be proud of myself. Sometimes. Or not.

TALK MYSELF INTO IT.
A bit far fetched for me but I remember when Mohammed Ali said ‘I am the greatest’ so many times that even his opponents believed it. ‘I figured that, if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.’

John

The Jazz Smugglers bands in Sussex
The Jazz Smugglers workshop, Bosham, Sussex

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This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide information about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

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In this blog we will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.