December 2013

V.com weekend vote: Can you play by ear?

In the last few days, I've found myself next to several living room pianos, playing Christmas and holiday music by ear, for gatherings of friends. In one case, it was with a pianist who easily transposes any tune to any key, for the sake of those who would like to sing. Not always comfy on the fiddle, but okay, I like practicing this skill!

At one of these gatherings, someone said, "It's nice you can do that -- a lot of classical players can't play by ear!"

What? Actually, I think she might be right. I don't know if it's classical training, or personality, or environment (having the opportunity to practice doing it). I very often volunteered to play for my parents' friends, when I was young. With unjustified confidence, I'd say, "I take requests!" and so I would play anything they wanted to hear, as long as I knew the tune. Not that I didn't make a ton of mistakes, I did! I've gotten a bit better at it by now, and I still like doing this. When students come to my house for a holiday party, I always invite them to play along. Some are happy to dive in and experiment playing by ear, some really want the music.

Playing by ear, particularly with a bit of an audience, can be riskier business. It's like anything, the more you practice it, the better you get at it. And you can practice it without an audience or a band to jam with, just try to play any song that you love, for which you don't have the music. It's a pretty fun exercise, and a nice way to get you away from the written page.

So do you play by ear?

18 replies

V.com weekend vote: Does a violin lesson count as a practice session?

Let's say you, or your student, has a practice goal, and let's make it an ambitious one: Practicing every day, for 365 days.

As every one of us knows all too well, life interferes with practice, and not all days afford us the kind of time we'd like, in order to get everything completed on the practice list. I go back and forth on the issue of whether or not the lesson on lesson day counts as a practice session! For my students, ideally, I'd like them to go home after their lessons and practice, while my instructions to them are fresh. At the same time, if it's Wednesday, and one of my students has school all day, a term paper due tomorrow and track practice after his violin lesson, do I ding him for not practicing, in addition to the lesson, on Wednesday?

But, if we always count the violin lesson as a practice session, then that erases 52 practice sessions a year that could have happened on the lesson day.

I don't see how we can sometimes count the lesson as "practicing," and sometimes not count it.

Hmmmm! What do you think?

18 replies

V.com weekend vote: How often do you set a specific goal for a practice session?

Am I supposed to go for high-quality practice, or am I supposed to practice things 10,000 times?

These can seem like conflicting goals, because thoughtful practice surely takes less time, and wouldn't 10,000 times turns someone into a zombie?

A good practice, however, will include both, simultaneously. I would call "10,000 repetitions" a tool that you use in order to turn thoughtful work on musical ideas into something that you can DO, consistently and with ease.

Without good goals, all those repetitions will fail, or worse, reinforce bad habits.

The wonderful Canadian violinist James Ehnes has recommended said it well when he spoke about practice several years ago: "If people can have a particular goal in mind, and if reaching that goal can take on more importance than just logging the hours, then I think real progress can start to happen."

It's pretty easy to step onto the treadmill and go forward, not realizing that the thing is actually standing still and you have no destination!

Do you set goals for your practice? And how often?

(P.S. Thanks to Buri for this vote idea!)

12 replies