Why should I practice?

0:00 Well, come back to Music 101. In this episode, we're going to talk about practice.So when you bring up practice through a lot of musicians, it just like instantly feels icky.It's like, I don't want to do that. It's a chore now.And what I want to do is I want to try and reframe the idea of practicefrom the classical sense of like, let's practice scales and the fundamentals in a vacuum.

0:24 And then flip it around to being a goal-based practice. So let's talk about kind of how I've done that personally and how it's really helpedmy relationship with practice, with music, with growth. And I also think that this is somethingthat can transcend music, because whatever you want to do, that's a long-term thing,like learning a language or running a marathon or whatever.It's kind of similar stuff.

0:50 You have to break down certain fundamentals, create objectivity, and then also create play and fun, so that you redefine your relationshipto this icky thing of practice. So how do we do that?Step one for me is to define what you want to do. Where do you want to go?If you want to be like a shredder guitarist that just spam scales, you know,that's your thing. You go practice scales to a metronome and that's it.

1:22 Most people, I would say, want to develop their own one of two things really.Either they want to be able to like pair it back other people's playing, like not really composed,but more playing a cover band or just like learn a cool guitar soul that they heard on Spotify orwhatever. That's one style of player.

1:42 And you have the other style of player that's more compositionally focused, like myself. Like I want to create a voice for myself. I want to expressmyself. I want to speak with the instrument fluently. And I've never really had a ton of likedesire to be able to mimic or pair it. And like I don't mean to use those terms,

2:05 like abrasively. Like I think it's perfectly reasonable to just want to be in a cover band andlike nail that part. That's admirable. That just hasn't been my desire. And so that's informedmy practice and that's informed kind of how I've approached things like fundamentals on theinstrument. So let's talk about just from my perspective.

2:23 And then you can apply it to whatever goal you want to do. So let's start with my goal. My goal is to be interesting. My goal is to bemyself. My goal is to be fluent and be able to like play with other musicians in a really compellingway that I can be in any like musical situation and not be a drag.

2:40 Like I want to add,even if it's in a genre that I don't feel confident or comfortable and I want to be around enough musician. And I can step into any situation and add to it. That's like that's my primary goal.So in order to accomplish those things, a few different other things have to happen. Fundamentals.Fundamentals are still fundamental.

2:59 But what I try to do is I re-approached the the ickiness of playing scales to a metronome. And instead of playing scales to a metronome,I'm improvising to a metronome. Still using scales, but I'm trying to take whenever I learn a scale,I try not to like really focus on it as this linear, whatever kind of thing. I try and dancearound with those new notes and try and develop riffs and licks.

3:25 Like these are the terms that a lot of guitarists use where it's a tasty little mini melodic phrase that you can repeatover and over again within a given scale. So the concept is I'm digesting things as quickly aspossible. So I'm not practicing saying the alphabet. I'm practicing saying words in shortfragments of sentences.

3:47 Then the next thing is trying to actually make complete sentences with these things, writing melodies, and trying to do things off the cuff. But the catchis it's all within the concept of groove. That was one of the things that I lament thatI didn't have earlier on when I was learning guitar. And I think a lot of guitarists don'tdo this. They just think like, I'm going to play fast. I'm going to play cool.

4:11 I'm going to do, I don't know, crazy electric lines. And that's it. Learning bass really helped melearn your drums really helped me where instead of saying like, I'm going to do all of thestuff. It's like, what framework are you going to do all those things in? And so originallyI was really bad at playing to a metronome.

4:30 But the thing that got me to be good at playing to a metronome was not necessarily playing to a metronome. It was playing to other peoplewho already had good time, who already had a good sense of feel surrounding myself withgreat drummers and bassists and playing guitar with them and trying to find ways to interactand sit in that pocket, understanding my role.

4:49 And then after that, stripping away and going to the metronome allowed me to, you know, kind of almost like, well, turning themetronome into another musician rather than this robot. And what you're trying to dois trying to make that metronome that thing, thing, thing groove as though it's like acowbell or a clave.

5:08 So it's like reframing these concepts of like, I'm going to sit and shed these scales forever to a metronome. It's like, no, I'm going to, I'm going to jamwith the metronome. The metronome is going to be like this awesome cowbell player andI'm going to rock it. Once I reacquainted myself with the metronome and like reframed it.Now, now that's a framework to which I can paint with my scales.

5:31 And so instead of just like spamming the scales, like I'm saying, like that, trying to dance within it rightmelodies and do it all within the framework of a groove and a tempo.

5:41 And then the nextstep, the fundamental part is recording yourself and being able to become objective aboutyour own playing and your own abilities and being able to like measure, like, okay, I'm not as good at these kinds of feels.

5:58 I'm not as good at, like for my example, I'mbetter with triplet feels now than I was like four or five years ago, but it took me having to play with a lot of triplet feels. Like that kind of stuff, where you, like,analyze like, where are you weak and then really dig into those grooves.

6:20 But again, like not in the sense of, to me, at least, I get too bored if I'm just, you know, reallybreaking it down into this vacuum state. I always have to be playing music. And I alsothink that that's like better for you, because at the end of the day, you're going to be playing,you're going to actually be doing something. That's why I'm like saying, lead with the goal.

6:40 Like, like, for example, Japanese, my goal is to be able to speak to people and just shootthe shit at a restaurant. So why, why mess with anything outside of that goal? At leastto start, you know?

6:54 And so like, if your goal is to write songs, just learn the things that youneed to like write songs, be around great songs, and then write a bunch of bad songs, record them, and then be able to objectively listen to them and grow your ear and your inner critic. But do itin a way that doesn't cramp you up, that doesn't make you feel like scared to practice.

7:19 Keep like that joy and that play. Like, that's the whole, that's the whole thing to me is like, as long asit's fun, as long as you approach practice, is like, I'm going to play, I'm not going to practice,I'm going to play, but in like a structured objective way, that's where the real growth is,because it's sustainable.

7:36 Like, if you, if you set yourself a workout plan that isn't sustainable for whatever you're doing, you might as well have like just not even done it, because now you justadded stress to yourself and you didn't hit this, this goal.

7:48 Instead, like, set yourself a frameworkwhere it's like, hey, within this framework, I am going to do these reasonable, rational steps, like 15 minutes a day. I'm going to practice, but what I'll do is I'll open up, recording,like garage band or whatever, and I'm going to groove to some loop in there. And that's my practice,and I'm going to use this new scale, and I'm going to solo to this group for 15 minutes a day.

8:13 I guess what? You're going to get a lot better. Instead of like saying, like, okay, for five minutes,I'm going to practice a major scale up and down. And now then for five minutes, I'm going to practicethe my natural minor scale up and down. Like, you know, I used to do those things where I used tothink like, that was the way I was going to be good in music.

8:28 I was going to use a circle of fifths and go around and practice these scales up and down and then try and do a diagonally, try and doa lot of one string. That's not what did it for me. What did it for me? Not as though I'm likethis great musician. I'm saying like I feel like I'm pretty fluent on the instruments.

8:44 That's why I feel like, you know, this worked was playing and turning it into play because then I did it moreand then I found myself, hey, I'm going to do this for 15 minutes a day.

8:54 Oh, no, I did it for three and ahalf hours because it was fun and it was different and I had a little breakthrough and then I would goback and I'd listen to that tape later that night and be like, oh, that wasn't as cool as I thought it was. But this section, that was pretty cool.

9:08 So then you go back and now you have this new awareness and you sleep on it, you wake up the next day and suddenly you're better at it. Youknow, it's it's like that it's that iterative, that loop and the only way to stay in that loopis do find a groove and to find a state of play to reacquaint yourself with what you're doing.

9:26 So like let me tease out a few of these objectives because I'm kind of rambling but I'm hoping that thisis helpful. Number one, create a state of play, reacquaint yourself with your goal and go directly tothat goal.

9:38 If that goal is to play scales really fast, learn a bunch of scales, but if the goalprobably is not to do that, if it's to write cool solos, if it's to learn a language, if it's to run a marathon, go towards that goal and don't mess with the other stuff. Like, yeah, there's thereare there are things that can aid in that objective.

9:59 Like, for example, if you want to run a marathon, it's probably good to do some weight training too. You know, but like, don't make that the main thing,it's not the main thing, it's supportive. You need to get your ass out on the trail and run.You know, it's like the Japanese is like, I want to learn how to speak Japanese.

10:16 I'm not going to spend all this time learning to read Japanese, but I'll learn enoughto help empower my ability to speak Japanese. It's like, get out there and speak to people.It's like the same thing with music to me is like my goal is to speak.

10:29 My goal is to befluent on my instrument and to be able to bring myself to it and not have any barrier in between a lot, like connecting my soul to my fingers to my guitar. I want it to be a fluid process. So,like, what do I need to do that? Yeah, I need to learn scales and I need to learn the fretboardand stuff like that.

10:47 But more than anything, I need to be able to paint route and then view it objectively to recordings and stuff like this and then go back and do it again and fail and failand fail and fail and work with people that are better than I am and put myself in uncomfortablesituations and try and rise to the occasion. That's it. That's the whole thing.

11:07 And so, yeah, it's like, it's like, find moments of objectivity, watch or listen to yourself

11:17 after the fact so you can assess yourself, do it every day, find a way to make it fun and playfuland then cut out the B.S. Do what you need to do. Another really, I think, I don't know,especially for this project, for Scoobert. One of my goals is to be fast.

11:37 So, in this next episode, I'm going to talk about speed and not just like in the guitar play really fast kind of way. I mean,speed as in the like start a song and finish it in a day kind of speed and how that's its ownstyle of practice.

11:58 There are like ways to take this whole holistic thing where you learn a bunch of different skills. Like in my example, a bunch of different instruments, learn how to record,produce, song right, mix, all those kind of things. And then how you take that whole umbrella,

12:16 wrap it up and then make it fast so that you don't fall into the trap that a lot of multi-instrumentalists,producers, people do of like trying to make everything perfect or wearing too many hats,

12:31 you only wear one hat. You're a musician. Do it all. Do it all at the same time. Anyway,I'm going to talk about the way I think about it, the way that's helped me just because I think it'sfun. And I think it's fundamental to what this Scoobert experience is. Scoobert, like

12:48 entire project comes from the idea of being fast, being fluent and being fluid and reimaginingmusic to be an entire state of play.

12:58 And just like loosening up and connecting everything thatyou've practiced and everything that you've worked hard for in back, back around to say something that's not as brooding or precious or stressful.

13:13 And so in this next episode, I'll talk a little bit about the Scoobert Doobert experience of making music and what brings me joy and what brings me

13:29 my ability to, you know, become prolific, make a bunch of stuff, put it out there for the world.And hopefully you've enjoyed some of that music. And hopefully you've enjoyed this music 101podcast about practice. We talk in practice. Yes, we are. There's some good stuff. All right.

13:49 See you next time. If you want to check out any links, scoobertdoobert.pizza, uh, scoobertdoobert.pizza. See ya.