1. Do you think that someone’s technical ability on an instrument dictates how creative they will be?

Technical ability does not dictate how creative you will be. It does however allow you a potentially greater range and depth of expression. If we parallel this to language, a better vocabulary and command of language gives you an enhanced opportunity to express yourself. It does not however guarantee that you will have anything of substance to “say”.

2. Those who choose NOT to perform, although they may be competent musicians, are they selling themselves short in terms of fulfilling their potential?

I would say that they are not selling themselves short by choosing not to perform. Music comes in many callings. Musicians also don’t sell themselves short by not teaching or not composing or not writing books etc. The goal is to find the direction within music where you can do the most good and find the most fulfillment. Different directions can and should evolve over your career.

3. In order to empathize with learners, does being a  successful musician make you a better teacher or does being a successful teacher make you a better musician?

Probably being a “successful” musician contributes to being a better teacher than vice versa. A musician who has succeeded in his craft in the real world has many “real world” skills to bring to his or her teaching.

Of course, this assumes that we’re using the word “successful” as a synonym for being a good musician. You can be “successful” without being well developed at your craft. The world is full of successful incompetents. In a world where notoriety and marketing are often more valuable to the public than the development of art, success can be measured in many ways – money, fame, fulfillment, life style etc.

4. How would you measure success in musicianship?

My measurement of success involves the depth of a musician’s development and the fulfillment he or she finds within music. Commercial and financial success may or may not follow.

Some people only measure success with dollar signs. If you are a professional musician, you must earn enough to make your living. I do not believe in the “starving artist” model.

5. Many of the arts can be described as a lifelong learning experience;. Would you think this is true of music, or do you think that musicians reach a peak and then tail off?

Music is absolutely a lifelong experience. Musicians never hit a peak and tail off unless they stop pursuing knowledge, technical proficiency and creative development. There are few arts that encourage life long development more than music. Even if you start music at age 60, you have at least 30 years to develop your art and craft.

In my 48 years of teaching, composing and performing, I have never seen anything but growth. I also have never been more enthused about music and its importance in the world. I plan on this continuing for the rest of my life. Students who have studied with me for over 35 years would share the same thoughts.

Chuck Anderson in Concert

Fingering

It has value to the reading guitarist because the guitar fingerboard is a treacherous trap of options. The same notes are in too many places. The same C note is on string two, fret one and string three, fret five and string four, fret ten and string five, fret fifteen. Unlike the piano which has one location for each note, the guitar compounds the problem with too many options and then throws in open strings to further confuse the issue. When reading is positional and stays within a four fret region, it’s much easier to read. However, writers and arrangers don’t attempt to stay within a four fret region of the guitar. They typically do not know or care about the guitar’s fingering option issues.

Fingering is organized by a series of motion principles that allow you to connect notes all over the instrument. These principles are: Basic – a four fret span with one finger per fret. Slide – the same finger used twice in a row on the same string at different frets. Pass – a reset of four fret span generally along the same string. It’s possible to use the reset principle as you change strings as well. Stretch – the lengthening of the four fret span resulting in a shift into a new four fret span. The stretch can also remain in the original four fret span. Contraction – the opposite of stretch. A contraction shortens the four fret span resulting in a new four fret span. Leap – the repositioning of the four fret span after using an open string. The leap can also be a non connected shift of position.

With an awareness of these principles, you can “work out” a good fingering for any reading situation. This is particularly helpful in reading Bebop heads which were not written with guitar fingering in mind. Although it’s a tedious process in the beginning, it does gradually become reflexive.

All these comments and principles apply to improvisation as well. A good guitarist moves smoothly all over the neck. The sound is connective and flowing. Without the application of the six fingering principles, solos are often limited because they suffer from the “box” restriction.

Learn the notes on the neck and don’t rely on tablature to get you through the maze.

If you consistently use the same fingerings for your scales, arpeggios or phrases of any kind, you’ll find yourself playing the same things over and over. One of the most effective ways of breaking into new creativity ground is to change your fingering. Don’t play in the same position or use the same fingering. The reason that this is so effective is that within a fingering, certain note combinations or riffs present themselves. Sooner or later, they become repetitious. When you explore new fingerings, the same old riffs are no longer available. You are forced to play something new!

Remember that fingering affects note distribution and that affects tone color. Just playing the same notes on different strings changes the timbre and therefore the color of what you play. Thicker strings are “warmer” and darker. Thinner strings are “thinner” sounding and brighter. The fingered note has a different color and sound than the open note which has a characteristic ringing tone. Open strings are more common in some styles. They are often characteristic of particular idioms. Bluegrass and Classical guitar styles rely heavily on open strings. Jazz guitar relies less on open strings. That being said, any style can use open strings but it’s more common in some style than in others.

Beyond tone color and resonance, you have new access to new note combinations.

So remember that fingering is not just a technical principle for practicing. It’s not just a tool for reading. It’s a dynamic and ever changing source for creative inspiration!

Unlocking the Guitar: Notes on the Neck
One of the biggest problems for guitar players – Guitar players historically do not know the names of the notes on the neck. I don’t mean the ability to figure out the notes. I mean stone cold knowing the notes – having a perfect mental picture of all of the notes and their names all over the instrument,  This is a great 10 step approach to mastering the neck.

Monster Guitar Chops Volume One
The first in a 6 volume series of books dealing with the physical guitar – Strength, speed and endurance are goals here.

The Six Secrets of Guitar Fingering
My approach to fingering – a 6 principle approach that will help you master the note connections on the instrument. It’s valuable for the improviser, the reader and anyone who plays single notes.

Pathways of the Guitar
The workbook for The Six Secrets – it deals with critical scales, arpeggios, intervals and sequences that ultimately become the tools that every improviser needs.

Master Picking
My approach to picking – the study of the four picking pairs and how to use them. Picking is divided up into Articulate and Legato picking

Mastering the Modes
Ever since Miles Davis, modality has been important to contemporary musicians. Few subjects have been as poorly taught as modes. This book covers the details of modal playing in great depth.

Modular Phonetic Rhythm
My system of rhythm – using concepts from language. It helps make the transition from the math of rhythm to the sonic language of rhythm. Critical for chord comping, solos, composition and reading.

The Private Music Teachers Guide
For those who would like to make a serious career out of teaching. This approach is not a marginal part time job. I’m talking about enough income to buy the house, buy the car and put the kids through school.

Unlocking the Guitar: Strums
A good solid training in contemporary strum techniques. Often called “feel” by drummers, it’s great to improve your communications with other musicians especially drummers and bass players.

Unlocking the Guitar: 25 Open Tunings and How to Use Them
More geared to singer-songwriters who are looking for new sounds to inspire new songs.

Each book takes a topic and develops it from the beginning. Topics not covered yet are chord development, improvisation, theory and melody and chords. These are either completed and waiting for release or they are in progress as we speak.

Since teaching is very personal, the best way to guide someone is to find out where they are and what they’re trying to accomplish. In this way, I can guide someone towards the most effective way to use the material.

This material is a set of resources to be used not a step by step method. I train people all over the world through Skype and correspondence if anyone needs a more personalized approach.

I will also be releasing video clips to demonstrate this material. Look for that feature soon!

These intimidating terms only refer to the way chords progress through a song or a composition. All songs have chords that support the melody whether it be a vocal or an instrumental. You could say that chords are the cushion on which melody floats. It is not an easy concept for most people to understand.

The other elements of music – rhythm and melody for example, are much more intuitive. Historically, we can speculate that rhythm came first in the sense of a heart beat or hand clapping or beating on logs, etc. After that, man tried to imitate bird song – the birth of melody. But harmony in the sense of chords and their progression came much more recently.

When you explain chords and chord progressions to listeners, it’s almost funny to see their reaction. They can feel a beat. They can dance. They can clap their hands. They can hum or sing in the shower or recognize a tune. But chords? They change so fast as to seem invisible, not even there. Coupled with the fact that the balance of instruments on a recording turns the chord element down but turns the vocal, the melody, and the rhythm up, makes it even more improbable that we can “hear” chords.

Yet chords are remarkably effective in setting the mode, the tone of music. In fact, a melody note and how we perceive it is amazingly affected by the chord or chords that support it.

Roman numerals have been used for a long time to convey the idea of chords. Terms like the I, IV and V chords so typical of the Blues it’s a common place term. But do we really “feel” the effect?

I came across a great French animation that does a very clever demonstration of Harmonic Function in a Mozart composition. It uses cartoon faces and expressions to give us a sense of what the under pinning chords are doing in the piece – and what they feel like. The material covered is Diatonic chords in the major and relative minor key, secondary dominant chords and chord inversion.

Watch it and see if you can follow the chords that you can’t hear!

The guitar is a very physical instrument. Becoming a great player requires knowledge, creativity and technique. Understanding how to do something doesn’t mean a lot if you can’t execute the riffs and the chords.

Hand strength isn’t something you’re born with – you have to develop it. Just like a sport that takes specific skills but still requires physical training. I’m sure you realize that it takes a lot of physical training. So does the guitar! But how do you develop your hands?

After many years of teaching and research, I’ve organized a series of exercises that will not only develop speed but will also develop coordination and endurance.

The six volumes of this series are based on a set of six motion principles. These moves are indispensable if you really want to bring your playing to a new level.

This first volume will get you started in the right direction. Download it today or grab the hard copy! Or you might want to check out my Institute of Guitar, where you can access the Guitar Aerobics series in addition to ALL of my training material – learn more here!

It’s beneficial at every stage of life. Youngsters benefit from the discipline, the logic, the process of learning itself. It can increase self esteem and balance out personalities. Aggressive behavior can be balanced by a developing sensitivity. Overly shy behavior can be balanced by developing a more focused and assertive self.

Social interaction and cooperation are invaluable assets to the developing personality. Team and goal setting are part of the process as they are in sports. Music, unlike sports, does not have the win – lose mentality nor the sense of competition. There is room for everyone in music. It’s not limited to the number of team members or to the number of teams in a league as in sports. The personality of every individual can be celebrated and fostered.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, music is one of the most valuable activities that seniors can enjoy. Here the value of mental concentration, hand eye coordination, self fulfillment, creative expression and accomplishment often makes the difference between a happy pursuit of the “golden years” and boredom and loneliness.

The idea that music must be started when you are young is not only wrong, it’s discouraging and nonproductive. My work through the years shows me that it is never too late to get involved with music.  Visit Musicafter50.com to get some great insights on Senior involvement with music. Whether someone is just beginning to do music or is returning to music after a long absence, it’s hard to find a more beneficial and fulfilling activity and pastime than music.

For everyone in between youngster and Senior, music offers unlimited opportunity to explore options. On the one hand, music can certainly be a career. There are a staggering number of jobs that involve music. Performing, teaching, writing, engineering, business etc. In another post, I’ll go into greater detail about the opportunities that music presents to anyone who is interested enough and persistent enough to follow a dream.

Many of today’s jobs don’t offer the creative atmosphere or opportunity that millions of people seek. Music does offer these things.  So, even if you have that full time job, there is nothing stopping you from developing a love affair with music. Many students that I have taught and continue to teach are successful attorneys, surgeons, dentists, investors and business owners. These same people have developed a love of and a commitment to music that has immeasurably enhanced their lives. Many say that their lesson and the time they spend on music is the best part of their day.

Their is something fascinating about how music works. Granted, it’s not always easy to find your direction or your path, but that’s where a good teacher comes in to the picture. With the help and guidance of a good teacher, you should be able to plot a course that will lead you through all the steps that you need to accomplish your musical goals.

It doesn’t matter whether these goals are lofty or small, they are nevertheless goals and as such deserve to be pursued and attained. You will never regret the time you spend with music and in all likelihood, it will enhance your quality of living all through your life!

Regardless of the resources you use to learn to play the guitar, it’s important to know what there is to learn and how that affects what you want to do. Whether it’s playing in a band, singing and playing or being a singer-songwriter. there are specific things to learn and specific skills to develop. Here’s an overview of the ten most fundamental things to learn.

1. Chords

The first thing that almost all guitar players learn is chords. A chord is played by holding down multiple notes simultaneously on the fingering hand. The opposite hand makes a chord sound by strumming it or finger picking it. There is nothing more fundamental than playing basic chords.

The first 14 chords are E, A, D, G ,C, Em, Am, Dm, E7, A7, D7, G7, B7. C7. Typically, barre chords are learned next. Barres have an advantage because they can be moved to different keys. Their disadvantage is that they’re harder to play, at least initially.

The ability to play chords and switch them smoothly is the first requirement for playing alone or with a group. It immediately qualifies you for a band in the role of rhythm guitar. This job is an accompaniment job and does not have the attention given to the Lead guitar player but it is your quickest route to playing in a band!

Resources:

chordfind.com

Guitar Room

2. Technique

Technique is the ability to control your hands individually and in combination. It is primarily a physical skill not a musical skill. The training and development of your hands is a prerequisite and necessary to develop musical skills.

Sports offers a good parallel. Football has physical skills and football skills. Passing, receiving, blocking, running and tackling are football skills. Running through tires, road work, weight lifting, wind sprints and stretching are physical skills. You need both to be successful.

There are many exercises designed to get your hands in shape. Finger independence drills, barres and stretches are just three good ways to develop your hands.

Resources:

Technique Building Exercises

Guitar Technique Secrets

Guitar Player Techniques

3. Notes on the Neck

It’s unbelievable how weak guitar players are on knowing the notes on their own instrument!
No other instrument suffers from this same fate. Imagine a piano player not knowing the note names of the keys…or a trumpet player not knowing what notes come out if they push specific valve combinations. Yet, an amazingly high percentage of guitar players don’t know the notes on the neck.

This problem has certainly been created by the guitar world’s penchant for tablature and chord picture diagrams. Despite this, there is no excuse for the failure on the part of guitar players to learn what is absolutely rudimentary on any other instrument. The notes on the neck must be not only learned but mastered!

Resources:

Brendan Burns

Notes on the guitar neck

4. Strums

This skill is part of the rhythm guitar role. All songs, besides having chords, have a strum that is responsible for the “feel” of the song. If you play the wrong strum with a song, something will sound off.

The strum helps keep the tempo steady and propels the music forward.

Strumming captures the most primitive element of music – rhythm. That tendency to tap our feet when we hear music can often be traced to the strumming pattern of the guitar.

Resources:

Strumming 101 – A Beginner Guitar Strumming Tutorial

Easy Guitar Strumming Patterns for Beginners

5. Finger Picking

Finger picking is an alternative to strumming. Like strumming, finger picking uses the non-fingering hand and produces sound from chords. Fingerpicking was most common in Folk music but it has certainly made its way into main stream contemporary music through singer-songwriters and country artists. James Taylor is an outstanding finger pick artist who has fused Folk, Country, Rock and Pop music into a seamless original form. His influence has been significant ever since the beginning of the Folk-Rock movement.

Resources:

Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar

History of Fingerstyle Guitar

Ultimate Guitar Lessons

6. Scales

Scales are organized streams of notes that can be used to generate melody or improvisation. There are many kinds of scales to learn depending on the musical style you choose. The two most common contemporary scales are the Blues Scale and the Pentatonic Scale. The Blues Scale is used in the darker forms of Blues and in heavier Rock Music. The Pentatonic Scale is used in all things Southern: Southern Rock, brighter Blues, Country music and even Motown.

Beyond these scales, there are many more to learn if the music you play needs them. Santana used the Dorian Scale to great effect while Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits made a living from the Aeolian Scale.

Resources:

Guitar Scales

Guitar Scales @ Wikibooks

Guitarists.net Guitar Scale Finder

7. Lead Guitar Techniques

The lead guitar embellishments are physical moves that impact the sound of the guitar in a very significant way. Bends, slides, glisses, vibrato and harmonics are just some of the techniques employed. These are “guitaristic” effects, not external effects such as reverb, chorus and distortion. As in all cases, the style of music dictates which embellishments are applicable. Traditional Jazz guitar uses few bends while Blues music lives on bends as well as the other embellishments.

Resources:

Lead Guitar Techniques

8. Rhythm

Rhythm is one of the three primary components of music, It encompasses several aspects. On the one hand, rhythm is the duration of a note or a chord. It also includes tempo ie beats per second as measured by a metronome  and the stability of the beat. Rhythm, as in tempo, can vary during a song. Some songs maintain a steady tempo from beginning to end. Other songs vary the tempo. Slowing down is called Ritardando and speeding up is called Acclerando. These are intentional musical effects and not the result of a guitar player not being able to keep steady time or rhythm. The ability to “keep time” is one of the most important skills a guitar player can develop.

Resources:

Rhythm & Rhythm Guitar @ Wikipedia

9. Ear

The development of the ear brings your musical insides – out. Music is the only hearing art. As such, the ear acts as the intermediary between your musical ideas and the execution of these ideas. Solfeggio, the Italian art of sight singing has been used for centuries to develop musicianship. Ear training contributes to the ability to play what you hear. There are virtually unlimited applications of ear training from working songs out by ear to improvising to writing. The European tradition of ear training has been far more stringent than that of the United States.

Resources:

Good Ear

Ear Training

Ear Trainer

10. Songs

This area is your song list, your repertoire, what you can play from beginning to end. Without a repertoire, you have nothing to play. An audience is certainly not interested in listening to scales, arpeggios or exercises of any kind. They respond to songs no matter what style of music you play. It could original or cover but one way or another, you need to learn songs.

What does it mean to learn a song? The singer songwriter’s version of learning a song would be to memorize the chords, the strum or finger pick, the melody, the form, the chords and the lyrics. The jazz guitarist version is to learn the single note melody, the chord changes, the form, the melody and chord version (combining single note melody and chords) and the improvisational structure. Unless you use the lyrics as inspiration for the mood and feel of a song, lyrics are not part of the instrumental process.

Resources:

Top 100 Guitar Sites

Top 100 Tab Sites

Guitar Tabs

Conclusion

Now that you have a sense of what there is to learn, you can focus on how you’re going to learn it. Whether it’s formal lessons with a good teacher, self teaching, books, DVDs or on line resources, get started! The rewards will far outweigh the effort.

Becoming aware of this lack of progress, he begins searching for sources of information. Books, recordings and other musicians are primary sources. Though these approaches are sometimes helpful, they are not flexible enough to solve specific problems for specific students. An individual can form habits from misinformation that can be detrimental to his progress for years.

Studying with a qualified teacher solves the organizational problems and provides a type of security for the student. Having dealt with so many self taught players and their problems, I encourage any serious players to find a qualified and creative teacher to assist their development. Every player is comfortable with and responds to varying programs of study but most can be helped by the right teacher. I do not deny the difficulty of finding this teacher but the effort required is worth it.

Assuming that the player is involved with a teacher on a regular study program, the following practice problems are common. The traditional school system has affected the attitude of many toward learning. It has traditionally been a matter of remembering enough to assure a good grade or at least to pass the course. The larger more important sense of education tends to get lost in the pressure for marks.

Education in the long run is intended to broaden the interest and awareness of its students as well as to develop the individual’s ability to think and to reason. However, so much emphasis is placed on the specifics of a required subject that the student frequently loses sight of the long run and the deeper objectives of his study. It is at varying degrees of this state that the “student of education” becomes a student of music.

The teacher of music and the lesson itself often become identified in the student’s mind with the traditional concept of school.The teacher becomes a rather dogmatic authority figure, the lesson becomes class and the practice material becomes homework. Of these, the last point seems to create a sense of urgency, even panic, in many students. This feeling works against the sense of freedom, flow, exploration and joy which should be within the study of music. Many students seem to feel that there will be terrible repercussions if every assignment is not done “perfectly”.

Some of these repercussions are teacher disapproval, a “failing” grade, being “dropped” from the teachers’s schedule or worse. These are among many possibilities conjured up in the student’s conscious or subconscious mind. In objective disciplines like math tables, formulas or facts of history, the task of recalling something specific by a certain day is not unreasonable. It is sometimes difficult to see the importance of these specifics but it is usually not an overwhelming task. However, music and the study of it is not so objective, not quite so specific. Time is needed to explore, to listen, to develop and that cannot be geared to a specific day. The student should explore his studies as guidelines, organizations of material.

The purpose of performing the lesson is not to put the a student under the pressure of a deadline but to allow the teacher to check for problems, listen for progress and to determine the next direction for continued development. There is pressure in the teaching situation but it is part of the education. Music by its very nature involves pressure on the professional level. Audiences, conductors and time limits are only a few of them. Learning to cope with pressure in the lesson situation is a first step toward coping with the professional pressure that lies ahead.

There are no demerits in the study of music, no necessity of marks and competitive grading. The student’s individual development is the only consideration. Naturally, if the student is avoiding practice consistently over long periods of time, he should re-evaluate his thoughts about pursuing music in general. However, most student problems in practicing are more commonly related to very normal conflicts of time and priorities. The student’s complaint of a lack of practice time in his schedule is common and understandable.

After making a serious attempt to streamline time obligations, the student must concentrate on the quality of his practice time. Too many aspiring players confuse the importance of concentrated efficient study with the self proclaimed necessity of quantity practice. For most, quantity practice is not as beneficial as it may seem. Span of attention being what it is for most students, long periods of practice are rarely concentrated and directed toward the most important material.

Far more common is the following pattern: ten minutes of structured practice, twenty minutes of playing what has already been mastered, ten minutes of “lost” time, twenty minutes of emulating recordings. This “schedule” is most typical of those pursuing Contemporary forms of music but it is loosely equivalent for students of all forms of music.

Each student must determine a schedule and an approach to practice that suits his individual situation. Many have developed severe problems with their practice consistency because they have failed to deal with the variables of practice. These variables include the length of practice, time of day, what preceded practice and the rotation of the study material.

Consider the effectiveness of morning vs. night practice, one hour vs. fifteen minute practice sessions, practicing after work or before it and practicing two, five or seven topics per day. The student must develop a personal program that will lead to the greatest efficiency and progress.

Students at all levels, even the most elementary, seem to have an instinctive awareness of how much there is to learn, how far they have to go. For many this awareness, even if it is subconscious, becomes overwhelming. The student may respond to this in a most illogical though thoroughly understandable way. He practices less, fearing on some level his own ability to cope with the vast field into which he has had a glimpse. It is certainly a common human maneuver to avoid or delay that which lies beyond one’s ability to accomplish. At least, this is the fear.

In order to understand and overcome these problems, they must be faced. Though music is depressingly in the future for many aspiring players, it also provides unique and exciting challenges in the present. The student must relax and learn to enjoy each stage of his development. There must be a balance achieved between what one can accomplish now and what one wants to accomplish in the future. Concentration must be placed on specific material with the realization that everything becomes cumulative. It is the exploration and development of specific skills and general principles that create an essential balance helping the student to maintain his equilibrium.

Approaching any new topic of music, the student should realize that it involves several levels. Awareness, physical and aural development, creative exploration, practice, application and “mastery” are most important among these levels. Most students want all these levels to happen simultaneously or at least within a short span of time. This is, to say the least, unrealistic. One level leads to the next in a type of evolution. This development of levels is exactly how the individual’s progress can be measured. A student first becomes aware of something to practice. With a clear idea of what to do, he begins to physically execute it, listening carefully as he does. This is nothing but an exploratory stage and should not be confused with anything else. Getting a grip on the execution side, the student begins to accelerate his work exploring the creative possibilities — original themes, interpretations of themes, dynamics, spontaneity, etc.

The next question is how can it be used? Considering the uniqueness of the principle, the student begins to explore the possibilities of integrating it into his playing experience. Practical application is nothing more complicated than using a principle in performance vehicles which takes it out of the theoretical realm. It is something like the addition of new words to one’s vocabulary. It allows greater expression. Since the primary goal of music is self expression and communication, the parallel to language is a good one. If one improves the control of language, one has a much greater opportunity to express oneself to others with a finer degree of assuredness and subtlety. In a similar way, every musical technique that one has developed allows a greater flexibility and depth in the communication skills of music.

It is most important that the student should concentrate on specific musical techniques and not get overly discouraged by the long run musical objectives. Mastering specific techniques will lead effortlessly to all long run objectives.

Students seem to think that they should be above low points of practice enthusiasm. They are perhaps unknowingly denying their own humanness. No one is perfectly consistent. Musicians are not machines. There will be peak periods and the opposite. The true measure of one’s potential is not the consistency of highs but rather the ability to recover from low periods. During periods of depression and sagging enthusiasm, students often begin to tell themselves that they must not have the ability to achieve in music.

Because if they did, so their reasoning goes, they would not have any difficulties with their own motivation toward practice. They tend to look at an established player and assume that this player never had problems like theirs. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is their assumptions only that is giving them their “information”. If the established player were to be questioned and if he were to be honest and open with the inquiring student, he would reflect the same problems as the student himself. Naturally, it must be looked at within the framework of the established player’s development.

The player has passed from level to level in his own development and if he has achieved a balance within himself, he will not be facing the same type of problems now that the student is facing. However, he did face them at one time. I have never met a player who could say that he was equally motivated to practice at every point in his development. Being aware of this, it should be easier for the student to cope with the peaks and valleys of his own development. Straight line, uniform progress happens to no one. There are always setbacks followed by advances.

The tragedy is when a student overcome with depression about his playing and guilt over his lack of practice motivation abandons music. As long as the long term trend is upward, the specific setbacks have no significance at all. The true measure of a student is not his avoidance of problems but his ability to overcome them. The peaks of progress do not last forever nor do the lows of practice problems. As long as the student wants to play and develop, there is no limit to the number of times he can rebound from setbacks.

Any student who has an authentic interest in music and his own development will practice. However, practice is not the only consideration in pursuing music. Many students have convinced themselves that practice and practice alone leads to successful performance. If they are not able to spend a great deal of time practicing, they tend to develop guilt feelings which naturally make relaxed practice a difficult thing to achieve.

Music is basically a type of self reflection, a communication form intended to convey the uniqueness of the individual player. The uniqueness of an individual is the sum total of his experiences. These experiences shape the personality of the individual to a great extent and it is this personality which is reflected through music. The importance of life involvement and life experience is greatly overlooked. Many have confused the reality of music with the theories of music. Music is part of this world. It is not above, beyond or outside of it. It is so integrated with day to day living that it should not become separate.

Those who have decided that a four, six or eight hour practice day takes precedence over or eliminates the need for other experience should think again. Based on the thought that isolated practice is the key to success, all great players should be single, unattached, without responsibility or pressure and totally free to devote all their energy to music. However, the smallest investigation reveals the opposite facts. Great players throughout history have been human beings fully involved in the business of living as well as in the pursuit of their art. They have married, divorced, had children, mortgages, debts and emotional trauma. In short, they are exactly the same as non – players except for their specific ability and direction.

Every day is filled with alternate ways to spend one’s time. They can be loosely divided into two categories– those which are an obligation and those which are discretionary. One’s family and one’s work are most commonly in the first category. Social contacts and recreation are among many alternatives in the second. It is important to note that the term “discretionary” does not mean unimportant. It only implies that the individual is able to exercise more control in those areas. After taking care of obligations, an individual’s determination to excel in music will generally guide his priorities for discretionary time.

Progress is in direct proportion to the time spent on disciplined practice and creative performance. But a musician’s growth is not determined by practice and playing alone. Life experience is an integral part of a musician’s development. As an individual matures, the learning experience requires increasingly thoughtful decisions. The musician must learn to decide when practice is most important and when the value of other pursuits outweighs the value of specific practice. Many people do not achieve their goals because they use time unwisely. This is a most common source of frustration. But it often takes this frustration to enable the individual to see the necessity of making better decisions on his own priorities of time.

Practice should be approached as a means and not an end. Music should be a personal expression and not an endless series of exercises. With this in mind, it becomes easier to trust the intuition for pursuing interests other than practice for its own sake. Unless this is done, the student begins to resent practice even if it is only on a subconscious level. This resentment ultimately makes the practice and the resulting progress less effective.

Practice leads toward performance. Keep an open, searching mind in regard to different types of music and innovative new forms. This openness keeps interest fresh and often leads to interesting original ideas.

Practice should be considered in all its aspects. The technical, aural, theoretical and creative facets of music must be explored to discover the possibilities of expression through discipline. There is no freedom without discipline and no useful long term discipline without the freedom of creativity. To practice is to search and to search with motivation, dedication and determination is to achieve.

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