What Does "Real Practice" Sound Like?

The reality may suck, but the results might shock you

I’ve said this many times before over the course of producing countless videos for YouTube and 100’s of lessons for my teaching site: Practicing is not sexy most of the time.

It’s mechanical, it’s necessary, it’s repetitive, it’s long, it’s drawn out, it’s exhausting, and sometimes it just sucks.

Lately I’ve been working on being laser-focussed on very small pieces of information in my practice sessions. Sometimes just one line, one chord, one bass line or one melody.

The results have been outstanding. The harmonic concept you hear me practicing in this short audio clip from one of today’s practice sessions is something I couldn’t execute at even 60bpm two weeks ago.

It’s by no means something that feels like it’s going to leap out of my playing naturally without me forcing it anytime soon (ultimately the goal of anything I practice), but it already feels very natural to move between keys, and develop the shape.

Changing keys and motivic development are two main factors in fluency as an improvisor, and are ultimately what give me a chance at freedom when I play music.

Realizing they are becoming a part of whatever I’m practicing is a great indicator that I might be close to moving onto a new idea, filing this current shape away under “let’s wait and see” and then perhaps, if I’m really lucky, surprising myself on a show when that material comes out as a natural extension of my playing.

I have to remind myself to trust the process whilst practicing. You’ll he me vocalize that sometimes, but most of the time it’s an internal thought. I also have to forget about the past immediately.

When I’m struggling with something, besides the obvious things I can change like the tempo and the density of the idea, I also have to change my thought process.

Some of the things I’m trying to constantly remind myself of are:

• Always look forward, never back

• Trust that, like anything I’ve ever played live in my career, this will become that at some point. Maybe not right now, but with the right work ethic, anything is possible

• Never be afraid to change my opinion of something when new information becomes available. In bass playing terms that could be as simple as a new fingering. It may mean going back to square one to re-learn how to play a phrase, but in the long-run I’ll be a better player for it

• Stop comparing myself to any other musician. Bass player or otherwise. It’s so easy to fall into that trap of “am I good enough?” or “can I play this as well as X?”. All that does is waste energy on something I have no control over. Took me a long time to learn that one, and it might be the most useful tool I have now.

More soon,

Janek

P.S. If you haven’t checked out this week’s podcast, you can see it here:

If you’re not sure what to practice right now, try minor pentatonics on major 7 chords. They’re super fun to explore: