Reflections on last Sunday. I still haven't got into the swing of the online diary yet, doing it in a timely fashion. Perhaps it's a function of aging but it often takes me a few days of mulling things over before I have something to say, other than merely reporting what happened.
My son had a golf tournament that was a long way from the farm but was to not too distant from the city (about 40 minutes each way). We stayed in the apartment on Saturday night and then drove through (relatively) empty streets before 6am so he could arrive early and do what he does before tournaments (I'm not a golfer - I deliver him to the carpark and say my goodbyes and good lucks). It was a 36 hole tournament so I had all day before I had to return to pick him up. I had thought ahead and packed a guitar (a beloved ES137) so I returned to the apartment looking forward to a day of practice.
When we are in our normal place of residence or work (both the same place in my case) it is too easy to be distracted by other tasks. The distracting tasks are often more important than practicing, so we feel guilty indulging ourselves. Even if the business is music I feel I should be working on the "business", at least there are tangible results at the end of a task. Practicing is maintenance (often) and feels too good to be work. However, on Sunday my "work" was waiting for my son to finish golf, I did not take any other work with me so I only had my guitar and some music theory reading (No matter how much music theory you know or think you do know it is always important, from time to time, to refresh the basics. More so as you get older e.g. "There are 12 tones in an octave, now? I never!"). I spent the whole day practicing basics. Again. (You can't get enough basic practice!). Simple chromatic scales and then all the major scales in all positions. That was a whole days work. It was fun reinforcing the things I already knew but even with simple major scales new (or old but forgotten) relationships present themselves, as long as the guitarist is concentrating.
As an example, take the "lowly" (or most august) C major scale. The (arguably) starting point of western music. I find that when I am investigating a new piece of music and I am playing with combinations of sounds to see what works, I often am not consciously thinking of notes but of sounds and feelings. When this happens I usually fall into playing in the C major scale (this often changes once I think about how I want the piece to develop), it is the first one we learn and I tend to it when my conscious mind is not involved. I know this scale over all the fretboard as well as I think it can be known but... when I consciously practice this scale I (still) find interesting relationships that I had not been aware of (after nearly 40 years of playing this scale!). I think, "Oh!, if I move 3/4/5 strings across and 1/2/3/4+ frets up/down then that interval is {whatever}. Mmm, that could be useful in {piece of music}."
No matter how many centuries a guitarist has been playing then returning to basics can yield results (even the C major scale in the first position... try it for an hour and see what you can learn).
A point of clarification. When I say I do scales, I don't just do the up and down ones. I do those for a long time when I begin practicing but then, of course, my fingers "solo" over the scale I am practicing. I play mind games to see how I can make restricted intervals interesting. eg, no dominant allowed for x notes, one note every ten has to be more than an octave leap, etc, etc. Often it sounds like crap but that is probably why we shut the door to practice on our own.
By the way, my son came third. Not bad for a 16 year old in a senior tournament. I don't know where his choice of a sensible and financially rewarding passion came from. Not from me, obviously.
My son had a golf tournament that was a long way from the farm but was to not too distant from the city (about 40 minutes each way). We stayed in the apartment on Saturday night and then drove through (relatively) empty streets before 6am so he could arrive early and do what he does before tournaments (I'm not a golfer - I deliver him to the carpark and say my goodbyes and good lucks). It was a 36 hole tournament so I had all day before I had to return to pick him up. I had thought ahead and packed a guitar (a beloved ES137) so I returned to the apartment looking forward to a day of practice.
When we are in our normal place of residence or work (both the same place in my case) it is too easy to be distracted by other tasks. The distracting tasks are often more important than practicing, so we feel guilty indulging ourselves. Even if the business is music I feel I should be working on the "business", at least there are tangible results at the end of a task. Practicing is maintenance (often) and feels too good to be work. However, on Sunday my "work" was waiting for my son to finish golf, I did not take any other work with me so I only had my guitar and some music theory reading (No matter how much music theory you know or think you do know it is always important, from time to time, to refresh the basics. More so as you get older e.g. "There are 12 tones in an octave, now? I never!"). I spent the whole day practicing basics. Again. (You can't get enough basic practice!). Simple chromatic scales and then all the major scales in all positions. That was a whole days work. It was fun reinforcing the things I already knew but even with simple major scales new (or old but forgotten) relationships present themselves, as long as the guitarist is concentrating.
As an example, take the "lowly" (or most august) C major scale. The (arguably) starting point of western music. I find that when I am investigating a new piece of music and I am playing with combinations of sounds to see what works, I often am not consciously thinking of notes but of sounds and feelings. When this happens I usually fall into playing in the C major scale (this often changes once I think about how I want the piece to develop), it is the first one we learn and I tend to it when my conscious mind is not involved. I know this scale over all the fretboard as well as I think it can be known but... when I consciously practice this scale I (still) find interesting relationships that I had not been aware of (after nearly 40 years of playing this scale!). I think, "Oh!, if I move 3/4/5 strings across and 1/2/3/4+ frets up/down then that interval is {whatever}. Mmm, that could be useful in {piece of music}."
No matter how many centuries a guitarist has been playing then returning to basics can yield results (even the C major scale in the first position... try it for an hour and see what you can learn).
A point of clarification. When I say I do scales, I don't just do the up and down ones. I do those for a long time when I begin practicing but then, of course, my fingers "solo" over the scale I am practicing. I play mind games to see how I can make restricted intervals interesting. eg, no dominant allowed for x notes, one note every ten has to be more than an octave leap, etc, etc. Often it sounds like crap but that is probably why we shut the door to practice on our own.
By the way, my son came third. Not bad for a 16 year old in a senior tournament. I don't know where his choice of a sensible and financially rewarding passion came from. Not from me, obviously.
posted by Mark Macpherson at 9:30 am
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