The #1 thing you can do to become a better musician

I’ll tell you the easiest thing you can do to improve your musicianship.

 

The single best thing you can do to improve as a musician is to listen back to recordings of yourself practicing or performing.

 

The key is listening frequently, and critically, in order to shorten the gap between what you think you sound like, and what you sound like in reality. In other words, when we play there are two things happening:
1) What our playing sounds like.
2) What we perceive our playing sounds like.

 

Four generations of jazz violinists!! John Blake Jr., Billy Contreras, Chris and Camille Howes

 

During the moment you’re playing, you may not have a clue what you actually sound like. When you listen back, you perceive something closer to reality, and the more you listen back, the more you shrink that gap in the moments when you’re playing. The goal is to be able to hear what we really sound like while we’re playing.

 

This is important: When we hear things we don’t like in our recordings, we can make a mental note to refrain from those bad habits in later performances. For example, as long as I remember, I can restrain myself from playing that same tired lick, habitually sliding into notes, playing long run-ons, etc… as long as I focus/remember to inhibit these bad habits and keep checking updated recordings, I’ll get better.

 

Consider this analogy: The best way to live healthier is to STOP putting bad things in your body. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, buy fancy foods or learn a new skill set. Identify and stop bad habits and you’ll be twice the musician. Quit doing stupid stuff when you play and you’ll sound twice as good. The trick is in being aware of those bad habits.

 

An awesome way to expedite this process is by using looping technology. I like pedals, such as the digitech jamman or the boss RC50, (I got mine from www.electricviolinshop.com,) Cellist, Adam Spiers discovered a FREE way to do this and I’ll let you in on his secret.

First, here’s a loop-pedal video featuring a tune I named “Pat From Memory” in honor of guitarist, Pat Metheny.

 


 

Want to know about that FREE looping software?

 

Cellist, Adam Spiers, is an active student in the cool online program I mentioned before, and he also takes private lessons with me via skype.

 

He goes step by step in this blog about How to Use Audacity for Free Instead of Spending Money and Lugging Around Fragile Loop Pedals:

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  • Peter

    Really good stuff Chris.  Thanks so much.