This week we’re going to look into some tips on how to improve your technical agility. One of the main abilities a musician must have is to have command of the technical aspects of his/her instrument.

Tip #1: Play everything slowly

“Slow is the same as fast”. Maybe you’ve heard of that phrase. I’d like to interpret it as understanding that all movements that you make while playing rapid passages must have the same relaxed feeling as though you were playing slowly. What better way to do that than practicing slowly?

You’ll have to practice slowly and do NOT increase the tempo at any time! Breathe relaxed, concentrate but don’t let your muscles stressed or tight in any way. Practicing slowly give you a chance to hear the music exactly, listen intensively and therefore make your brain learn it “inside-out”.

Tip #2: Concentrate on problem areas

Learn to isolate difficult passages. Listen into them. Figure them out harmonically, mechanically and rhythmically. After your practiced the difficult passage, connect it back to the music a few measure before and after. This way you are “de-isolating” the passage back into the music.

Tip #3: Remember, it’s about making music

Once a new student came to me for lessons and played a few things for me that he’d been practicing up to that point. He commenced to play an exercise in a very technical, non-emotional fashion. I stopped him and asked why he has played like that. He answered, “Well, it’s just a technical exercise. It has nothing to do with music.”

So, I said, “OK, so throw it in the trash!” The point here is that we have to understand something. We play a musical instrument. We do it to play/perform music with it. In order to get the best performances out of ourselves on a consistent basis, we have to “practice performing”. So it is imperative that every time we practice, we should make music.

If something has NOTHING to do with music, we shouldn’t practice it. Think about it. When you practice your major scales, why do you do it? Possible answer are “To better my technique”, “To gain mastery of my instrument”, “to learn to hear the major key”, “to improve my intonation” , etc.

Such answer as “because it’s my homework” or “because my teacher said so” are weak answers and they are NOT going to inspire us to make good music. We need better answers. If an exercise is boring you, ask yourself “Why am I practicing this?”

Look for an answer that is going to motivate you! If you don’t come up with one, LOOK for one! Call a friend, ask your teacher, send ME an email! Do something! Give yourself good reasons and the HOW will take care of itself.

Tip #4: Practice with rhythmic variations

If you’re practicing even scale material, instead of repeating an exercise over and over again the same way (and possibly boring yourself), try playing it with different rhythms.

For example, I’m playing:

1. C – D – E – F – G – F – E – D – C. All eights. Play it 3 times.
2. Then play it as a dotted eighth and sixteenth rhythm. (Or swing eighths) 3 times
3. Then play it as a sixteenth and a dotted eight rhythm (reverse swing) 3 times
4. Then play one group of eight note triplets and a quarter note. 3 times
5. Then the opposite – a quarter note then a group of eighth-note triplets. 3 times
6. Then mix this set – 1 group eighth-note triplet, quarter, quarter, eighth-note triplets. 3 times
7. Then the opposite mix – quarter, eighth-note triplets, eighth-note triplets, quarter. 3 times
8. Then play the original rhythm from the beginning. 3 times.

What does this do? You’ve played the same exercise 24 times without it getting boring. You’ve learned to hear this combination of notes in different rhythms, which aids you to hear deeper into the notes. The speed of the fingers between the notes has varied, eventually strengthening your technique.

I guarantee that if you practice your technical exercises with this method, you’ll reach desired results faster than you have had in the past. You’ll accomplish a lot more in less time.

Tip #5: Learn how to take a break

Practicing 6 hours a day, 7 days a week can be great if you have time to afford yourself this luxury. If you do, my advice is DON’T DO IT! After spending so much time to learn new techniques, new repertoire, new whatever, you can destroy it all by practicing too much!

The brain can only take in some much information at a time and it does it best “piece by piece”, in small relaxed dosages. Even then, the brain needs a rest. Saxophonist Phil Woods has been said the he always plans a day NOT to practice. This day for him is Sunday. He goes fishing. He even stays away from music on this day.

It’s good advice to follow. Plan a day right now that you will NOT practice. Learn to relax. Do something else on that day.

Evan Tate is a Faculty member at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, a Julius Keilwerth saxophones endorser, podcaster and author of the book “250 Jazz Patterns” and more. You can contact Mr. Tate at EvanTateMusic.com.

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For many years, professional/top writers (writers in general…and not just songwriters) have been using a powerful and proven technique that separates them from beginners.

And now, I’d like to share this secret technique with you.

If you consistently apply the following 3 steps, you’ll notice a big improvement in your songwriting:

1. Gather as much information about your song idea as possible.

Once you’ve come up with an idea for your song, write down (or type) all related information.

For example:

2. Command your “subconscious mind” to help you with your objective.

With the information you have in front of you, give your subconscious mind a direct command.

For example:
If you’re a lyricist, just before you start reading what’s in front of you, say something like:

(If you’re given a melody to write lyrics to, say the following just before listening to the melody: “Subconscious mind, create powerful lyrics for the melody I’m about to listen to. Work on it 24 hours a day…even as I sleep.”)

If you’re a lyricist/composer, just before you start reading what’s before you, say something like:

(With that last command, you’re basically instructing your subconscious mind to come up with both the lyrics and melody…the “perfect marriage” of both.)

Now, if you happen to be a composer, you could also benefit from this technique.

Just place the finished lyrics in front of you and say something like:

(If you simply want to create a beautiful melody from scratch, just apply Steps 1 to 3. Of course, in Step 1, some of the information mentioned…ex. song’s title or message you are trying to bring across…are not completely necessary. However, as a rule, the more information you have, the better. What’s important is that your subconscious mind has enough information to work with…and it knows exactly what you are trying to accomplish.)

(Note: You’re free to create your own version of the above commands. Also, you can give the commands either aloud or silently in your head.)

It’s even a good idea to apply this step before going to sleep, whenever possible.

3. Let it go. Think or do something else…anything else.
In other words, “trust” your subconscious mind to deliver…by getting out of its way.

This is a crucial step. In fact, this is the key to this technique’s effectiveness. Without honestly applying this step, you will not get the positive results you’re after.

What you do is you simply “allow” your subconscious mind to carry out your instructions… without questioning it… without interfering in any way.

In other words, you take your mind off the song by taking a short break…or even a nap. Or you sleep on it…and work on it the next day (the truth is, some writers take days or weeks off before actually writing). Basically, you want to give your subconscious mind enough time to work on what you’ve instructed it to do. (Many creative people call this the “incubation” phase of the creative process.)

When you do this, you’ll notice that when you sit down to actually start writing, thoughts or ideas come to you more naturally…and in a more organized way. You’ll notice a better flow to your writing overall. (This is because your subconscious mind has done a lot of the work for you…in the background…while you were busy doing other things…or while you were sleeping.)

(If you’re a composer, melodic or musical ideas will naturally come to you…and sometimes it will happen when you least expect it. That’s why it’s a good idea to always have a tape recorder or digital voice recorder handy…so you can sing the melody and record it.)

And what’s the end result of applying the above 3 steps (after all the editing)?

A powerfully moving song.

Author Bio: Ron Balagot is a songwriter/musician/writer. Through articles like this, he hopes to help aspiring songwriters attain their songwriting goals. He can be reached at balagot.ron@gmail.com.

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