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The Secret Behind Improving as a Musician

BY DAVID RUSSELL

I am forever in search of information and wisdom about improving as a musician, yet I long for wisdom in life as a whole. Nothing irks me more than seeing talented musicians, with potential, settle for mediocrity and thus spend their lives never maximizing their potential. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard (in the last thirty years) other bluegrass musicians say, while on stage or jamming, in reference to poor timing and playing, “Close enough for bluegrass.” What the heck kind of statement is that anyway? “Close enough for bluegrass“……give me a break! There was another guy I used to play music with who always said, “We ain’t very good, but we have fun!” I used to respond by saying, we ain’t good, and that ain’t fun. Thank goodness this does not represent the majority of musicians I have come to know since I began playing bluegrass in the late 70s, but there have been enough of these encounters that it’s always bothered me.

I think many of us have convinced ourselves that musical excellence is reserved only for those with real talent, you know, the kind you have to be born with in order to play at a professional level. Where in the world do we get these notions anyway? Are these not lies we tell ourselves that, in the end, become road blocks to our success, and improvement as musicians? A few months ago, I came across an outstanding article while surfing around the CNNmoney.com website title (By Geoffrey Colvin, senior editor-at-large October 19 2006: 3:14 PM EDT), “What it takes to be great.” Directly under the title heading is the following summary of the article’s main point. “Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.” The author talks about Warren Buffet, Wealthy Wall Street investor, who claimed that he was wired at birth to successfully do the things he does with allocating capital. He went on to say that one either has it, or doesn’t have it.

Unfortunately for Mr. Buffet, he’s dead wrong about being wired at birth for this kind of success because these kinds of natural gifts don’t exist. Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Tiger Woods (to throw in an athlete) were not born with this greatness, but rather achieved it through hard work, and focused concentration over many years. The hard work involved is a highly focused practice involving practicing with intent, or having a definitive goal in mind as you practice. The article also delves into the scientific research of some British researchers who concluded in a recent study that, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."

To sum up the full content of this article, I would say that the evidence supports the fact that “hard work” is the key ingredient to greatness in any are of life, including music. The evidence does not support the notion that you can become a successful, high level performer without hard work and experience. So now let’s focus on what it takes to be a successful (great) musician, after all that is what we’re really after, is it not?

Over the years I have had many banjo students who’ve said, “I want to play like Earl Scruggs.” This is certainly a noble goal, but what I fear most people (well intentioned no doubt) fail to understand is that this level of accomplishment only comes about as a result of the what we might refer to as practicing deliberately. It’s not enough to run through a laundry list of tunes we’ve memorized, but instead focus on areas that need fixing, with a conscious goal in mind as to exactly “what” we need to fix or accomplish. When Tiger Woods practices his golf game he zones in on particular things that need to be fixed or made more consistent. Sure, he could spend his time merely chipping a bucket of golf balls, yet a deliberate approach would be to chip them with a deliberate goal in mind to achieve something and improve over all. It involves the process of making observations about what you’re doing, and adjusting your practice in a way that brings improvement. The more deliberately you practice, the better you’ll become as a musician.

This is why it’s very important to record yourself as you practice, and especially if you’re in a band. The ultimate goal of learning to play an instrument is to play within the context of a group, whether it’s a jam or a serious band. The recording process will tell you flat out where you might be rushing, dragging, playing sloppy, or singing off key. This will give you a reference point upon which to focus, so that you’ll know exactly what to practice.

We should keep in mind as well that not everyone wants to be great (a professional let’s say), but merely adequate on an instrument. To that I say, great! Have at it, there is nothing binding on any of us which demands that we become the next Alison Krauss or Ricky Skaggs. If one desires to perform at that level, however, such an accomplishment is within their grasp, assuming they discipline themselves to practice in a deliberate way with specific targeted goals in mind. The Bluegrass Musician is an online magazine dedicated to giving serious musicians the tools they need to become the very best they can be. It would be a disservice to our readers if we failed to encourage them to reach for the stars, and settle for merely second, third, and fourth best with regard maximizing their potentials.

We improve as musicians by keeping our ears open for areas in which we need to fix, and then as we identify these areas, we work at them with a deliberate goal to fix what ails us. Playing one song after another is not really practicing, more than it’s going through the motions of the techniques and mechanics we’ve learned over the time we’ve been playing the instrument. Chances are we’ll continue to blow through our list of memorized tunes, and most likely they contain well entrenched mistakes and inconsistencies that, unless identified, will continue to be a part of how we play. Playing a particular song with a deliberate goal in mind to fix a problem spot, and continually observe our progress……….now that’s is true practicing, and it’s practicing deliberately.

David Russell is the editor of the Bluegrass Journal, a dedicated musician with the band Hardline Drive, an entrepreneur with his business Westvon Publishing and a delightful father of his four children.

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