Many people think of discipline as something negative, associating it with punishment. It actually derives from a Latin word that meant teaching or instruction. Discipline is beneficial and necessary. It also includes the factor of control. With discipline, one learns patience, enhances creativity, gains insight, joy and a sense of accomplishment.
We commonly hear that practice makes perfect. But in music, the fallacy with this is the notion that all one simply needs to do is play the piece over and over to practice it. While repetition is important and necessary, it is not enough. Learning music is much more involved than that, and is too comprehensive, of course, to cover in an article. But let me touch upon a few stable points (mostly from European and Russian schools of practice) to give an orientation as to proper practice and why discipline is such a key factor to it. The majority of virtuosos, prodigies, word-class performers and professional musicians apply these.
For example, let's take classical piano. Of course we all know about routinely doing scales and arpeggios before practice sessions, but that's too basic. Practicing each hand separately helps focus and strengthen that component. Practicing at a much slower tempo secures the mastery of the piece. Most musicians, who haven't practiced that way, when asked to play slowly, won't be able to, believe it or not; they've been operating on an automaticity instead of mastering and controlling their piece. Lots of world-class pianists even practice with a metronome up until the last minutes before a concert. There are also techniques related to gaps, jumps, runs, chords and passages, but these are too many to mention here. But know that the majority or all of these methods are applied regularly by the real pros. They became great because they were taught music properly.
To illustrate a real-life example, a famous and ingenious musician was seen practicing before a major recital that day at an extremely slow tempo, unemotionally (conserving it for his performance) for nearly seven hours straight. One automatically assumes that such a legend should simply waltz onto stage, sit on the piano bench, and give the performance of a lifetime. Well, he did. But the reason he did was because of the true discipline that led up to that.
One might think these methods of discipline are tedious and frustrating. It might sound like using a dry metronome or practicing a piece in an unemotional, detached way would kill creativity. But quite the contrary. These techniques challenge the musician to gain control and mastery and not to just play "automatically". Rather, he has his own freedom of expression; real artistry blossoms. Perhaps, this might even be the reason why music is proven to raise IQ.
Music theory elements should be incorporated as well. And if elements of Movement Education, as covered in previous articles of mine, are also applied, then the results would be magical. One's artistic mastery would be replete, like a seven-course fine meal.
We commonly hear that practice makes perfect. But in music, the fallacy with this is the notion that all one simply needs to do is play the piece over and over to practice it. While repetition is important and necessary, it is not enough. Learning music is much more involved than that, and is too comprehensive, of course, to cover in an article. But let me touch upon a few stable points (mostly from European and Russian schools of practice) to give an orientation as to proper practice and why discipline is such a key factor to it. The majority of virtuosos, prodigies, word-class performers and professional musicians apply these.
For example, let's take classical piano. Of course we all know about routinely doing scales and arpeggios before practice sessions, but that's too basic. Practicing each hand separately helps focus and strengthen that component. Practicing at a much slower tempo secures the mastery of the piece. Most musicians, who haven't practiced that way, when asked to play slowly, won't be able to, believe it or not; they've been operating on an automaticity instead of mastering and controlling their piece. Lots of world-class pianists even practice with a metronome up until the last minutes before a concert. There are also techniques related to gaps, jumps, runs, chords and passages, but these are too many to mention here. But know that the majority or all of these methods are applied regularly by the real pros. They became great because they were taught music properly.
To illustrate a real-life example, a famous and ingenious musician was seen practicing before a major recital that day at an extremely slow tempo, unemotionally (conserving it for his performance) for nearly seven hours straight. One automatically assumes that such a legend should simply waltz onto stage, sit on the piano bench, and give the performance of a lifetime. Well, he did. But the reason he did was because of the true discipline that led up to that.
One might think these methods of discipline are tedious and frustrating. It might sound like using a dry metronome or practicing a piece in an unemotional, detached way would kill creativity. But quite the contrary. These techniques challenge the musician to gain control and mastery and not to just play "automatically". Rather, he has his own freedom of expression; real artistry blossoms. Perhaps, this might even be the reason why music is proven to raise IQ.
Music theory elements should be incorporated as well. And if elements of Movement Education, as covered in previous articles of mine, are also applied, then the results would be magical. One's artistic mastery would be replete, like a seven-course fine meal.
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