Notes and Lines

The Mental Game of Music Practice

I once took a weekend music theory class given at the famous Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and during the class breaks the students got together in the cafeteria. Posted on a column one week was a handwritten note, quoting some esteemed character in the school as having said "Practice is a sign of insecurity!" Beyond the initial chuckle this evoked, the quote has stayed with me over the years because it captures so much of the mental baggage around music practice - "You need to practice x minutes each day," "If you don't practice enough, you'll be bad," "I hear that so and so practices 8 hours every day, I'll never be as good as he is," "Only perfect practice makes perfect," etc. With all of these messages coming from teachers, parents and other musicians it's no wonder that music practice is such a loaded topic for many music-makers and those who gave up on an instrument. I can easily imagine that within the high-pressure halls of a top music school that some students would be practicing just to practice, with no objective in mind other than the need to spend more time practicing. So with all this in mind, in this post I'd like to share a few things I've learned on the mental game of music practice.

smooth piano jazz

An old piano customer of ours called about some smooth piano jazz material.  A great title for learning how to play smooth piano jazz is Smooth Jazz PIano from the Hal Leonard Keyboard Styles Series.  For some smooth jazz piano arrangements see Smooth Jazz - 13 Favorite Songs Arranged for Piano Solo.  See more on smooth piano jazz.

hannah montana piano notes

We got an email from a customer looking for hannah montana piano notes.  There is a lot of hannah montana piano notes material available.  A favorite of our is the Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus which is the matching folio to the 2-disc set featuring 10 Hannah Montana songs from the Disney Channel series, as well as 10 brand-new original songs by Miley Cyrus.

beginner piano sheet music

A customer called looking for beginner piano sheet music.  Our easy piano section includes a lot of good material but we recommend starting with the beginner songbooks category for beginner piano sheet music.

Jazz Arranging Techniques

grace alone chords

A customer contacted us looking for grace alone chords.  Our favorite source for grace alone chords is Praise 18 - Grace Alone which features 12 beautiful arrangements in classic Maranatha! style.

real book 6th edition

The new and legal version of the real book is titled the real book 6th edition.  When Hal Leonard Publishing obtained the rights to most of the tunes contained in the original Real Book and published the first legal edition, they called it the Real Book 6th Edition in tacit acknowledgment of the five previous illegal versions.

jerry reed chords

We did a recent post on jerry reed thumbpicking and the next day a customer asked about jerry reed chords.  Check out Hot Country Guitar as a great source to learn about jerry reed chords.

guitar riff tabs

An old customer of our dropped by looking for some guitar riff tabs.  The Ultimate Guitar Bookstore section of our store features a lot of licks and riffs.  The three leading series for guitar riffs are the Guitar Riffs Series, Just The Riffs and Riff by Riff. 

Jerry Reed thumbpicking

A customer emailed us with an interest in Jerry Reed thumbpicking.  Jerry Reed is an American country music singer, country guitarist, songwriter and actor.  His first chart hit was "Guitar Man." In 1967 Elvis Presley wanted to record a cover of  "Guitar Man" but had a problem, which Reed recounts: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer). He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut 'Guitar Man' all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys (you're using in the studio) are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"  Since that time Jerry Reed has been recognized for his signature sound.  We can recommend two titles to learn the Jerry Reed thumbpicking style:  Country Solos for Guitar  and  Hot Country Guitar.  

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how to play trombone

A customer telephone looking for a how to play trombone method.  There are many possible choices here, which can be seen in our large trombone category, but we like the Berklee Practice Method for learning how to play trombone.