Doing It the Slow Way: Guide to Practicing, by Joe Solomon [Archive]

TalkBass

04-30-2004, 12:29 PM

Now what does the slow way entail? Am I simply talking about procrastinating,
dragging one’s feet, and not practicing consistently, mindlessly running
over the same material in the same key day in and day out? Of course not. Doing
it the slow way means learning to be patient, focused, consistent, and above all,
systematic in one’s practicing. This is the only type of practicing that
pays off in the long run, the only truly effective approach to every improvisor’s
problem of getting all that great music we have inside out into the world. There
are, of course, hundreds of tempting short cuts; tips from magazine articles,
“Real Book” based workshops, method books of every description, records
and tapes, even college courses. All of these have value in specific situations.
But in the end, any quick fix approach does little more than what I call “filling
up the library”, adding to the amount of information we have to rummage
through as we try to put together an improvised line, rather than deepening the
level of our playing. We are left with the feeling that, although we may have
collected more material, the music we set out to create, that is truly and uniquely
our own, is still inside waiting to be played. 
To get this music out, we must stop looking for short cuts and start doing it
the slow way, making deliberate, systematic progress on five fronts: 
1- perfecting our physical approach to the bass 
2- absorbing the language of music 
3- developing our ears 
4- practicing improvisation 
5- looking within 
Before I speak in a little greater detail about each of these, let me interject
a few somewhat random practical suggestions on how to make practicing most effective.
First of all, practice with a metronome. Any bass player who does not use a metronome
from the very beginning is only asking for trouble. Second, acquire a half speed
listening device. This can be an old record changer or reel-to-reel tape machine
or it can be the newest, most sophisticated, multi-track porta-studio, but a half
speed of some kind and a metronome are as important as the instrument itself for
every improvisor’s practicing routine. Third , set up a practice space.
I understand that this is not easy for those of us with families and/or studio
apartments, but it makes a tremendous difference not to have to endure elaborate
setting up before one begins practicing or, worse, to have to keep interrupting
oneself to unplug from one setup and plug into another. Fourth, schedule practice
time. It’s easy to practice nine hours a day every once in awhile, but ultimately
it is not the amount of time but the consistency of application that allows students
to make progress. My best students are often those who have very little time to
practice and who are forced to fit a short practice session into a very demanding
schedule. Go to bed each night knowing what time is set aside for practicing the
next day. Waking up with the thought “I gotta do some practicing some time
today” is the kiss of death. It is consistency, not millions of hours, which
bears fruit. 
Now to the work involved: 
1 – perfecting the physical approach to the bass 
Despite the fact that I have many, many very detailed and specific ideas about
how it should be played, I still really do not believe that there is a correct
or an incorrect way of playing the bass. When this whole topic gets reduced to
the word “technique”, the real reason for working on it everyday gets
lost. After all, the reason for working to perfect one’s physical approach
to the instrument is not to look good, but to sound good. And it is very difficult
to sound good if one is playing, for example, with a tremendous degree of tension
and physical strain. A player whose approach is tension-free is going to have
a much easier time developing a fat, open warm sound and a loose, swinging feeling.
Perhaps there will be more space in future articles to go into more specifics
and provide some practice exercises, but for now let me just allude to the underlying
principle that governs my approach: Replace muscle tension with weight, balance,
pressure. PRESS THE NOTES DOWN, DON’T SQUEEZE THEM. This transformation
ultimately leads to tremendous musical freedom, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Old tense knots must be sought out and untied one by one and replaced by weight
and pressure. The process can only be done the slow way. 
2 – absorbing the language of music 
As with “technique”, here too the word “theory” is often
applied. But again, that term seems to lead us away from the real reason for including
this area in daily practicing. It is, of course, true that a good improvisor must
have an exhaustive, complete theoretical knowledge of music as deep and comprehensive
as any composer. But in the end, what you know is not as important as how and
to what level you have absorbed it. An improvisor’s knowledge of the musical
language, in a sense, cannot be theoretical. It must be practical. That is, one’s
theory must be in one’s fingers and ears, not in one’s head. There
is no time to run up into the library when you are improvising, anymore than there
is time to go open a dictionary in the middle of a passionate profession of love
to your girlfriend or boyfriend. In such circumstances, the English language,
or the musical language best be there at your disposal, running around in your
bloodstream, ready to express spontaneously and passionately whatever it is you
wish to express. Absorbing the language of music to this level cannot be done
any other way but the slow way, from the bottom up, starting at the beginning,
building each new structure on what is already solidly in place, doing this in
every key, systematically, slowly, completely, with the metronome. 
3 – developing our ears 
Although those of us who have been through conservatory-type music schools often
remember ear training, as humiliating as it might have been at the time, as the
one classroom experience that has been of real practical value to us as players.
I, at times, have great difficulty convincing new students of the importance of
including this type of work in their daily routine. In fact, many young bassists
who have played in top-forty “cover” bands often minimize their achievements
by saying ‘I only play by ear.” This always amazes me. I must remind
them that all great musicians play by ear, including Itzak Perlman and Vladimir
Horowitz. Despite the fact that classical players are playing music that has been
written out in advance, it will not sound like music if they do not use their
ears and really “hear” what they are playing. It’s not, hopefully,
that you stop playing by ear as you become a better musician. It’s that
you play with a more developed ear, trained to hear on a deeper level, to discriminate
finer and finer degrees of subtlety, most importantly tuned into, really able
to “hear” the music that is coming from within in the same way that
Perlman and Horowitz really “hear” the music written out for them
by Mozart and Chopin. This process of ear development is a lifetime study for
all musicians but especially for improvisors. It involves many hours of listening
and singing, much time studying without the instrument in your hands. Ear development
exercises are as important as anything one does on the instrument. 
4 – practicing improvisation 
It would seem obvious that the three practice areas I have mentioned so far
would only make sense to the degree that they could be put to use practically
in the process of improvising. Yet here again, I often encounter resistance
from students of all backgrounds. It is not enough just to study the rules of
the language, how to conjugate the verbs, etc.; you must also speak it every
day. That is, some practice time every day must be spent improvising, using
the vocabulary you’ve been so painstakingly absorbing, trying to “hear”
your music, trying to remain loose, relaxed, tension-free at all tempos, in
all situations. Does this mean, “Just turn on the metronome and wail?”
Basically, yes. But a good teacher will provide you with specific projects that
will challenge you at your present level without overwhelming you with harmonic
or rhythmic material. It baffles me how many otherwise conscientious hardworking
students will save their “serious” improvising for occasional sessions,
special workshops, or gigs. To really get this language into your bloodstream,
you must use it every day. Include improvising: playing on chord progressions,
playing solos, playing a walking quarter note line as part of your daily systematic
practice routine. 
5 – looking within 
At the risk of sounding like a child of the sixties, which I am, I would like
to speak for a moment about the mystifying process of self-realization, self
discovery that ultimately governs one’s evolution as a jazz improvisor.
This is usually the last thought on a new student’s mind. To him or her,
being able to improvise a solo or walking line on ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE appears
much more as a puzzle to be solved, a maze that must be negotiated than as an
opportunity look within oneself. But for those of us who have been working on
it for a number of years have a somewhat different viewpoint. Improvising, after
all, means creating music that is spontaneous, of the moment, and uniquely your
own. Unlike the music of Bach or Beethoven, this music has never been played
before. It will not get played if you yourself don’t play it. Another
bassist can come along and play the Bach Suites or the Hindemith Sonata for
Bass, but no one else can create your improvised line. No one else can play
it but you! So in the end, this process of getting those great solos out of
your head and onto the instrument becomes a process of self-discovery, finding
out what your music really sounds like. That is, your daily practice time has
to be a period of looking honestly within, stripping away the licks, gimmicks,
and formulas that we have all collected in our attempt to sound like we can
play, and listening for the simple melodic voice that really is our own. It’s
there, if we really listen for it. And discovering it and developing it make
years of doing it the slow way worthwhile. 
A last word 
<img src="http://www.talkbass.com/images/solomon.jpg" width="200" height="260" align="right"> 
What I have provided is the broadest outline of a slow, systematic approach
to practicing for the jazz bassist. Perhaps there will be time and space in
future articles to go into each of these areas in greater detail and provide
some specific exercises. But I have still to mention what is probably my most
important piece of advice to beginning improvisors: FIND A GOOD, EXPERIENCED
TEACHER. In my opinion, given the present climate, it is time that jazz musicians
learned what classical musicians have known for centuries: the development of
a musician is essentially a one on one, master-disciple, teacher-student process.
With a few extremely rare exceptions it cannot be done alone, even with all
the workshops, courses, self-help records, books and videos which are currently
available. It has been my great good fortune to study with several excellent
teachers, most notably Lennie Tristano, Julius Levine, and Sal Mosca. They have
been the most important factors in my own development. FIND A TEACHER, someone
who has been through all this already, someone who is willing to get personally
involved in your individual progress as an improvisor, someone who will listen
to you play over a long period of time, who will insist you do it in all keys,
that you don’t play fast tempos until you can relax at medium tempos,
someone who can say “Great” if you do something really well and
“here’s how you can do it better” if you don’t. 

– Joe Solomon has free-lanced in the jazz and classical fields in the New York area since the 1960’s. He has performed with Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Howard McGhee, Hazel Scott, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Staten Island Symphony, the St. Bart’s Chamber Players, the Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester, and the Village Singers Choral Society. He appears with Connie Crothers on her Steeplechase recording PERCEPTION, Bob Arthurs’ Zinnia recording NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND and on several recordings of new and experimental music. Joe is currently on the music faculty at Kingsborough College in Brooklyn as well as the affiliate faculty at the New School and Long Island University. He also teaches privately in his Manhattan studio.