Practice Until You Cannot Get It Wrong

[caeman]

Practice Until You Cannot Get It Wrong

A friend relayed this quote to me. I forget to whom it was attributed, though.

Last night, I practiced this methodology. At about midnight, with everyone in the house asleep, I plugged the bass and the MP3 player in the Line6 and for 2 hours, worked on just two songs.

I felt downright musician-y!

The two songs are from Paul Wilbur. Lord God of Abraham and Adonai.

 

[PJSShearer]

That's about the sze of it!!.

 

[UncleFluffy]

The version I heard from a friend a long time ago is "an amateur practices until they can get it right, a pro practices until they cannot get it wrong".

 

[reedo35]

The Full quote goes like this- An amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional practices it until he can't do it wrong. -Stephen Hillier
Fluffy beat me to it, but Anyway, this is considered a noble truth.

 

[Billnc]

You don't have to do it all in one sitting! (do you?)

 

[David Jayne]

You don't have to do it all in one sitting! (do you?)

No, and it's been shown that you shouldn't spend more than 30 minutes or so at one particular thing anyway. You have to poke away at it a bit, then put it aside and work on something else for awhile, to let your brain soak it up. Don't remember where I read that, but I've found it works for me.

 

[thatotherguy]

I was always taught to play through mistakes and just keep going... cause when you're playing a gig you can't go back and fix up your mistake.

 

[jimmy rocket]

I was always taught to play through mistakes and just keep going... cause when you're playing a gig you can't go back and fix up your mistake.

as long as you go back and work it out before "playing though it" again.

otherwise that's the fastest way to learn to play it wrong, and it's way harder to unlearn and correct yourself than it is to work it out slow and steady the first time.

 

[Billnc]

I was always taught to play through mistakes and just keep going... cause when you're playing a gig you can't go back and fix up your mistake.

Practicing is not gigging, correct every mistake you make while practicing or you'll continue to make them. What you are describing is rehearsing, even if alone. Material you know well you can rehearse, and play in the manner you describe. A clunker is going to happen now and then, but if you consistently hit a clam in the same spot, stop and go over it.

 

[thatotherguy]

yeah i always go back and fix up my mistakes... this is a little excerpt from a book that i have which is what i was trying to say.

As a rule, don’t stop in the middle of an exercise if you make a mistake—just
keep playing through it. In a real-life situation you won’t have the luxury of stopping in the middle of a tune,
so don’t get in the habit of doing that at home. People generally make mistakes because of a lack of ability to
sustain their concentration, not because of real technical limits. By doing regular, focused practicing on a daily
basis your ability to concentrate will increase greatly over time. If you do run into something that actually is
beyond your technical ability to execute, Slow It Down. Virtually anything is easy to do if it is slow enough.
After you have mastered it at a slow tempo, you can use the metronome to gradually speed the tempo up, a fewclicks at a time, and presto! your technical problem will be solved.

 

[Billnc]

Got it, valid point there. You just have to be aware of when it's concentration or not. I never lose it on a gig but sometimes in practice it goes!

 

[kiwlm]

hmm, I always have these rule to not practice something speed/technical related for more than 10 minutes. Maybe I should increase it to 30 minutes.

 

[ryanphonic]

Best piece of advice I got:

You can't play it right at a gig until you can play it at home ten times in a row without a mistake.

 

[JTE]

I was always taught to play through mistakes and just keep going... cause when you're playing a gig you can't go back and fix up your mistake.

One VERY important bit of advice I got when I was first starting came from Jack Casady. In a very early Guitar Player Magazine interview with Jack, Jorma, and Paul, Jack said "You get good at whatever you practice, so practice playing correclty.".

I fully understand the admonition to play through mistakes, and you need to be able to flow through them at performances. But to play stuff wrong repeatedly only makes you better at playing them wrong. Private practice means working on it so you know your part. Band rehearsal means making the whole band sound together and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Peforming means presenting it to the audience. All related but very different focii in each one.

John

 

[electracoyote]

The Full quote goes like this- An amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional practices it until he can't do it wrong. -Stephen Hillier

Is that Stephen Hillier the ballroom dance master?

 

[caeman]

Okay, then, the other nights, I was practicing until I got it right, so I could begin phase 2 of the statement.

 

[bassandbeyond]

I fully understand the admonition to play through mistakes, and you need to be able to flow through them at performances. But to play stuff wrong repeatedly only makes you better at playing them wrong. Private practice means working on it so you know your part. Band rehearsal means making the whole band sound together and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Peforming means presenting it to the audience. All related but very different focii in each one.

John

emphatic +1

 

[J-B'ass]

I have another quote for you, "practice in such a way that you cannot get it wrong".

ie practice everything slow enough that you can do it perfectly first time. Tempo can increase as confidence does

 

[BassyBill]

The Full quote goes like this- An amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional practices it until he can't do it wrong. -Stephen Hillier

It should say "An amateur practises something until he gets it right, a professional practises it just enough to get paid."

 

[reedo35]

Ha!