Practicing

What you can do to eliminate discouragement about your playing

A friend recently suggested a topic for a video. He wrote, “How much progress should you see or perhaps if you don’t see before you get discouraged in your regular practice?” Here’s a transcription of the video I placed on my YouTube channel. A friend recently suggested this topic. He asked, how much progress should …

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Effective practicing of a musical instrument

I’m reading a fascinating book called Musical Excellence by Aaron Williamon. Its subtitle is Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance. It’s a thoroughly researched book covering subjects as broad as how to practice, physical fitness, memorizing music for performance, mental skills training, and even drug use and its effects on performance. Early on, Williamon writes …

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Three keys to playing trombone much better

The final chapter of Trombone Improvisation Savvy was titled The Inner Game. It contained some thoughts that don’t normally appear in jazz instrumental method books but I think playing the trombone well involves more than just getting the horn out and periodically blowing notes through it for a while. Let me share some personal thoughts …

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