Today was a great day. I had very few obligations and was able to practice at several different points during the day. I love to practice. Practice pays off in so many ways. It allows me to move forward in my musical development. Although the improvement isn’t strictly linear
It also pays off in terms of stress reduction and centering. I know if I’m having a disagreement with someone, and I can’t get my mind to stop thinking about the situation, a few hours of practice will straighten me right out. But most importantly, it is the process of practicing I love. As I practice blowing through a tune and some idea or pattern that I’ve been trying to incorporate comes out or something I hear in my head flows through the horn, I get such a rush, such a sense of discovery. And on a purely visceral level that act of blowing air vibrating with the frequency of the sound is invigorating and healing.
There are different goals in practicing. They usually have to do with the period in the future I’m practicing for. My focus is adjusted according to whether I’m preparing for tonights gig or a recording I’m going to make next year. I like to practice for the distant future. I want to master something that I’ll be able to execute in 6 months or longer down the line. My wife, Rebecca Harris-Lee, is an exceptional violinist, is motivated quite differently. She is much more motivated to practice for an upcoming performance because she wants to learn that particular repertoire inside and out. I resent having something I have to practice for – I’d much rather delve into my own agenda free of restrictions. That may partially explain why she chose classical music, with its emphasis on true rendering of a composer’s work, as her primary pursuit while I chose jazz music which requires more grounding in the structure of music and has more emphasis on flexibility. Today was a good day because I was able to really focus on my long term goals.
When I started becoming involved in jazz education as a clinician at colleges throughout the country, I noticed that most of my advice was based on what would have helped me at a young age. I would have loved it if someone could have told me 25 years ago to think about the kind of musician I wanted to be at 60. That’s a trip. As a young man, I was so concerned about getting good as soon as possible so that I could get the gigs, so that I could make the money and achieve the fame. This is typical motivation in our western society. If a 20 year old is considering all the years he or she has to become the musician they want to become, it might help that student avoid the pitfalls of “goal” oriented, ego-based practicing. There is no rule that a musician has to get his or her chops by 25 and then hope they’ve achieved a level that will sustain a career. Now the music industry might perceive it that way, but if mastery is our goal we can’t let the vagaries of marketability set us off course.
Future practicing and short term practicing both have their place. My attraction to practicing for long term results often leaves me ill prepared for tonights gig. In college I remember being somewhat of a rebel. I didn’t want to practice what was assigned, but I had an agenda of things that I wanted to get together. At one point, I decided that if I worked hard enough at becoming a better saxophonist all week, I would be able to play any assignment better than I could the previous week just by virtue of the fact that I’d be a better saxophonist overall. Pretty spotty logic, but it actually worked some weeks. But I was practicing 10+ hours a day during those stretches and that just seems insane to me now.
Jazz history and anecdotes are teeming with stories of musicians as legendary practicers. The amount of knowledge that needs to be learned to get to even a reasonable professional level can be tremendously daunting. It’s scholarly music. I’ve found jazz musicians to be a tremendously educated bunch. They’re concerned with the spiritual and the political and the artistic aspects of all things. They are agile with the use of language and view commonplace things in uncommon ways. It’s an honor to play this music and I try to treat the music with the highest level of regard that I can muster, bearing in mind who played it before (and during and after) me.
