Much of this course has been written about learning how to tap into your creative power so you can create groundbreaking, new, and interesting music.
Not much has been said about the actual performance of this music. And performance is very important!
An amazing piece of music with an average performance can be very good. But listening to an amazing piece of music, perfectly performed, can be absolute bliss!
There are a few very important reasons for keeping your performing abilities in tip-top shape.
1. You need the skill required to perform the musical ideas that you create. If you are generating incredible ideas, but can’t get them into material form, then you have a problem!
2. A great performance will display your musical ideas in their finest form.
3. Having great skill at your chosen instrument will make it much easier to take the “ideas in your head” and bring them into the world. Now, the intention of this course isn’t to tell you how to master your abilities on your chosen instrument.
The reason I am mentioning it though, is because it’s important to have the required skill level so justice can be done to your musical ideas through the performance.
Now, you may already be satisfied with your ability to perform your musical ideas. And if so, you may skip the rest of this chapter.
But if you feel that your performance could be improved, then listen up. You can improve to a very high skill level on any instrument with the right process and simple persistence.
In fact, I believe that almost anyone can reach a certain high level on any instrument.
Just remember how earlier in this course we looked at the way a “musical genius” thinks and acts.
And we learned that you can model this way of thinking and acting by
adopting their thought patterns and improving the appropriate skill sets that is necessary. We also learned that if you can develop the same way of
thinking and acting, then you will get similar results as the “musical genius.”
You can do the same thing to master your musical instrument.
Modeling excellence is a powerful way to “shortcut” to the results that the
experts are getting.
All you need to do is find someone who you see as “an expert” at your instrument, and adopt his/her way of thinking and acting when they play the instrument.
Now, it can be hard to model an amazing musician sometimes, because watching “a blur of movements” can be confusing and difficult, which is why I believe that the best way to advance on your instrument is to find the best teacher of your instrument. Fortunately, on the Internet, this is easier than it sounds. With a little research it’s not too hard to discover which teachers are highly respected and have the ability to teach you to advance on your instrument.
When you search for this teacher, you need to look for people that can prove their success as a teacher. Take your time to investigate what people are saying about your potential teacher.
You can do this by going to Google and typing in “the name of the teacher”+review
Also, by going to www.amazon.com you can find expert teachers by typing in the name of your instrument into the search box.
For example, if you want to get better at the guitar, type in “Guitar lessons” or “How to play the guitar.”
And good news…
I’ve Done Most of The Work For You
I am addicted to playing instruments and I’m always looking to improve if I can. Because of this, I’ve already discovered many gems that provide excellent instruction for your musical growth.
In a moment I will list these options. If your instrument is listed here, be sure to investigate the development lessons by going to the displayed websites.
The only programs I’ve listed here are the ones I’ve spent countless hours with and know to be excellent. So feel confident that if you investigate one of these options, you are in good hands!
Learn to Sing
Learn to play the Guitar Learn to play Piano
(Make sure you’re connected to the internet when you click these links)
Leverage the Most Effective Learning Tool
Also, the procedures in this book will improve your skill on your chosen instrument dramatically. As you have learned, creating a feedback loop is where most of your learning is done. As you have been recording your creative sessions and listening back to them, you have created a large amount of feedback.
As you continue with these procedures you will notice that your skill level on your instrument will steadily increase.
Here's a Tip To Improve Your Technique On Your Chosen Instrument In 1 minute or less
Let me tell you an exercise that will very quickly allow you to improve your playing technically, whether you play guitar, piano, drums, singing, or any other instrument.
Before I get to the tip, there’s a question that I get asked fairly often by songwriters, which I think is important to address. This question is: What if I don’t play an instrument?
Here’s my answer. Firstly, begin learning one! It’s an incredibly rewarding experience, and you will get a lot of pleasure from it.
Simply choose an instrument that takes your fancy, and begin practicing! You can take lessons if that’s not beyond your means, and there are all sorts of tips and instructional programs on the internet that will allow you to progress quite quickly.
Playing an instrument will be very helpful in your songwriting. Especially because you will be able to do all the idea generating procedures listed earlier, which is the most effective way to tap into your vast unconscious resources and write music that reflects your full potential.
The first thing you need to know to do this exercise is: to play any
instrument, there are literally hundreds of muscles involved in the process. If all these muscles are working in the correct balance, your playing will be perfect.
If though, your muscles aren’t working in proper balance… or other muscles that are not supposed to be involved in the process are interfering, then your playing will be less than perfect. It will also feel uncomfortable to play this way, because you are using the extra musculature.
Here’s the exercise:
Sit comfortably with your instrument and begin playing. As you play, deliberately tighten a group of muscles that you feel are involved in the playing process.
Tighten them to the point where it may even feel a little uncomfortable. Now, as you keep playing, deliberately loosen this group of muscles as much as you can.
Move back and forth between tightening and loosening these muscles.
Pretend that there is a scale of 1-10, and when they are ultra tight, it’s a 10 and when they are ultra loose it’s a 1.
Keep playing and switch back and forth between a 1 and a 10 as best you can.
Once you’ve been doing this for a minute or so, allow this muscle group to relax into a position between 1 and 10 where it feels right and comfortable. It’s very likely that you’ll settle into a more relaxed state after doing this exercise. You can do this for all the different muscle groups that you feel are “in action” as you play your instrument.
Doing this exercise will have you playing your instrument with much less interference … and much less strain.
The reason it works is it give you a new awareness for how relaxed you can be when you play your instrument.
For example, in the “Inner Game of Music” by Barry Green, there is a story about a pianist who complained of a “stiff back” every time he played piano. He said that this was making him uncomfortable and affecting his performance.
After playing with this muscle group though, with an exercise similar to the one I’ve just described, he discovered the exact muscle group that was causing him trouble. With this new awareness he was able to relax the muscles in his back, and his playing improved.
It’s very likely that you’re tensing up muscles that don’t need to be tense… and this is affecting your playing too. Play with this exercise. Try tightening what you feel are the “problem muscles” and then loosening them… and then tightening them again… and then loosening them again.
When you do this you will find the awareness to be able to “let go” and play in a more relaxed state. This will improve your playing greatly.
How Good Is Good Enough?
If you can perform your musical ideas well and comfortably, then you are good enough at your instrument.
I can tell you, I’m no Stevie Vai or Eddie Van Halen on the guitar, but I can still play at a very high level and well enough to perform all the song ideas that I create.
If you can perform all of your creations perfectly, then you probably don’t need to take drastic actions to improve your playing.
However, if playing your creations is a struggle, taking measures to improve your skills is a good idea.