Why I Kept Messing Up This Lick
So, I was transcribing some Chick Corea this morning and dug in hard on this lick from his solo on 500 Miles High:
Here it is again but slower:
Anyway, as I was shedding this line, my mind started to wander. Not surprisingly, my fingers flubbed, and I had to reset.
Then it dawned on me that practicing passively, i.e. “watching” my hands do the work was not going to cut it, especially since I kept making mistakes.
Oftentimes, playing music can feel like we’re two different entities – like part of you is playing the notes and another part of you is listening to you playing the notes.
This super meta experience may be an effective way to achieve a flow state, but I don’t think it’s an effective way to practice.
Here’s what I was reminded of during this morning’s shed:
Good practicing requires that you get your head in the game.
You can’t just sit back, relax, and move your fingers all around, hoping for the best.
You need to actively participate.
That’s what I ended up doing this morning, and it made a world of difference.
Instead of just playing through the whole line, I programmed my brain to “chunk” the lick into four parts:
I’ve talked a lot about chunking before, so I’m not going to dig into it too much here, but by breaking up the line into smaller parts, I felt more in control and less at the whim of my muscle memory and ear.
Put another way, my conscious mind was able to assist my subconscious mind.
Let’s wrap with a couple of key takeaways:
Don’t practice passively. Get your head in the game!
Chunking is where it’s at!
Lastly, if you’re like me and want to beef up your soloing vocabulary, make sure to check out Sick Licks, my six-book series of ii V I licks organized by genre, skill level, and chord progression.
Sure, you could learn new lines by transcribing your favorite records.
The problem is, transcribing is REALLY hard and takes a lot of time. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but it’d be nice to have something cool to play in your solos right here, right now.
Click here to hear demos of Sicks Licks and get yours today!
Happy Shedding,
Jeff