Take private lessons online with me! Trumpet, brass, theory, composition & arranging, improvisation, or whatever musical/life coaching you’d like to work on. More information at www.bradharrison.ca/lessons
Not to mention, if you are fatigued or sore or anything hurts, just skip the practice. Do ear training or study a great recording or study some music theory. Taking some recovery days will do more for your long term improvement than practicing through pain because you feel you need to hit a number of hours.
Agreed! Rest can be important. Similarly, a great tip I got as a jazzer is if you want to practice but don’t want to practice(you know that feeling), you can always transcribe/lift solos. So useful for ear training and vocabulary.
Be careful with no pain no gain. A bit of burn or discomfort can indicate that you’re doing hard work and building strength, but actual pain can indicate that you’re doing damage. Listen to your body. If you do damage, you’ll lose all kinds of time recovering during which you can’t make any progress. Cheers!
Theories a waste of time tbh me and my band have put out two albums already and we have no knowledge of theory I get if you wanna get a better consensus on what you’re making it’s good to know but like it’s very unnecessary even if you wanna make technical music you don’t need that much to do it, another point that I practice guitar every single day and don’t plan to stop my fingers never get sore or feel bad and Honestly I keep surprising myself on how much better I’m always getting
@@Bloorgusgoorge I lost years to an overtraining injury, that’s why I’m saying it, but everyones built different. As for not needing theory, you seem to know what you’re talking about, but it’s been my experience that more knowledge broadens your horizons and deepens your experience of music, gives you more options to work with. You can certainly get away without it, but you probably also miss out on your full potential.
"Practice makes perfect." is a myth. "Practice makes permanent." is the real truth. If you repeat the exercise incorrectly again and again, you'll remember the wrong thing permanently.
Totally agree ! I went thru the Arban using a poor embrouchure and technique totally ingrained bad bad bad habits all that keenness and dedication completely wasted. I am at an age now where I don’t really have the time to correct that bad practice had to learn a different instrument
That’s not true and makes you take an overly cautious approach to practice. Do you not have trust in yourself to get the gist of something then fine tune the details? Sometimes it is better to learn a shoddy version quickly and then refine rather than learn slowly but perfectly. You’re only stuck playing a certain way if you rely purely on unconscious muscle memory while you perform
@@BradHarrison I also like this strategy because it gets you thinking about the big picture much sooner and helps you understand it feels like to give the whole performance
As an improvisational guitarist, I really appreciate what you're saying. I tell my students, "Do NOT play it any faster than you can play it perfectly. Speed WILL happen. You can't do anything over and over and NOT get faster... without even trying to get faster." Also, when I work on a song, I work on knowing the Instrument more than the song. I try to play it as many times as I can without playing it the same way twice. To me, that's the fun of making music. Thanks for this video. It's made me think.
Probably shouldn’t start with running though. Especially if you keep tripping and falling every time you try. Get that walking situation under control first.
as an illustrator (that want to learn music as a hobby) i totally agree with this, in learning to draw for example, people tend to jump rightaway to "practices" without even acknowleging the fundamentals like basic shape, lines, proportion, technique, etc. no matter what kind style of drawing you want make, this is the most important thing to learn before practicing. Especially basic SHAPES, most beginner tend to underestimate the magic of understanding and learning basic shapes. as a result they are confused why they improved so little over a long time, i've been there and most of us been there, i feel like this video not only applies to music learning, but to most of other skills great video, really inspired me to think how i'm gonna approach my learning of music
Excellent! So glad you enjoyed! It’s true. Simple things that are done well and well understood are so powerful. When teaching improvisation, I like to demonstrate how great just two notes can be when played with good time, good sound, and confidence. Start clear and simple and build from there.
GOD I've been telling everyone that they focus a lot on just details and stuff, ignoring the fact that they need to understand lines and shapes, something that seems incredibly intuitive and simple
This rings very true. That being said, some people, including me, have a bit of the opposite problem. We get bored really fast so we always look for new things, new scales, new songs, new genres and never really focus on or consolidate a thing. It makes for versatility but doesn't help build-up clean technique or good habits. So in that case, the advice to focus more on practice and routines does make sense.
Ahaha, totally can relate to that^^ As a dancer, i started making real progress once I acknowledged that fact and, instead of trying to compensate that, i went on improvising full mode. The result is that i never know before i start to move what i will do, but once i do, it surprisingly leads to very interesting results. Still not that good, but i feel i'm getting somewhere :)
little addition: since one of the strenghts of an ADHD brain is to connect the dots, the idea is to feed it with as many dots as possible and then let it unconsciously try connections. Combined with a serious physical training to have a solid basis, i'm getting more and more convinced it can lead to great results once mastered. You have a liquid way of thinking? So let's become water itself^^
Thank you so much for this vid. Ive been struggling recently with getting the most use out of my practice sessions since I realized ive been practicing completely wrong and wasting time for 8 YEARS
When I switched to shifting at least 50% of my practice sessions to learning I easily overcame my plateau. Being inspired by new artists and songs and theory ideas definitely helps.
0:37 1. Practice vs learning - they're not the same 7:10 2. Learn new things - don't just repeat what you know. 10:21 3. practice session structure - warmup - techniques - project - review
as a high school violist, this rings incredibly true. i've seen so many kids in my orchestra crash and burn because they start multi-hour long practice sessions on music that they don't fully know and then show up to rehearsal, confident in what they've done, only to realize that they were practicing the piece in the wrong way. soooo many music teachers, at least the ones i've had, have told kids to "practice" but not that they need to be familiar with their music first or even HOW to practice in the first place. i'm gonna try to get my music teacher to show this in class, thank you for making this video :•)
Love this distinction so much, I have definitely been guilty of jumping right into things and wasting time only to have to go back and learn the fundamentals.
To be fair, if you noodle around in a complex practice way, you can count that as part of 4’33 and thus you can get valuable practice while not violating the premise of 4’33.
I'm a 49 year old woman learning how to play the cello. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary. This video explains exactly why I have made so much progress in a year. The part where you say that learning is a process not unlike solving a puzzle that unlocks a New Journey every day encapsulates my Philosophy on learning anything. I really appreciate you reiterating the idea of learning steps and applying them rather than practicing mistakes. I think as an adult learning a complicated instrument late in life we approach it with the idea of being perfect. I've always allowed myself to learn and process like a child so it's fun and it's an adventure. This video is really great and I have shared it with other adult cello Learners as well.
This is really great, Brad. The distinction between Practice and Learning is a really big one and something for everyone to keep in mind. Thanks for your hard work!
God! I have been struggling and feeling bad about how my practice session is not productive. Felt like i was running in the same place but this legit showed me the way. Thank you so much for this video. It was the most needed one. 🥺❤
It’s great to hear the delineation between practice and learning. Most of my students have sat on a couple scales and chords for years and much of our work is in learning the context of what they are and how they fit together. This was also a great reminder to keep lifting heavy things myself, thanks!
This has absolutely worked for me on guitar, since I was self taught the first things I wanted to do were learn all the different techniques for picking, tapping, etc. It's been super helpful at allowing me to play more complicated pieces only 2 years into learning.
As a Guitar player many years ago I had to learn that Learning - Practice - Performance are all different things to come full circle! Thanks for the great explanation.
This was super helpful! I've been feeling lost recently at trying to learn to play guitar, and feeling like you're not making any progress gets frustrating. This gave me some much needed motivation!
I've learnt so many piano pieces and songs overtime by watching tutorials but i never bothered to understand the theory behind all of it , although i can play the pieces that i love but only relying on my muscle memory, so if i don't replay it in a long time i end up forgetting it , now that i've noticed this i started to read and watch videos about theory , and to be honest it surely takes some time to fully understand the concepts , and i don't really know how to practice them later , but I'm taking my sweet time watching videos here and there , and trying to memorize new infos , and it is making a little difference
Excellent! Theory can be tough and boring but it’s just a language and lens fo better understand and compartmentalize concepts. I find it really useful. Of course, just playing for fun and learning tunes is awesome too. All the best!
@@BradHarrison thanks to your videos and to all youtubers who are sharing their knowledge about music , people like me who are interested in learning about it get to understand what's happening in our favorite songs 😊
I´d like to tell you that forgetting pieces it happens to all musicians. Yuja wang even said once she has the songs in her muscle memory that´s why she does not forget them. And she knows by heart a lot. So I think there are more factors. I forget my songs too, but If I come back to them I remember them very fast. I still haven´t found a system to keep them in my mind all the time.
I can not start to explain how helpful this channel is. I started playing a month ago and I just started watching this channel and I've been learning so much from these videos. thanks so much for making it easy to understand for everyone because I am a bit slow in the head but I understand everything you're saying 🙏
Amazing. I’m glad I found this video as early as I did during my musical journey. I used the advice in the video and had so much progress! Anybody who watches this video will NOT be the same musician they once were
Oof. Harsh truth. At the beginning, you have to be bold and find out what works and doesn’t. Allow yourself to make mistakes. But try to get past that stage quickly. I think this quote applies well to anyone with more than a couple years of experience though.
This is really awesome to finally have some guidance on this journey about spending it more effectively. I recognized almost all of these problems that you were talking about. 😅
Thank you so much for this wise advice - as a baby musician, i definitely needed to hear it. And also thank you for the engaging graphics. I have adhd and this is an engaging video that kept me very focused and interested while learning very important stuff. Have a nice day!
I needed this video so badly around a year ago. I stopped playing guitar for half a year because practising my known songs got boring and i didn't wanna learn too many songs for some unknown reason. At the very least i started implementing these two steps myself and noticed that i genuinly like playing guitar again. Great video, wish I'd have seen it earlier
Realy awesome content. The dance example clicked for me, I noticied I tend to spend more time practicing than learning. Hope I can hone my skills with this new approach. Thanks a lot!
This cleared so much my mind, I study in a brazilian mpb/jazz conservatory, I play with an artist and we have around 15 gigs a month, and I also teach music to some kids in my town, everytime I sit to study I practice a lot, but I feel like it doesn't get better... It's clear now to me that I'm not learning, just repeating pre-learned movements in the fretboard, I need to learn before practicing... Thanks a lot!
100% accurate from somebody with experience, plus your video came just in time to remind me why am I not making any progress anymore, when I first started I followed the technique of learning before practicing + slow and accurate before speeding up and I went from somebody with zero skills and knowledge (tone deaf/never touched a guitar in my life) to a vocalist/guitarist/lyricist but it's been a while since the progress stopped and I have just realized that I have been playing and writing randomly with no plan, I stopped the learning and stuck to the practicing because of the excitement of sounding remotely good, but like you said even if I play well now, there is a 95% chance I'll get it wrong next time, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!
I really needed that 2nd point, I used to challenge myself a lot and look at things as problems to be conquered, now I'm just staying in my comfort zone. Great videos as always Brad!
Thank you for another fantastic video that really resonates. I’ve just watched this after watching your Play 3000 times faster in 10 mins. I don’t think there’s anyone else out there that puts so many points together that make so much sense. You’re brilliant and have a new subscriber.
This is a freaking amazing video and deserves soooooo many more views!!! As a new musician I do not have a lot of at home practice parameters so this is so helpful for me and any other new players! Thank you so much
warmup is so crucial! it's often the barrier that people allow to prevent themselves from realizing their latent talents; someone with a potentially beautiful singing voice may attempt to sing a little and take the unsatisfactory result of their initial attempt as evidence of their inability, when even an established singer may sound rough at first without first warming up.
Absolutely! Knowing what “warm” feels like is an important thing for musicians to know. I think many people just aren’t aware of what that feels like and, as you said, play and struggle and not know why.
really good video. i appreciate just how comprehensive and analytical this video was. It really made me wash away some anxieties which were keeping me from picking up my guitar.
Hi Brad, your videos are great! The tips and lessons are very well taught and I love the humor and personality put into your videos. Great job and thanks for the videos!
Thanks for good stuff! I feel like developing good habits is frequently neglected in educational process, even though it's so important. Teachers give you homework and that's it, nobody explains how to spend your time wisely, how to work in a healthy way and stay positive, how not to procrastinate. I ended up developing many unhealthy habits which are hard to deal with. Your video is very helpful!
● Practice is the act of polishing and refining, reinforcing good habits, and maintaining skills and abilities of things you can already do. ● Learning is the process of acquiring skills, knowledge, understanding in the first place. →There's a real danger to conflating the two terms because it seems that some musicians kinda skip the learning phase and move straight to the practice phase. ● Learn first, then practice! ● You can't really practice something until you've learned it. - ● The saying "Practice makes perfect!" isn't really correct. ● If you practice a mistake you can learn it really really well: Practice makes permanent. ● Perfect practice makes perfect! ~ Super useful video, man!
Totally agree this! I'm not a instrumentalist but I'm a magician. And I've seen so many people practicing a lot and doesn't improve much. Most of them practice without thinking about what they are doing so they get numb about their mistakes and they don't realize that they are making mistake.
Yes! Magic is a great example. Procedure and technique would apply to sleight of hand and probably lots of other stuff too. Cards and coins and dexterity too. It’s been a while since I dabbled but my cups and balls, linking rings, and hot rod chops were pretty decent back in the day. ;-)
this is something I wanted to know my whole life since it applies to everything I do or did! in school, we simply used to practice things blindly and when mistakes did happen my brain was always like: "what? but I thought that was the truth". so I made a lot of mistakes and was never a good student because we learned to practice and never to learn.
It’s true. Sometimes we tell people what to practice and how much to practice but don’t cover *how* to practice. Also, young people don’t always want to hear it. They may not be ready. I remember being very resistant in my youth to some things I take as undisputed truth now.
@@BradHarrison certainly! I used to practice the piano 1.5 hours a day. It was enough to cover my practice schedule 😊 Sometimes I could get frustrated if something isn't going well, but then it was a sign for me to stop and continue on another time/day
Thank you for this video, pure gold. I have cooked professionally and had a guitar in my hands my whole life. The analogies are spot on. This is a gem to be shared and reviewed, especially when in a slump! Thanks again, sincerely.
This is why teacher is so important for guiding students so they can improve more effictively. As a self taught beginner guitar player, i'm really struggling to find a guide so i can improve instead of practice the same thing over and over again.
Learning is adding new knowledge to knowledge you have. I’m an English as a Second Language teacher - and music is another language which goes on to express feelings etc we can’t put into words ie where words are just not enough
Also I think an important step worth defining if you're self teaching is to analyze yourself and spot what exactly you need to work on. If possible record yourself, it's.uch easier to spot mistakes when you aren't focused on other things
Thank you sincerely for this video. while you discuss learning music, the lessons are applicable to everything and in the age of the internet with great teachers like yourself, there has never been a better time to learn than now
I give you like because you have done so well in giving out such clear illustrations. Totally agree that "don't practice mistakes." All the best to everyone who loves practicing your favorite instrument and learn to be better than Yesterday.
...magnificent speech, dear friend Brand... ...sometimes one forgets the importance of learning... ...and the challenge is that, for a later practicing session... thank so much for it!!! 👏👏👏👏🎶🎵🥇🎵🎶👏👏👏👏
This is something that I've come to realize lately... For 4 years I played electric guitar and never really got to understand the instrument. 4 years later and I can "shred" all the heavy metal solos and fast riffs... but i realized I didn't learn much besides that. I learned those songs from seeing other people play and hearing the notes and trying to find them on the guitar. I had no clue of what I was actually playing, in terms of theory... So I didn't feel fulfilled,because I had no idea wtf I was doing. I played pretty much every single day for all these years, practiced all these songs that now I can't even bare to listen to because I played them millions of times... and I never felt like I was improving, even though I memorized every guitar lick in the book 😂 I almost gave up music, so I decided to focus on learning the theory behind what I played for years. I'm learning to play piano too, but this time it will be different. I'll take my time to actually understand what it is that I'm playing because that's learning, and ultimately that's what makes a musician happy I think! Anyone can replicate a song without the knowledge, you just play it millions of times and eventually you get there. Learning, however, gives a different kind of fulfillment, at least to me. Thank you for this video, everyone should see it!
Understanding the theory enriches the experience and teaches you discipline ,Patience is your tool it takes plain dogernes rest assured you will succeed.
1 year of practice and study on piano I can sight read decently yesterday I played 5 different songs not perfectly of course but played them from reading , Castlevania Theme, River flows in you, learned the beginning of Aeolian harp but one thing I have noticed even when learning I have a bad habit of reading the notes but not thinking “reading without thinking” is what I call it which I feel is a bad practice it just tends to happy when I keep playing the song over and over again
I like to learn as much music on guitar and drums as possible by watching how others play the same tunes and practice how I can lessen the distance (on the fret board)or simplifying the song in some way
Key points: 1. Learn first, practice after. 0:32 2. Focus on getting it right multiple times, not just once. 4:32 3. Don't practice mistakes. 5:16 4. Focus on accuracy. Start out slower. 5:54 5. Make time to learn new things and challenge yourself. 7:20 Structure 1. Warm up: prepare your space and body and prepare to play. 11:10 2. Technique: maintian mechanical abilities by practicing scales, articulations and breathing. 12:50 3. Projects: the purpose of your session; making progress on specific pieces. 12:44 4. Review old material 13:52 Hope this helps! Lots of love!!!❤❤❤
At first, the title of the video concerned me but this turned out to be a great video. It was, unfortunately, of no use to me but it was a great video which I'm sure helped a lot of people. You're doing good things
Very much so appreciate the video mate, this applies not only to music but to most skills. Welding, mathematics, drawing, sewing. You made a good, informative video!
What a wonderful video! Came across this through the suggested videos page and I really appreciate how you applied the lesson to other things outside of music (gym, cooking, running). It helps a viewer like me understand and reinforce the lesson through other mediums. Great work!
Take private lessons online with me! Trumpet, brass, theory, composition & arranging, improvisation, or whatever musical/life coaching you’d like to work on. More information at www.bradharrison.ca/lessons
Not to mention, if you are fatigued or sore or anything hurts, just skip the practice. Do ear training or study a great recording or study some music theory. Taking some recovery days will do more for your long term improvement than practicing through pain because you feel you need to hit a number of hours.
Agreed! Rest can be important. Similarly, a great tip I got as a jazzer is if you want to practice but don’t want to practice(you know that feeling), you can always transcribe/lift solos. So useful for ear training and vocabulary.
I listen to recordings of my performances when my voice is tired. I have better pitch when I do this.
Be careful with no pain no gain. A bit of burn or discomfort can indicate that you’re doing hard work and building strength, but actual pain can indicate that you’re doing damage. Listen to your body. If you do damage, you’ll lose all kinds of time recovering during which you can’t make any progress. Cheers!
Theories a waste of time tbh me and my band have put out two albums already and we have no knowledge of theory I get if you wanna get a better consensus on what you’re making it’s good to know but like it’s very unnecessary even if you wanna make technical music you don’t need that much to do it, another point that I practice guitar every single day and don’t plan to stop my fingers never get sore or feel bad and Honestly I keep surprising myself on how much better I’m always getting
@@Bloorgusgoorge I lost years to an overtraining injury, that’s why I’m saying it, but everyones built different. As for not needing theory, you seem to know what you’re talking about, but it’s been my experience that more knowledge broadens your horizons and deepens your experience of music, gives you more options to work with. You can certainly get away without it, but you probably also miss out on your full potential.
"Practice makes perfect." is a myth. "Practice makes permanent." is the real truth. If you repeat the exercise incorrectly again and again, you'll remember the wrong thing permanently.
Totally agree ! I went thru the Arban using a poor embrouchure and technique totally ingrained bad bad bad habits all that keenness and dedication completely wasted. I am at an age now where I don’t really have the time to correct that bad practice had to learn a different instrument
That’s not true and makes you take an overly cautious approach to practice. Do you not have trust in yourself to get the gist of something then fine tune the details? Sometimes it is better to learn a shoddy version quickly and then refine rather than learn slowly but perfectly. You’re only stuck playing a certain way if you rely purely on unconscious muscle memory while you perform
That is exactly what my teacher tells me! Very wise words
@Tony Kirk @BRUNO
Sounds like you’re self aware about your process and that’s the key. Many people aren’t.
@@BradHarrison I also like this strategy because it gets you thinking about the big picture much sooner and helps you understand it feels like to give the whole performance
As an improvisational guitarist, I really appreciate what you're saying. I tell my students, "Do NOT play it any faster than you can play it perfectly. Speed WILL happen. You can't do anything over and over and NOT get faster... without even trying to get faster." Also, when I work on a song, I work on knowing the Instrument more than the song. I try to play it as many times as I can without playing it the same way twice. To me, that's the fun of making music. Thanks for this video. It's made me think.
Agreed with you. I also heard that practising walking will not take you to running...
@@_h.k.5. Very True. Maybe you will enjoy this. I hope so. ua-cam.com/video/RxgV6Lp1gTI/v-deo.html
Probably shouldn’t start with running though. Especially if you keep tripping and falling every time you try. Get that walking situation under control first.
@@BradHarrison yes. Kids first learn to walk then to run
Breaking a tempo barrier that a student hasn’t met or passed before won’t just happen no matter how slow and methodically it’s repeated.
as an illustrator (that want to learn music as a hobby) i totally agree with this, in learning to draw for example, people tend to jump rightaway to "practices" without even acknowleging the fundamentals like basic shape, lines, proportion, technique, etc.
no matter what kind style of drawing you want make, this is the most important thing to learn before practicing.
Especially basic SHAPES, most beginner tend to underestimate the magic of understanding and learning basic shapes.
as a result they are confused why they improved so little over a long time, i've been there and most of us been there,
i feel like this video not only applies to music learning, but to most of other skills
great video, really inspired me to think how i'm gonna approach my learning of music
Excellent! So glad you enjoyed! It’s true. Simple things that are done well and well understood are so powerful. When teaching improvisation, I like to demonstrate how great just two notes can be when played with good time, good sound, and confidence. Start clear and simple and build from there.
Maybe you'd be a pretty great teacher since I still want to start drawing again
GOD I've been telling everyone that
they focus a lot on just details and stuff, ignoring the fact that they need to understand lines and shapes, something that seems incredibly intuitive and simple
i hope you consider playing the recorder (blockfluit)❤
@@SakugaAsu Everything you need to learn art is online, look up tutorials, study anatomy, do figure drawings, study proportions ect
This rings very true. That being said, some people, including me, have a bit of the opposite problem. We get bored really fast so we always look for new things, new scales, new songs, new genres and never really focus on or consolidate a thing. It makes for versatility but doesn't help build-up clean technique or good habits. So in that case, the advice to focus more on practice and routines does make sense.
Totally! The grind is essential. Balance is important. All the best!
When you know how to play 10 seconds of 100 different songs but you can't play anything from start to finish. The ADHD challenge.
Oh that's totally me man. Glad I'm not alone with that!
Ahaha, totally can relate to that^^ As a dancer, i started making real progress once I acknowledged that fact and, instead of trying to compensate that, i went on improvising full mode. The result is that i never know before i start to move what i will do, but once i do, it surprisingly leads to very interesting results. Still not that good, but i feel i'm getting somewhere :)
little addition: since one of the strenghts of an ADHD brain is to connect the dots, the idea is to feed it with as many dots as possible and then let it unconsciously try connections. Combined with a serious physical training to have a solid basis, i'm getting more and more convinced it can lead to great results once mastered. You have a liquid way of thinking? So let's become water itself^^
Thanks man, would be great to have it 10 years ago when dropping out
Oh no! Come back and play!
You can always start again
Thank you so much for this vid. Ive been struggling recently with getting the most use out of my practice sessions since I realized ive been practicing completely wrong and wasting time for 8 YEARS
Glad you enjoyed! We can all use a reminder of the basics from time to time. Good luck!
Same for me for 7 years… thankfully im not the only one “)
13 years to join the competition.
When I switched to shifting at least 50% of my practice sessions to learning I easily overcame my plateau. Being inspired by new artists and songs and theory ideas definitely helps.
Excellent! Inspiration is huge for making you want to dig in and get work done.
What is shifting?
They’re just talking about how they plan their practice sessions and how they sped their time.
@@BradHarrison Yes, thank you :)
0:37 1. Practice vs learning - they're not the same
7:10 2. Learn new things - don't just repeat what you know.
10:21 3. practice session structure
- warmup
- techniques
- project
- review
Yes, "practice" must be defined for each occasion. It's never just mindless repetition. Repetition, at times, but not mindless.
as a high school violist, this rings incredibly true. i've seen so many kids in my orchestra crash and burn because they start multi-hour long practice sessions on music that they don't fully know and then show up to rehearsal, confident in what they've done, only to realize that they were practicing the piece in the wrong way. soooo many music teachers, at least the ones i've had, have told kids to "practice" but not that they need to be familiar with their music first or even HOW to practice in the first place. i'm gonna try to get my music teacher to show this in class, thank you for making this video :•)
With drumming, "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast." I found this statement to be true.
Love this distinction so much, I have definitely been guilty of jumping right into things and wasting time only to have to go back and learn the fundamentals.
Learning an instrument is not what it used to be, and I'm glad you can explain in a easy and fun way how to approach to it. Thank you so much for that
14:03
4'33 is definitely one of my favorites songs on guitar. It's great to build finger dexterity. Also a pretty chill tune.
To be fair, if you noodle around in a complex practice way, you can count that as part of 4’33 and thus you can get valuable practice while not violating the premise of 4’33.
It's great in any instrument actually, my favourite to play, such a wonderful tune!
"Hey look at me I can play 4'33, I'm so cool"
We get it, you're good at guitar
Lmao.
@@amj.composer Oh, you can bet I am. Specially at playing 4'33.
I'm a 49 year old woman learning how to play the cello. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary. This video explains exactly why I have made so much progress in a year. The part where you say that learning is a process not unlike solving a puzzle that unlocks a New Journey every day encapsulates my Philosophy on learning anything. I really appreciate you reiterating the idea of learning steps and applying them rather than practicing mistakes. I think as an adult learning a complicated instrument late in life we approach it with the idea of being perfect. I've always allowed myself to learn and process like a child so it's fun and it's an adventure. This video is really great and I have shared it with other adult cello Learners as well.
Amazing! Great that you’re learning an instrument as an adult. Thanks for sharing your experience. All the best!
This is really great, Brad. The distinction between Practice and Learning is a really big one and something for everyone to keep in mind.
Thanks for your hard work!
God! I have been struggling and feeling bad about how my practice session is not productive. Felt like i was running in the same place but this legit showed me the way. Thank you so much for this video. It was the most needed one. 🥺❤
Excellent! Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the feedback!
Feel the same
It’s great to hear the delineation between practice and learning. Most of my students have sat on a couple scales and chords for years and much of our work is in learning the context of what they are and how they fit together. This was also a great reminder to keep lifting heavy things myself, thanks!
This has absolutely worked for me on guitar, since I was self taught the first things I wanted to do were learn all the different techniques for picking, tapping, etc. It's been super helpful at allowing me to play more complicated pieces only 2 years into learning.
As a Guitar player many years ago I had to learn that Learning - Practice - Performance are all different things to come full circle! Thanks for the great explanation.
Excellent video. Most people don't know how to practice properly. They forget to learn and end up in loops!
Its not just a music lesson, its a life changing video...
This was super helpful! I've been feeling lost recently at trying to learn to play guitar, and feeling like you're not making any progress gets frustrating. This gave me some much needed motivation!
I really dig this approach, specially when tackling stuff we're lacking at. Thanks so much for making this video!
Brad Harrison is a legend.⭐ That's all I can say.
Really looking forward to the interesting content.
Learn new thing, practice new thing, rinse and repeat everyday. Such a great lesson!
This is fantastic Brad, thank you for making this - sharing with all my students!
This video was applicable to so many things, not just music! Phenomenal job dude
Clear, concise information with good analogies to your different points. Great video!
I've learnt so many piano pieces and songs overtime by watching tutorials but i never bothered to understand the theory behind all of it , although i can play the pieces that i love but only relying on my muscle memory, so if i don't replay it in a long time i end up forgetting it , now that i've noticed this i started to read and watch videos about theory , and to be honest it surely takes some time to fully understand the concepts , and i don't really know how to practice them later , but I'm taking my sweet time watching videos here and there , and trying to memorize new infos , and it is making a little difference
Excellent! Theory can be tough and boring but it’s just a language and lens fo better understand and compartmentalize concepts. I find it really useful. Of course, just playing for fun and learning tunes is awesome too. All the best!
@@BradHarrison thanks to your videos and to all youtubers who are sharing their knowledge about music , people like me who are interested in learning about it get to understand what's happening in our favorite songs 😊
I´d like to tell you that forgetting pieces it happens to all musicians. Yuja wang even said once she has the songs in her muscle memory that´s why she does not forget them. And she knows by heart a lot. So I think there are more factors. I forget my songs too, but If I come back to them I remember them very fast. I still haven´t found a system to keep them in my mind all the time.
Maintenance is key. I’ve forgotten so much repertoire I once had memorized because it just fades away over time if you don’t keep it fresh.
I love this, a really wise perspective and a healthy reminder for a lot of us!
I can not start to explain how helpful this channel is. I started playing a month ago and I just started watching this channel and I've been learning so much from these videos. thanks so much for making it easy to understand for everyone because I am a bit slow in the head but I understand everything you're saying 🙏
Thanks for the kind words! So glad you’re enjoying!
Amazing. I’m glad I found this video as early as I did during my musical journey. I used the advice in the video and had so much progress! Anybody who watches this video will NOT be the same musician they once were
Finally someone who knows how to present information in a clear logical way. I love Brad´s videos!
Our martial arts teacher always said
" Its better to have not practiced a move than practicing it the wrong way"
Oof. Harsh truth. At the beginning, you have to be bold and find out what works and doesn’t. Allow yourself to make mistakes. But try to get past that stage quickly. I think this quote applies well to anyone with more than a couple years of experience though.
This is really awesome to finally have some guidance on this journey about spending it more effectively. I recognized almost all of these problems that you were talking about. 😅
Thank you so much for this wise advice - as a baby musician, i definitely needed to hear it. And also thank you for the engaging graphics. I have adhd and this is an engaging video that kept me very focused and interested while learning very important stuff. Have a nice day!
I needed this video so badly around a year ago. I stopped playing guitar for half a year because practising my known songs got boring and i didn't wanna learn too many songs for some unknown reason. At the very least i started implementing these two steps myself and noticed that i genuinly like playing guitar again. Great video, wish I'd have seen it earlier
Realy awesome content. The dance example clicked for me, I noticied I tend to spend more time practicing than learning. Hope I can hone my skills with this new approach.
Thanks a lot!
This cleared so much my mind, I study in a brazilian mpb/jazz conservatory, I play with an artist and we have around 15 gigs a month, and I also teach music to some kids in my town, everytime I sit to study I practice a lot, but I feel like it doesn't get better... It's clear now to me that I'm not learning, just repeating pre-learned movements in the fretboard, I need to learn before practicing... Thanks a lot!
100% accurate from somebody with experience, plus your video came just in time to remind me why am I not making any progress anymore, when I first started I followed the technique of learning before practicing + slow and accurate before speeding up and I went from somebody with zero skills and knowledge (tone deaf/never touched a guitar in my life) to a vocalist/guitarist/lyricist but it's been a while since the progress stopped and I have just realized that I have been playing and writing randomly with no plan, I stopped the learning and stuck to the practicing because of the excitement of sounding remotely good, but like you said even if I play well now, there is a 95% chance I'll get it wrong next time, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!
Thank you so much for this video! I’m a musician that came back to music after a hiatus and this is a great reminder to be less hard on myself.
I really needed that 2nd point, I used to challenge myself a lot and look at things as problems to be conquered, now I'm just staying in my comfort zone. Great videos as always Brad!
Thank you for another fantastic video that really resonates. I’ve just watched this after watching your Play 3000 times faster in 10 mins. I don’t think there’s anyone else out there that puts so many points together that make so much sense. You’re brilliant and have a new subscriber.
Thanks for the kind words! Much appreciated!
I love how this relates to any skill! Great explanation
This is a freaking amazing video and deserves soooooo many more views!!! As a new musician I do not have a lot of at home practice parameters so this is so helpful for me and any other new players! Thank you so much
warmup is so crucial! it's often the barrier that people allow to prevent themselves from realizing their latent talents; someone with a potentially beautiful singing voice may attempt to sing a little and take the unsatisfactory result of their initial attempt as evidence of their inability, when even an established singer may sound rough at first without first warming up.
Absolutely! Knowing what “warm” feels like is an important thing for musicians to know. I think many people just aren’t aware of what that feels like and, as you said, play and struggle and not know why.
Fun and informative! Thought provoking. Thank you!
really good video. i appreciate just how comprehensive and analytical this video was. It really made me wash away some anxieties which were keeping me from picking up my guitar.
I really like how this principle can be applied to almost any other topic in life
Not a musician but so much of what was said is universal. Great video!
I love love love the analogies! Anyone can understand it better.
This is an absolute eye opener. Thank you very much
Should change the title: Get Better At EVERYTHING By Practicing Less.
Great video!
One of the most helpful videos I've seen. It all makes sense and I thank you for it!
Excellent to hear! Glad you enjoyed!
Your allegorys used in this video are AWESOME. Really made me look at preactice and learning from a different perspective. Thank you, excellent video!
Excellent! So glad it landed for you. All the best!
Hi Brad, your videos are great! The tips and lessons are very well taught and I love the humor and personality put into your videos. Great job and thanks for the videos!
I tried this with my hand writing and it works!! Try it out folks! Write slower at work.
Thanks for good stuff! I feel like developing good habits is frequently neglected in educational process, even though it's so important. Teachers give you homework and that's it, nobody explains how to spend your time wisely, how to work in a healthy way and stay positive, how not to procrastinate. I ended up developing many unhealthy habits which are hard to deal with. Your video is very helpful!
Your formatting and narration are so perfect. Been loving your videos
Thanks! Glad to hear it!
I always need to be reminded of these principles. Thank you.
● Practice is the act of polishing and refining, reinforcing good habits, and maintaining skills and abilities of things you can already do.
● Learning is the process of acquiring skills, knowledge, understanding in the first place.
→There's a real danger to conflating the two terms because it seems that some musicians kinda skip the learning phase and move straight to the practice phase.
● Learn first, then practice!
● You can't really practice something until you've learned it.
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● The saying "Practice makes perfect!" isn't really correct.
● If you practice a mistake you can learn it really really well: Practice makes permanent.
● Perfect practice makes perfect!
~
Super useful video, man!
Totally agree this! I'm not a instrumentalist but I'm a magician. And I've seen so many people practicing a lot and doesn't improve much. Most of them practice without thinking about what they are doing so they get numb about their mistakes and they don't realize that they are making mistake.
Yes! Magic is a great example. Procedure and technique would apply to sleight of hand and probably lots of other stuff too. Cards and coins and dexterity too. It’s been a while since I dabbled but my cups and balls, linking rings, and hot rod chops were pretty decent back in the day. ;-)
this is something I wanted to know my whole life since it applies to everything I do or did! in school, we simply used to practice things blindly and when mistakes did happen my brain was always like: "what? but I thought that was the truth". so I made a lot of mistakes and was never a good student because we learned to practice and never to learn.
It’s true. Sometimes we tell people what to practice and how much to practice but don’t cover *how* to practice. Also, young people don’t always want to hear it. They may not be ready. I remember being very resistant in my youth to some things I take as undisputed truth now.
Brilliant! Thanks Brad. I never looked at my music sessions in your light. Very wise.
Insanely great approach and explanation. This can be applied to anything really. Keep it up 👍🏾
InTeReStInG Thanks for the tips and advice! 😁
With this we probably don't have to practice 40 hours a day like LingLing 😉
Honestly, you’ve got to rack up the hours, but quality of practice is generally far more important than quantity.
Twosetter :D
@@BradHarrison certainly! I used to practice the piano 1.5 hours a day. It was enough to cover my practice schedule 😊
Sometimes I could get frustrated if something isn't going well, but then it was a sign for me to stop and continue on another time/day
@@Linzz_1213 Indeed :D
Piano gang here
Piano gang!! 😎😎
Thank you for this video, pure gold. I have cooked professionally and had a guitar in my hands my whole life. The analogies are spot on. This is a gem to be shared and reviewed, especially when in a slump! Thanks again, sincerely.
Excellent! So glad you enjoyed!
I went for a practice tutorial, and came out with wisdom, great job
I loved everything about this, very valuable information and great analogies. Never stop what you're doing and thank you
This applies to a lot more than music. And not just other skills, but life in general
This is why teacher is so important for guiding students so they can improve more effictively. As a self taught beginner guitar player, i'm really struggling to find a guide so i can improve instead of practice the same thing over and over again.
Justin Guitar's website might help you out with that one, at least it did to me
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you 🙏🏽
Learning is adding new knowledge to knowledge you have.
I’m an English as a Second Language teacher - and music is another language which goes on to express feelings etc we can’t put into words ie where words are just not enough
Also I think an important step worth defining if you're self teaching is to analyze yourself and spot what exactly you need to work on. If possible record yourself, it's.uch easier to spot mistakes when you aren't focused on other things
As a teacher, I can see applying this knowledge to various disciplines can greatly help achieve better results
Excellent! I agree. A lot if this stuff is transferable.
I rate this video highly. Learn then practice what has been learnt to as close to perfection as possible. Thanks for this.
I try to tell people learning isnt practicing, but learning is incredibly important to practicing
Learn to play piano with my friends at Skoove: www.skoove.com/#a_aid=bradharrisonmusic
Thank you sincerely for this video. while you discuss learning music, the lessons are applicable to everything and in the age of the internet with great teachers like yourself, there has never been a better time to learn than now
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If you can play it slowly then you can play it quickly-2 wise men with wood boxes
I give you like because you have done so well in giving out such clear illustrations. Totally agree that "don't practice mistakes." All the best to everyone who loves practicing your favorite instrument and learn to be better than Yesterday.
Thank you! Cheers!
keep pumping out these great videos
this is a great video for learning new skills, not only for guitar but pretty much anything in general, thank you for this.
...magnificent speech, dear friend Brand... ...sometimes one forgets the importance of learning... ...and the challenge is that, for a later practicing session... thank so much for it!!!
👏👏👏👏🎶🎵🥇🎵🎶👏👏👏👏
Thanks man, this was an absolute masterpiece at being helpful
Hi, Brad! Thank you for the great information/tutorial! You are very good at it! Thanks for sharing your wonderful knowledge! Peace and joy, Charles
This is something that I've come to realize lately... For 4 years I played electric guitar and never really got to understand the instrument. 4 years later and I can "shred" all the heavy metal solos and fast riffs... but i realized I didn't learn much besides that. I learned those songs from seeing other people play and hearing the notes and trying to find them on the guitar. I had no clue of what I was actually playing, in terms of theory... So I didn't feel fulfilled,because I had no idea wtf I was doing. I played pretty much every single day for all these years, practiced all these songs that now I can't even bare to listen to because I played them millions of times... and I never felt like I was improving, even though I memorized every guitar lick in the book 😂 I almost gave up music, so I decided to focus on learning the theory behind what I played for years. I'm learning to play piano too, but this time it will be different. I'll take my time to actually understand what it is that I'm playing because that's learning, and ultimately that's what makes a musician happy I think! Anyone can replicate a song without the knowledge, you just play it millions of times and eventually you get there. Learning, however, gives a different kind of fulfillment, at least to me. Thank you for this video, everyone should see it!
Understanding the theory enriches the experience and teaches you discipline ,Patience is your tool it takes plain dogernes rest assured you will succeed.
1 year of practice and study on piano I can sight read decently yesterday I played 5 different songs not perfectly of course but played them from reading , Castlevania Theme, River flows in you, learned the beginning of Aeolian harp but one thing I have noticed even when learning I have a bad habit of reading the notes but not thinking “reading without thinking” is what I call it which I feel is a bad practice it just tends to happy when I keep playing the song over and over again
I like to learn as much music on guitar and drums as possible by watching how others play the same tunes and practice how I can lessen the distance (on the fret board)or simplifying the song in some way
Key points:
1. Learn first, practice after. 0:32
2. Focus on getting it right multiple times, not just once. 4:32
3. Don't practice mistakes. 5:16
4. Focus on accuracy. Start out slower. 5:54
5. Make time to learn new things and challenge yourself. 7:20
Structure
1. Warm up: prepare your space and body and prepare to play. 11:10
2. Technique: maintian mechanical abilities by practicing scales, articulations and breathing. 12:50
3. Projects: the purpose of your session; making progress on specific pieces. 12:44
4. Review old material 13:52
Hope this helps! Lots of love!!!❤❤❤
This is the first new concept I’ve heard since starting to ‘practice’ on uTube over 3 yrs ago
Brad, I teach middle school instrumental music in Kentucky. Thank You for your videos. They are GOLD for my students.
Fantastic to hear! Thanks so much for the support and for all the work you do too!
"Happiness is derived from growth" ~ Words to live by for sure.
I needed this video, Brad. Thank you, truly
At first, the title of the video concerned me but this turned out to be a great video. It was, unfortunately, of no use to me but it was a great video which I'm sure helped a lot of people. You're doing good things
At first I thought "alright let's see what's this no practice BS" but you made excellent points. Here, my subscription !
Excellent! My favorite comments are the ones that go on rants but clearly didn’t watch the video. Glad you enjoyed!
@@BradHarrison Damn, maybe I should've made a rant
amazing video one of the best ive seen in a long time. thank you so much for uploading!
Very much so appreciate the video mate, this applies not only to music but to most skills. Welding, mathematics, drawing, sewing. You made a good, informative video!
Diversity makes a musician not only creative but confident too.
Nice insightful video 👍
Thanks for sharing 🤗
What a wonderful video! Came across this through the suggested videos page and I really appreciate how you applied the lesson to other things outside of music (gym, cooking, running). It helps a viewer like me understand and reinforce the lesson through other mediums. Great work!