I’ve always found it interesting that making music is referred to as ‘playing’. I think, we ‘play’ music; we ‘play’ in the sandbox. It really isn’t the same thing!
Playing music – mostly in the context of along with other people – has given me a lot of pleasure in my life. But in order to get to the level of competency required to make good music, one has to practice. Practice can mean noodling on a guitar along with rock records, as I did in my teen years, or it can mean focused playing of all manner of excruciatingly boring stuff for hours at a time. As the Stage Manager for the Symphony, I never lost sight of the fact that every single player in that orchestra had put in unfathomable hours in the second type of practicing. While most, if not all, of those players have what most people would call talent, I would argue that the most important thing that got them to the big time was the ability to practice long hours in a focused way.
This all has come to my mind this week as I prepare for the Skyline Band spring concert in about ten days. As a result of some issues with the previous bass player, I found myself two weeks ago suddenly back in the bass chair. I had been playing guitar for a change of pace. Guitar in a big band is about 90% superfluous so I could mess around and no one would care. Bass is just the opposite.
So, I’ve had to knuckle down and really practice. I was talking to Sarah a couple of weeks ago and telling her I was practicing more. She asked me how many hours a day I was practicing. I had to laugh, knowing how much she practices. 30 minutes on a good day, I said. She let it go. It’s more than I was doing on the guitar!
Of course, the standards of the SF Symphony, a top-notch professional orchestra, are different from a Community College jazz band. Nevertheless, the goal is the same: to play it right.
I’ve moved beyond thirty minutes a couple of times in the last week, but I’ve missed entire days too.
I guess I better get back to it . . .