Micro-Practicing

Some of my fondest memories while a student at the Berklee College of Music, were spent in the practice rooms late a night, trying to figure it all out—life as well as music. And I was one of those students who were very diligent and intense about practicing. Some of it was rooted in just the shear desire to get better, some was just plain fear that if I didn’t play very well by the time I graduated, I was going to be one of those starving musicians I’d heard so many horror stories about.  To me, it was simple math: Practice + Skills =  Employment. I was one of these guys who wouldn’t even fathom putting in less than four hours a day. The stories of Coltrane falling asleep with the horn in his hands served as sources of inspiration throughout my entire collegiate tenure.

To make a long story short: those days are gone. Don’t get me wrong, I still work very hard at music. And I’m just as focused and serious in my forties as I was in my late teens and early twenties. But let's face it, having a full-time teaching position, a small child, a loving wife, and a whole lot of people who depend on me for various things, the only thing I can do consistently in a four hour stretch, is sleep. Hell, even that can be slim pickings at times.

So how does one continue to perfect and hone their craft when you have so little time? The answer is Micro-Practicing. In a nutshell, practicing in short intervals of time.

 Few musicians in the mid-career stage of their lives have 4 – 6 hours to practice every day, but everybody has 15 – 20 minutes. And during the time of year when things are really hectic (e.g. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, various family functions, etc. ) you may only have 5 – 10 minutes. But whatever the case may be, practicing several times a day in small intervals of time can be just a effective, if not more. We don’t have to always put all of our eggs in one basket, saving everything for the one monster-practice session.

The first thing I’ve noticed about micro practicing is that I’m forced to work on fewer things. If you only have 10 minutes, you’re not going to have twenty different things on your agenda. Chances are you’re only going to have one. Having a single thing you’re planning to practice on is really great for your focus. Since you’re not pre-occupied with the next thing you want to practice on, `you can really concentrate and absorb the task at hand on a deeper level. I’ve definitely been guilty of trying to do so much that I ended up not really doing proper justice to anything that I was working on.

When I first started playing jazz, my practice sessions were always very efficient, mainly from default. I just didn’t have that much to work on. I had one lick, pattern, or scale that I’d work on for the entire week, and that was it. And by the end of the week I really knew it. It wasn’t until a few years later, after I had gotten a few things under my fingers that I got into bad habits—meaning I would often just jump from one thing to the next, never really delving deep into anything.

The second thing I've observed about micro-practicing is that it tends to be a lot less stressful. If you only have one thing you’re working on, you tend to be more relaxed than when you're working on a million and one things. Practicing actually becomes fun. I’ve never heard anyone say, “I have such a hectic day today. I have one thing to do.” 

The third thing that  I like about micro practicing is that I can always remember what I last practiced. There were numerous times where I’d spent two to three hours going from one thing to the next, and the following day, I didn’t remember any of what I had been working on. And if I had to skip a day or two, forget it. Of course, keeping a journal would solve the problem of remembering. Absorbing the material you're working on, however,  that’s something that only consistency and time can remedy.

I’ve always love the story from Kenny Werner’s book Effortless Mastery of when Bill Evans was asked how much does he practice, he responded, “As little as possible.” Kenny went on to explain that he didn’t mean that he touches the piano as little as possible, but that he practices as few things as possible. Which I’m sure enabled him to measure his progress, not by quantity of practice, but by quality.

 So always remember that you don’t always have to have a three to four hour window of time to get something accomplished. You’ll be amazed of what you can do during a span of time that most would consider a coffee break.