Dear Colleague,
As usual, I am always looking for ways in which to
streamline processes and achieve maximum benefits or results with minimum
effort and material (work lazy, not harder, or something like that). About 15 years ago I came up with an efficient way to
practice flute and recorder, wherein I work on fundamentals (tone development
and technical exercises without looking at music) for 20 minutes, sight reading
for 5 minutes, and work on concert repertoire from 5-10 minutes, for a grand
total of approximately 30 minutes per practice session. This may extend to 45
minutes in the month or so before a concert, and in the two weeks prior to the
event I do this two to three times per day.
My point (yes, I have one) is that this practice is focused,
intense, without distractions, carefully timed, and designed to build stamina,
concentration, accuracy, and to gain control of your instrument without any
excess physical stress. This method of practice is not without a downside. When
preparing for a concert and my wife is in the house and can hear the practice,
she has been known to say, “Are you going to practice more than those 3 bars?”
or “I guess I’ll have to go to the concert to hear the entire piece in context.“
After doing this for several years I started dumping this efficient practice on
to my students. A few years ago one student came to me and gave me a book, Talent is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin, and
told me that I should read this book because it validates a lot of what I was
asking my students to do. It seems I was asking my students to commit to deliberate practice, or, as pointed out
by Colvin and others, practicing the things that are not fun and, for musicians
of all types, reaping the benefits of being able to enjoy playing music for fun
with, well, more fun. This type of efficiency, essentially the 80/20 rule
(briefly mentioned in my post on The Right Tool for the Job), has been further solidified and
embedded in my attitude about flute practice and cooking by Tim Ferris in his 4-Hour
books (4-Hour Body, 4-Hour Chef; I’ve not read the 4-Hour Work
Week).
“Well, yes,” you ask, “how does this help your cooking? Do
you practice chopping onions to refine your technique?”
OK . . . no, actually. I have, however, watched some videos
of different chefs chopping onions and other edibles and then tried to emulate that in my own
cooking. This deliberate practice in cooking manifests itself in the types of
dishes I prepare, as well as their frequency, and number. By making the same
few dishes several times I learn how to improve my efficiency and rely less on
recipes and written procedures and more on my ability to conceive a project,
its ingredients, and procedures. Now with a set of ingredients (and over time
these same several dishes get their ingredients reduced; if you can make
something that is as good or better as the original with fewer ingredients and
procedures, why would you do otherwise?) I can essentially create my own
recipes. Mark Bittman, in his invaluable How
to Cook Everything, states that you should have five dishes that you can create
without using a written recipe. For me this number is somewhere between 10-15
meals.
Another beneficial byproduct of this 80/20-deliberate
practice-use-less-to-get-more-results is that now I can take a set number of
ingredients (between three-five; herbs and spices do not count as ingredients
and an herbs and spices essay is forthcoming) and create several different
dishes. Think of it as a ground bass with its repeated harmonic pattern and how
creative you can be within those guidelines. One of my recent meals contained
just two ingredients and required a hands-on time of about 10 minutes and a
total cooking time of 60 minutes (grilled salmon and baked spaghetti squash and a light drizzle of truffle honey). And the homemade sauerkraut has two ingredients, shredded cabbage and sea salt (and if herbs and spices do not count, then it has only one).
Now when I hit my recently reorganized kitchen
to make something, I want to spend as little time as possible messing around
with stuff and with as few ingredients as possible. And if the unattended
cooking time is 20 or more minutes, I can either get in my efficient strength
training workout or practice tone development and chromatic scales on the
flute. What say you?
Here is a live performance of a group performing a piece with minimal harmonic material (and a lot of words): Conde Claros.
I remain,
YMH&OS,
Quantzalcoatl
1 comment:
Kim, it is my lack of patience for repetitive practice that makes me a non-musician. I would like to have become more proficient on the flute and recorder, but I simply can't "do the time." I would like to play the piano (and did indeed teach myself enough to play a few songs) but don't want to have to *learn* to play the piano! :D I am much better in the kitchen! Looking forward to Soup Weather.
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