Practice Break Vol. 1 Issue 2. Sep 2010
Regulars | Don't Forget
Hello all and welcome to this months newsletter.
Firstly we would like to say a big thank you to the large number of members who downloaded the last newsletter issue. We hope that you found it both informative and entertaining.
This month we bring you the practice wisdom from another working musician through the Pro interview. This Month we have the rising star of the conducting world Mr. John Wilson. We will also be looking at 'A Year in Bass' and examining some useful smartphone applications. Don't forget all the usual items will be in there too.
The most exciting news this month is the release of our Complete Beginners Guide to Practice. Readers of this newsletter have exclusive access to the guide before anyone else. With over 50 pages of help and advice everyone will find something to improve their practice.
Click here to download your copy for free
Some of the things you can find in the guide are: What is practice? The problem with practice, goals, the practice process, misconceptions, facilities, self assessment, tips, faq, sheets, templates, sample sessions and more.
To get your copy of the guide login to the site and go to the Complete Beginners Guide Page and follow the download link.
Hot on the heels of another very successful BBC Proms concert we are very pleased to have Mr. John Wilson discussing his views on practice with HTP.
Shortlisted for last year's prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society's Conductor's Award andstill in his mid-30s, John Wilson has established an enviable reputation as a conductor, arranger and scholar. He is recognised internationally as an expert in the specialist fields of light music, jazz and music for screen. He is also a passionate advocate for British music.
As a conductor John Wilson works on a regular basis with the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish and BBC Concert orchestras and has also conducted many other leading British orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony. He has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, and has conducted the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland on several occasions. John has also worked in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria. In 2007 he made his BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall, televised on BBC-2, and made his Australian debut in Melbourne and Adelaide plus his London Philharmonic debut at the Royal Festival Hall. He had a triumphant return to the Proms this summer conducting his own orchestra in a programme celebrating 75 years of MGM musicals, televised live on BBC-2, watched by 3.5 million and already repeated twice Autumn 2009.
In January 2010 John Wilson will make his operatic debut with Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigoreat Opera North.
He has made many recordings, most notably a series of highly acclaimed CDs with the John Wilson Orchestra on the Vocalion label. A keen advocate of English music, his third Coates disc, Eric Coates: London Again,with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on the Avie label, featured on U.S. Tower Records' Best of 2005 list. His recording of orchestral works of Edward German with the BBC Concert Orchestra was released in 2005. A CD of music by John Ireland with the Hallé Orchestra was released Spring 2009 on its own label.
A prolific arranger, Wilson has produced countless orchestrations for film, radio and television. He arranged and conducted the music for Kevin Spacey's film Beyond The Sea, the score of which was nominated for a 2006 American Grammy Award. He enjoys a close working relationship with Paul McCartney and has orchestrated and conducted several of his compositions with the London Symphony Orchestra. In the USA his arrangements and orchestrations have been played by the Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, National Symphony of Washington and Cleveland orchestras.
A lifelong interest in film music led John Wilson to restore a number of classic film scores. He accepted an enormous challenge from MGM: reconstructing the lost orchestrations of all their major musicals includingHigh Society,Singin' in the Rain,Band WagonandAn American in Paris. In 2007 he gave the first European performances of the newly-restored score ofWizard of Ozwith the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, synchronised with the film and the first Irish performances in Dublin with the RTE Concert Orchestra. He will conduct Singin' in the Rain with the Philharmonia in the Royal Festival Hall in Autumn 2010.
1. Hi John and thanks for talking to us today. First question: What was your approach to music practice as a student?
I only ever practiced pieces; never technical things. So I acquired the technique demonstrated by in my lessons through conducting pieces whenever I got the chance to stand before an orchestra.
2. How has your approach to practice changed over the years and how do you find the time to fit it around your schedule?
Learn scores as they pile up...
3. Describe your typical practice session/routine?
I systematically mark up score in blue and red pencil; that's a major part of my learning process.
4. What is the best advice regarding practice that you received and who was it from?
Always book a first class ticket on the train; it's where you get most of your work done.
5. What advice would you give to a budding musician regarding the type of practice they do?
Slowly and thoroughly. Work on the things you find difficult or that don't come naturally to you.
6. If you had to pick a top practice tip what would it be and why?
Small chunks interspersed with tea.
7. Last but not least, do you have any final bits of advice to offer about Music Practice?
Practice is important but listening to great music is more important...
Thank you very much Mr. John Wilson.
To see and hear more of John:
This years Rogers and Hammerstein BBC Prom concert will be available on BBC iPlayer.
With the advent of the Iphone, smartphones are now becoming more ubiquitous in society and the applications available on them are limited only by the developers imaginations. The HTP staff, as avid smartphone users, have reviewed a couple of their favourite free music practice related applications (Metronomes and Tuners) for both Apple and Android phones. (More of an excuse to play with their phones methinks. Ed.)
Metronomes.
Long gone are the days of carrying a large clockwork metronome around. The advent of digital and electronic metronomes made the old style metronomes almost extinct. The days of the electronic metronomes may now however be numbered!
For the Android Market we have a very useful in the form of Mobile Metronome by Gabriel Simoes. This very intuitive application provides a fully functional, no frills metronome with a selection of sound styles to meet yuor volume requirements comfortably. With tempo, time signature and beat subdivision all fully adjustable this is a no nonsense, easy to use, free application for android phone users.
Best Metronome & Tuner for the iphone, although not a visually detailed as the previous application provides a very straightforward application that provides a steady, loud pulse. The tuner provides various pitches including A440, B flat, A417 (Baroque tuning), 6 string Guitar EADGBE, 4 string Bass EADG, and 5 string Bass BEADG. Available at the iphone application store.
Tuners
Chromatic Tuner 1.8 in the iphone market and the interestingly named gStrings Tuner on the android marketplace both offer highly adjustable and highly sensitive chromatic base tuners. These are both free and provide more than most musicians need for their tuning requirements. Both can be calibrated to different pitches and octaves plus variances on the A used to tune in different parts of the world.
These indispensable applications should be on each and every musicians smartphone as they are free to download. They come with more functionality than most of electronic versions available in the high street. There are many more musical applications available through the respective marketplaces either free or for a very small fee, why not have a look for yourselves and see what you find?
Our head honcho, Mr Mike Saville, has taken it upon himself to learn the Bass Guitar in a year. He is not only discipling himself to stick to a set of practice guidelines but he is presenting the results through a video blog available through the site and posted on youtube.
His aim is to make sure that we at HTP do not lose touch with what it is like to be in the early stages of learning and instrument.
We will keep a close eye on him to make sure he is staying on track and later this year we will be interviewing Mike to learn more about the ideas and ethos behind the creation of the HTP concept.
Practice links – It's been a bumper month for new music practice links with 20 posted here and 33 posted here.
The pick of the bunch is a thought provoking post by Elissa Milne on How not to learn a piece of music.
If you know of any links we have missed then send us the details and we will post it up on the website for all to see.
Book Reviews - A couple of books that came across our desk this month are worth a mention.
Firstly How To Practice Jazz a free downloadable book from jazzbooks.com
Perhaps even more interestingly was How Popular Musicians Learn by Lucy Green. This book offers some real insights into the differences between traditional structured learning and the more information approach taken by pop musicians.
If you would like help with your practice we would love to hear from you. Go to our Practice Clinic and tell us about your practice problems. Alternatively you can view our Getting Started Guide or maybe even the Complete Beginners Guide mentioned above!!
Just to remind those with short memories! Our free downloads section is now open for business. This has a whole bunch of great material for all of our users. Best bit is that it is all free as long as you are a signed up and registered member of the HTP community.
If you would like to place a sponsored advertisement in our regular newsletters or advertise your services, online lessons or products through the site then please drop us a line at the HTP offices.
We always appreciate any feedback you have for us and we look forward to hearing from you.
Enjoy your practice!
The HTP Team.
