Home › Forums › Coffee Break › Has anyone ever become proficient by just jamming? › Re: Has anyone ever become proficient by just jamming?
Liam, When I began playing I had the same mindset as you. But my own slow improvement began to frustrate me as I wanted to learn more complicated and classical pieces. Then I had one of the greatest music philosophy changes in my life actually at an art workshop. The instructor, whose name was Jack Dempsey, told us “Discipline is freedom.” He meant that once you spend time mastering a technique (although it is tedious and boring at the beginning) when you have it internalized you open an entire new world of possibilities for yourself. It really “sets you free.” I sought out methods about scales, arpeggios, and etudes and made myself learn them with a metronome. It is true – discipline (technique) has set me free. Not only in classical but when I am playing receptions or more free-form events my music sparkles more than ever by throwing in a beautifully balanced run or cascading descending seventh, and it’s like my second and third fingers have minds of their own creating counter melodies. So don’t think of your routine practices as enslavement: think of them as freedom!