How To Develop A Curious Practice

When you open yourself to creating, in music practice and in life, you may find some surprising gifts.

Yesterday during his lesson, Jacob created a brand new, never-before-played, never-before-heard, scale.

A sequence of four notes from the chalumeau (lowest) register of his clarinet; four different notes from the throat tones; and four more notes from the upper register. It was haunting and peaceful. The tone was clear and solid. Alternating piano and mezzo forte (soft and medium loud). Jacob put 150% of his focus into the exercise and entered the place of creativity, discovering something new. Perhaps discovering something new in himself. He then named his new scale, Ikea.

I suggested this new exercise to Jacob on the spur of the moment - I, too, was discovering! Sometimes in a lesson or when practicing at home alone, the music can get stale. Practice begins to feel like a routine. You play the same longtones, the same scales, the same technical exercises. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Well, yeah, where's the fun in that?!

Practice from an Eastern Perspective

We in the West have a view of practice as the work you do to attain a goal or skill; to get better at something. The Eastern view of practice is as an art. Practice is seen as the act that reveals the complete person already there. Practice not for something, but practice for its own sake. Saturate your music practice with creativity and curiosity and it becomes more satisfying. The practice becomes the play.

Curiosity is an integral part of the creative process. Question yourself. Question your routine. "Hmmm. I wonder how my clarinet will sound when I slap my fingers down harder on the keys? What if I pop them off the keys — will I get a new sound?" Questions like these have endless variations.

Jacob and I began our foray into creating new scales with similar questions and a curious attitude. First I announced, I had enough of these major and minor scales. Let's make up our own scales! I laid out one ground rule - play the same collection of notes in each of the three clarinet registers. The scale could have any number of notes, played fast or slow, loud or soft, slurred (connected) or staccato (crisp and short.) I went first: F, G#, A, A#.

Jacob asked, "Do the notes have to be ascending? Can they go up and down?" Ah, curiosity at work. "I wonder how it will sound to play the notes in a random order?"

Transforming Practice into Play

Playing the same notes in each octave made us concentrate. Lost in the focus of producing each individual note, creativity found us. That deep concentration you sometimes see in children when they are playing in their own fully developed world, opened us to the realm of play. We embraced curiosity to enter a creative state. The old repetitive practicing became transformed in practice as art; a journey that reveals our true selves.

If you find your practice boring, change it. Take the notes of an F major scale and play them in a random order. Play them top to bottom for a change. Apply a rhythmic pattern to the scale. See what happens when you play the ascending scale with a very loose embouchure. Alternate playing long and short notes: Doo-dat-doo-dat... How loud can you play each note? How soft? Let your curiosity take over. Follow it on this improvisational path.

Life is Improvisation

Life itself is improvisation. We know what might happen in the day ahead, but we cannot know what will happen. By opening ourselves to not knowing and being curious, we explore; we improvise; we learn.

We are nurtured by the surprising moments yet to be. Now, that's what I call a practice.

Curiosity

What questions are you asking yourself in your music practice? I want to hear about how you are transforming your practicing into a practice. Share your thoughts with me and my readers: email me or comment on my blog.

Inspiration

Thanks to Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play, and Jacob G. for inspiring this edition of Musician's Motivator.