as many know i teach art and design, and i am therefore often thinking about creative practice and how we go about it. i have had a long-ish list of “studio rules” that i try to adhere to in my studio, but have distilled them down to the 3 more important ones, and today i rendered them in 3D prints and mounted them to my wall.
as we are all artists here, and with this in mind, i am curious: do you have any rules/guidelines/things you stick to when playing/learning?
An old friend came to one our gigs last week. She was impressed that I was gigging and having fun after only a few years.
She said ‘What’s the secret?’
Love yours @mgoldst !
One I heard (instrument related though) and always think of:
“If it sounds good when you practice you are doing it wrong” - Grace Kelly’s sax teacher at Berklee.
I do find there are a few other things that I think about:
Give yourself space to learn.
When you don’t want to learn/practice, do more anyway.
The most important thing though…..
Creating/learning/mastering is a journey, with no end. You never get anywhere other than better.
Not to argue with a professor at Berklee, who is obviously a way better musician than I ever have been or will be, but this seems a little wrong. Wondering if there was more to the quote originally. Cause with enough practice something will sound good, but you keep practicing it all the same.
The point being in practice you should be pushing yourself past where you are comfortable. Of course at some point you have to play it well, I thought the at went without saying.
Net/net it should be hard and it’s ok to sound like crap til you don’t.
This is lovely. I’m not sure i understand the “real artists make art” one, would you mind explaining it?
For me, I think the important rules are “be present in your experience right now”, because I tend to get in my head, and “don’t forget you’re doing this for pleasure”.
as these are directed at myself, the ‘real artists make art’ is about making stuff, vs talking about making stuff, or planning to make stuff, or thinking about making stuff, etc…
i have a lot of issues with procrastination (i am going for ADHD testing in february) and so i have to remember that talking about making art is not the same thing as actually making art.
You’ll have forgotten about it by then, if you have it.
Yep, when you first posted that I loved it. A great variation on the old “Writers write.”
I wonder if part of the disconnect is how little attention to making pleasant sounds is required for bass compared to sax. There’s not really a comparison to embouchure fatigue and making squeaks and squeals on bass, you might have muted or rattling notes but they still sound basically fine. (I don’t know much about sax, but I’ve heard brass instruments practice and I assume it’s somewhat similar)
It’s similar but more can go wrong lol, as you mention. It’s a love hate thing for sure.
think this might state it a little differently but better @Vader … came across it today and really liked it, very true indeed.
See, this one I like a lot better. It definitely gets the point across more.
