A Better Way to Approach Music Practice 

I hope these videos aren't a pain to make because they're awesome to watch and listen to

"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough." Can't remember who said that but it's a good response for the guitar player who now fears practise.

To quote jazz pianist Peter Martin, on the subject of practicing, “You gotta do something!” Don’t let your fear of practicing a bad habit stop you from practicing. If children applied that lesson to learning to walk or talk, they would never learn to do either one!

Love the out track. Good stuff, Bob. Thank you.

Been using this since I was a kid. Seriously the best book ever (well as far as I can tell). Been at the core of every practice I've ever done. Still working on the first 60 pages. Cool that I got to jam with him when I was a kid. Glad you covered this man. Underrated book.

Hi Bob, having never learned music (just some music facts at school) my wife and daughter bought me an alto sax for my 60th birthday and found me a teacher whose music taste was similar to mine. That was just over 3 years ago. My biggest challenge is muscle memory, which is much harder to acquire when you’re older. With limited opportunity to play with other musicians, play alongs provided me with a taste of ensemble playing. I have recently joined a Swing band and playing with real musicians was a shock to the system. Your vlog is truly inspirational and the insights you share are extremely helpful to an aged novice. Keep em coming. Hoping to see you in the UK on your European tour.

Just found your RU-vid channel, Iv only watched 4 or 5 videos and you have already completely inspired me to practice, and become a better musician. Just subscribed and can't work my my way through all your videos. Thank you so much.

FUNdamentals........Love it !!!!

Just ordered the book. Sooo excited to practice with it ;)

I have this book. The patterns aren't necessarily something to rely on for an answer for improv, they are used to fully facilitate your technique and develop ear training, in my humble sax player opinion.

Of course everything you say is correct, but it is possible (I believe) to do a cover to cover mastery of this book. By that I mean that you can turn to any exercise, examine it mentally, and then play the exercise at some tempo. Then gradually increase the speed to at least lowest required tempo. I had a hell of a time just gaining entry into this book. Here’ s what I discovered. Let’s start with the preparation of the major triad section. Ex. 1-12 Step 1. Be able to spell all 12 major triads up and back at a fairly rapid pace. Ex. 2 is a good one for this. CEGEC FACAF BbDFDBb etc. Step 2 Say out loud the names of each note in the major arpeggio while visualizing your fingers playing those notes on the instrument. Have no instrument in you hand. Do this throughout the range of the instrument as you would a scale. Step 3 Once you can do step 2 on a particular arpeggio, practice playing that arpeggio slowly throughout the range of the instrument. If you make mistakes, go back to step 2. Step 4 Once you have mastered steps 1-3 on all 12 major triads, you will find you will have little trouble playing Ex 1-12 at some tempo. Practice slowly with (hopefully) no mistakes. Step 5 Once you can play an exercise slowly, you can gradually increase the speed. Remember, with accuracy comes speed not the other way around. Step 6 Do the same with the Major 6th chord section. Notice that you can work the preparation process for more than one section at a time. A good good chunk to start with is Ex, 1-28.book.

What excellent advice! Thank you!

Great advice for anyone pursuing music performance!

Bob, thanks for the insight on "Patterns for Jazz" There isn't much out there on this great book. I spend the most time on the section (pages 87-100 bass clef copy) with patterns over ii-V-I progressions. I find it helpful for bass playing too (maybe Janek has something on it ).

Still have my copy from the ‘70’s.

yesss jamboree in Barcelona! I'm definately coming!!

What's the name of the intro-song? There is definitely some pocket in it! ;) Really enjoy watching your videos!

"The Lick" count: 3

There were so many "almost The Lick" at the begginning

Hey teach!..... skip the peanut butter sandwich - drink ENSURE :-p! lol-lol.............. Great bumpin into you @JL Woodwind Repair, You and John providing the inspiration to step up my transcription game- thanks for all the good tips - much appreciated...................travel safe, man ;-D best, Plez

Thanks Bob

Thanks for the hint on progressions... I'll try to apply them all and not just stick to the chromatic ..

Thank you!!

Yea he speaks like a guitar player. That checks out (saying this as a guitar player)

To sum it up: be present

Hi Bob! First of all thank you for everything you're doing as a musician and teacher. It's amazingly inspirational for me, a saxophonist and music lover in general. Secondly, how does one break cliches? I fall into these a lot, especially when I'm performing, and they're good ideas, I just don't like that I play them all the time with out control. Also, could you check out some of my videos and comment on what you think I could do better and perhaps what I'm doing okay at now, too? Thank you for any help you can give me.

Hi Bob! I have noticed that my head feels like it is exploding when I play. I have a cold and feel feverish. Now to the question: Have you ever had severe head ache after practicing saxophone, and if you do, do you take a break from the saxophone or do you like stick it out?

Hi Bob, I often find myself repeating the same material all to often. I would like to be able to improvise as freely as possible whithout repeating myself too much (like Warne Marsh). The problem is that if I practise patterns like this (either from a book or a transcription) that they'll always stay the same. I can varie them of course but I don't feel that I'm really improvising. Do you have any advice for me?

Started going through the book, I'm wondering about the approach to the exercises.. When to move on to the next one, say a given tempo is 110-138, does that mean that you can move on when you can play it mistake-free at a given tempo, or do you try to repeat the exercise 3-5-10 times without any mistakes? What would be the right approach?

Bob- what’s the recording at the beginning of this- Shazam fail

Hey Bob! Are you playing with Snarky Puppy in Dallas on the May 19th show?

OMG I'm spanish Bob, where are you going to play?

The lick at 0:07-0:08

Is that a monitor or iMac on the table?

What's the song in the intro?

Habits ingrained on you plating is call your "stlye" if your style sucks then people won't play with or want to listen to you. I used the joe viola series I sure did not read every line. I looked the over a line the played it by ear around the circle.in the flat direction. You find the gaps in your figuring dexterity.. fortunately most people get hung up in the same spots... for the most part. but no one really plays much modulating from Gb to B if you don't believe me check out the real book. .. not to say you shouldn't work on it... but by ear. Otherwise it's a was of time. So go yourself a favor buy all the pattern books you can look them over a few times every so many years but play them only once. If you really want to play patterns I guess... marry them. I warn you they can ruin your playing. Patterns have their place but they become impersonal. The point is to play the patterns by ear so you can use then in constructing a solo the works with what the rhythm section is doing. None of Mr Reynolds advice... and I am sure he will agree, on practicing is not worth a damn if you don't spend the time listening to the masters and develop you own bad habits. What I do and did is listen to the greats. Joe Henderson is one of my top choices I put him first, Dexter Gorgon... It is a long and wide list. I suggest find people on your instrument that are not one everyone top ten list believe me that are a lot of great players. When you hear a tune you are interested in start by playing from memory. It's a good idea to play phrases that stick in your brain, ideas you pick up (by ear). The point is find something to say that makes sense to you, play as you would a pattern, that is around the circle in the b flat direction. Material to listen to used to lot harder to come by. In the olden days you had to actual go in person sit listen the go home and hear it in your head. Then there was the albums one could buy if you could afford a stereo. On the radio too but the fidelity was not so good and you had to take it as it came.. Don't limit your listening to players of your instrument. Today there are almost ubiquitous access to material problem they depth and width of the Material l is restricted To get to some of the less available You have to have a real book simply steal the melodies and use the as patterns. If what you are interested in is being a smoking sight reader.. then its the metronome and those goofy patterns that are not music. If you what to play jazz Listen listen listen. Evrey bit of practice has to revolve around listening. Patterns an licks are mater of playing your instrument. It more about experimentation than memorizing and drilling.