RE: How to Practice Creatively – Part 1
I think improvisation is an important part of learning music. The whole point is to speak the language of music through your instrument. But in order to speak a language, it's best to have a wide vocabulary. This means practicing scales and chord shapes. I recommend this daily practice regimen for those with a short attention span:
Plan to practice ONLY 30 minutes per day, 7 days per week.
7 minutes practicing scales with a metronome
7 minutes practicing chord shapes
16 minutes applying scales and chords to a simple piece of popular music. Try to listen to how the scales work over the chords and song. You will most likely hear things, idioms, you've heard before. Try to make your own musical statements over the song.
If you do 1 song per week you will know 52 songs in one year and you will be able to improvise.
Improv is great, and I totally agree with you about being able to speak in a language.
As far as the practice regimen, I'm sure that could be effective for some, but I think it's better to focus on accomplishing particular tasks rather than timing oneself. If one is trying to learn a Beethoven Sonata movement, then the above won't necessarily help that, although scales and chords and arpeggios would.
So it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish :)
Yeah. I agree.
The idea is to allow the student to have fun expressing themselves. If you only obligate yourself to 30 minutes, you will find yourself going beyond that. Yes, this is more of a jazz approach, but once you connect with your instrument it is easier to learn written pieces and interpret them. Bach was a great improviser and that's why he was able to pump out the paper ; )
Practice regimen is tricky. I think it requires a balance of theory, technique and application. It all depends on where the student is and where they want to be.
I enjoyed reading the article by the way. Just offering a method that works for some : )
I appreciate the input! I think there are a lot of self-learners out there, so whatever we can share is helpful :)