Your favorite music is a valuable source for learning if you know what to listen for and how to practice. This article will tell you how to get started with learning from recordings.
Recordings of great musicians can teach things that are not available any other way. If you know how to listen you will find details that are hard to teach verbally. Feeling the music already means that you’re learning something. But to get the most out of it you have to focus on the aspect that you’re interested in.
Here are a few important things you can learn by playing along with recordings:
– Repertoire
To get a better understanding of what’s going on a recording you need to know the piece that’s being played. Learn the different aspects of the song (melody, chords, form, etc.) to understand the actual interpretation. Learning tunes like this is one of the best ways to do it.
– Language
By listening to a record a lot carefully you absorb its musical language with your ears. If you try to imitate it you start to learn it on a deeper level. This includes the harmonic and melodic material, phrasing and rhythms. Imitating and transcribing can be slow and frustrating in the beginning but it pays off fast.
– Technique
By imitating the language of a recording you test your technical ability. When you reach to imitate what’s on the record your technique gradually improves.
– Time feel
The most exclusive thing you can learn from a record is it’s time feel. How else can you play along with someone like Philly Joe Jones or Dexter Gordon? Imitating the time feel is the more subtle aspect of learning a musical language. It’s impossible to teach with words. That’s why recordings of musicians with great time feel are so valuable for learning.
– Musicality
When you play along with music that you love your own musicality grows without you noticing it. Something you experience in this process remains with you on the intuitional level. It will always influence and guide you on your musical path.
This is an overview of aspects and techniques of practicing with records. It’s also a reminder to stay in contact with your favorite music and seek to discover great music that you’re unfamiliar with. At MyMusicSchool.com you will be encouraged to study what you like as well as given tips to broaden your scope.