Michael’s Maxim’s is a list of motivational ideas
that I have come up with or come across over the years. I hope you find
them inspirational and helpful.
General
Imitation – first we learn by copying
Assimilation – then we absorb the information and techniques
Innovation – then we create something new that is unique
If it’s not hard it’s not worth doing – Peter Blake
You can eat an elephant, one bite at a time – i.e. you can achieve
big things if you do it little bits at a time
Limit your limitations and achieve your potentials
Every journey starts with a small step – and continues in small steps
Small steps will lead you to great heights
Don’t give up before you start
The only thing that’s stopping you is you
Thinking will make it so
If you think you can do it or if you think you can’t – you
will be right
First we make our habits then our habits make us
Never give up - you never know how close you are to success until you arrive
There are no problems, only solutions – John Lennon
Read books – about your instrument, about how to learn, about composers
and performers, about saving the planet
Use time efficiently – Time is one of your biggest assets
Things have to be wrong before they are right
Take the next step
Rhythm + Melody = a Tune
Melody & Rhythm are independent of each other
We only do 3 things when playing a wind instrument
1. Blow a sustained tone
2. Move our tongue
3. Move our fingers
Practising
Practise for 30 Minutes a day
Practise is about repetition in order to improve
Practising is the process of making improvements, step by step, so you
can play with proficiency.
Practise to improve
Apply your intelligence to the music
Get past the boredom barrier
The Improvement Equation
Thinking + Awareness + Practise Techniques+ Repetition = Improvement
Always practise the bits you can’t play
· If you always practise the bits you can’t play, you will end
up being able to play them, so you won’t need to practise them!
Our goal is to practise so we can play
The more you practise, the more you will enjoy playing
The 3 P’s – Practice, Patience, Persistence
· Practise regularly
· Be persistent – do things over and over and over again
· Be patient with yourself and your progress
Only practise on the days you eat
Slower is faster – the slower you practise something, the faster
you will learn it
Anything is easy if you play it slowly enough
Always tap your foot
Always listen to what you’re playing, don’t just hear it
Never judge your playing as good or bad, just work out how to make it better
Divide and conquer – When practising divide the music into small
bits and work on each one individually until you have conquered them all
Diagnose first where the problem is, then what the problem is and then
how to fix the problem – and then fix it
Be creative in your practice – work out new ways to get things better
– try different approaches
When practising stop at everything, when performing stop at nothing
– i.e. when you are practising fix every mistake immediately and when
performing forget about every mistake
Mix it up – Don’t always start at the start. Try starting
at the end and work backwards i.e. play the last line, then the second to last
line, then the third to last line or start at the last bar, then the second
to last bar, then the third to last bar and so on or start on the last note,
then the second to last note, then the third to last note and so on and so on
Practise passages forwards and backwards
All you have to do is play as well as you can
In order to be able to do something you have to be able to not do it first
– therefore we will “fail at something before we can “succeed”
at it.
We learn by a series of approximations of an ideal
Mistakes
Play your mistakes loudly
Be proud of your mistakes
Learn from your mistakes
Mistakes tell you what not to do
Learn to bluff – especially when sightreading
Music Reading
Never look at the note you are playing (always look ahead)
Reeds
The best way to avoid reed problems is to play the flute!
The Learning Equation: Time + Practise = Result
- Learning is a combination of Time and Practise
Technique
On a woodwind instrument we only do 3 things (no matter how complex a piece
is). If you are having a problem with a piece, it will always be one or two
or all three of these areas.
1. Produce a sustained tone – which may be a micro- second long
or up to half a minute
2. Move the tongue – i.e. tonguing
3. Move the fingers – fingering
The 3 most important things about learning any musical instrument is Tone,
Tone, Tone
Be proud to be loud
Tonguing should be Transparent
Achievement
We can only achieve what we can achieve – nothing more or less
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier
to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have
to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a
declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.
Impossible is nothing. – Mohammad Ali
Procrastination
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow
Tuning
Shorter is Sharper
Longer is Lower |
