Tuition

  • Practising For Permanence

    Practising For Permanence

    Practice makes perfect has always been a cruel lie; not only is ‘perfection’ in a musical performance physically unattainable, it isn’t even especially desirable. That so many music students appear to have internalised this unhelpful little platitude is becoming a source of great distress for me, as it actively hinders their journey learning and growing as musicians.

    The poet Sarah Kay wrote that ‘Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent’. In other words, it is just as possible to practise mistakes into your playing as it is to weed them out. However you play every single day – whether good or bad – ends up becoming ‘permanent’.

    Practice does not make perfect.
    Practice makes permanent.
    Repeat the same mistakes over and over and you don’t get any closer to Carnagie Hall, even I know that.
    Repeat the same mistakes over and over and you don’t get any closer! You never get any closer.

    Sarah Kay, Postcards

    At its heart, practising is an exercise in forming habits. The repetitive nature of practising a piece of music means that whatever you do over and over eventually becomes automatic (or ‘permanent’) when you sit at the instrument – including mistakes. In music, as in all areas of life, it is just as easy to form bad habits as it is to form good habits – sometimes, sadly, even easier!

    This is why consistency is so crucial when you are working on something you’re learning. Getting it right once doesn’t really count for much, especially after a hundred times of getting it wrong; I think if you’ve been consistently getting something wrong in practice, that can feel very frustrating – and then you finally play it correctly, and that is such a relief! Finally, after trying so hard, I’ve nailed it!

    But statistically, the good version was the aberration; the version with mistakes was the norm. Thinking of practice in terms of building habits which become automatic in your playing, which version is likely to come out next time you sit down to play this piece? Probably the one with the mistakes still in.

    I’m sure many of my students would be familiar with the model of working on a challenging bar or phrase whereby you aim to play ten good versions in order to consolidate what you’ve learnt. You start on zero and play the bit which has been causing you difficulties; if you’re happy with it, you add one (and you only have nine more to do to reach your goal); then you play it again and if you’re happy with that one you go up to two (eight to go); and if the next one doesn’t go well, you take one away and go back down to one (nine still to play). When you finally reach ten, you’ve actually played that far more than ten times correctly – but the actual numbers don’t matter so much as that you’ve played more good ones than bad ones.

    Of course, this approach is hard, methodical and detailed, and requires both determination and focus. But that is the difference between practising and simply playing your instrument.

    Which is why the other side to that coin is knowing when to walk away. No system should be so rigid and inflexible that it can’t be adapted to circumstances, and if you find yourself wallowing down in negative double digits, getting more and more despondent about the fact you now have to play this particular bar thirty-six times correctly to reach your goal of ten, that is probably a good time to leave it be and have a bit of a reset.

    It’s very easy to get into a rut when you practise, especially if things aren’t going well. The more mistakes you make, the more frustrated you get, which means you lose precision and focus in your playing, resulting in making even more mistakes, and also yet more frustration, and round and round again… That is a spiral I have seen many, many music students get sucked into over the years, as well as having experienced that myself plenty of times. Once that cycle takes hold, simply ‘playing it again’ – clenching your jaw, and thinking I’ll get it right this time! – isn’t going to help much. With frustration building and a negative mindset, the chances are it will just go wrong again – which only serves to make you even more disheartened about the whole process, and further cement those mistakes as habits baked into the way you play.

    Never be afraid to end a practice session without having achieved all your goals. That doesn’t mean the goals aren’t important, or that we change or abandon them when they’re too hard – it just means that things don’t always come good right away, and sometimes the timescale required for success is longer than we had anticipated. Far better to walk away from a half-finished goal – clear your head; get a glass of water; relax; reset; and come back to it that evening, or the following day, with a fresh mindset and a positive attitude – than it is to hammer away at it when you’re not in the right headspace to achieve success, ending up actively making your playing worse and your enjoyment of music less. The goals are still there waiting for you when you return to the instrument at a later point – and you can build on the progress you started before, rather than trashing it with negative energy, helping to build good habits mentally as well as in your technique and musical understanding.

    Returning to practice makes perfect; music is not about playing ‘perfectly’, it is about making people feel something – going on a journey, performer(s) and audience together, through music. Chasing perfection is the most damaging of all the bad habits we can form in our practice, creating tension and frustration where there should be freedom and enjoyment. When you set the bar as unattainably high as ‘perfect’ every time you sit down to play, you set yourself up to fail, as the slightest slip in your playing means you have fallen short by your own definition – that is not a healthy way to experience music (or anything much, really).

    Every time you sit down to practise, make a conscious effort to try and internalise good habits and a positive mindset, and resist forming bad habits and chasing the siren call of ‘perfection’ in performance.

    For a more detailed and expansive look at the psychological side of this, I highly recommend Murray McLachlan’s The Psychology of Piano Technique.

  • The full-length version of my joint Instagram Live with Matt Lacey, talking about our experiences of teaching drums during lockdown over the past twelve months and what we can take from this period as tutors as we start to return to normal.

  • Music Tuition In Lockdown

    Music Tuition In Lockdown

    I’m very excited to be joining a friend and fellow drum tutor Matt Lacey for an Instagram Live discussion about our experiences of teaching music lessons during lockdown.

    The lockdown and the school closures have been extremely tough on music tuition, but these last twelve months have also presented plenty of opportunities for those of us who teach music to learn and develop as educators. I’m looking forward to this live video forum on the topic, and to having the chance to talk through my experience of the pandemic as a music tutor, and how I have tried to keep momentum and motivation up whilst providing the best possible experience for my students throughout very challenging circumstances.

    Please do tune in on my Instagram, on Friday 9th April at six o’clock.

  • Coronavirus Practice Diary 2021

    Coronavirus Practice Diary 2021

    I am returning to the idea of uploading regular ‘practice diary’ videos on my Facebook Page during the latest lockdown period this January.

    The idea is (as I explain in the video) to demonstrate the practice techniques I always talk about with students in ‘real life’ scenarios, and show how practice as a concept is applicable to all stages and styles of learning music. Hopefully that will be helpful to some people in modelling good practising whilst we are all stuck at home with nothing else to do!

    I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach to my practice this time out, and focus on skills I have neglected – or never even had! – rather than just picking a piece of piano music again and learning that in front of that camera. The first video shows me beginning to learn a simple folk tune on the accordion – an instrument I have often wanted to learn to properly, but have never quite got around to until now. Of course there will be plenty of mistakes and lots of poor technique along the way! But that is the point; mistakes are learning in action, and the idea of opening up my practice for the world to see is so everyone can understand how that process works.

  • Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, I am very sorry to have to announce that my Avid Sibelius workshop at Benslow Music entitled Your Sibelius Toolkit scheduled for June has been postponed, as the Benslow Music centre will remain closed until at least the end of June this year in line with current government and expert advice.

    The staff at Benslow have been fantastic in supporting their tutors during this difficult and uncertain period. Of course we are all extremely disappointed to have to make this announcement, but the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved has the be the number one concern right now.

    I am currently in discussions with Benslow Music to try and find alternative ways to deliver this course, so please watch this space if that is something you are interested in, and I’ll try to have more updates available on that soon.

    As the situation changes very rapidly, all my postponements, rearrangements and cancellations are being updated regularly on the Calendar page.

  • In September 2011, I wrote about how proud I was to have joined an El Sistema-inspired music education programme in my home city of Norwich, working with students in inner-city schools teaching orchestral percussion an general musicianship. The project — then called In Harmony Norwich — was one of three trial nucleos setup by the UK government in different cities, and was just entering the third of its three years of funding when I came on board as one of the percussion tutors.

    A lot of change has happened in the years since I joined the programme back in 2011 — including a rebrand as Sistema In Norwich. But the one thing which has always remained the same is the steadfast determination of the programme directors and the team of tutors to bring music education to children who might not otherwise have had those kinds of opportunities available to them.

    This coming Friday 11th October, a performance by Sistema In Norwich students and tutors at the University Of East Anglia In Norwich will celebrate ten years of Sistema’s presence in the city. I feel extremely honoured to have been involved with Sistema In Norwich — in its various guises — for eight of those ten years, and it will be a privilege to walk onstage on Friday evening with my colleagues and students from the Sistema programme to celebrate this landmark anniversary.

    Sistema Fiesta will take a look back over the last ten years, including highlights from the Performance Project (for which the concert is also a finale) and it will look forwards, with new repertoire that will include nods to Venezuela, our carnival work, East Anglia and a big piece from the classical canon.  The concert will feature the Colegate Nucleo Orchestra, alongside children from across the programme, tutors and some special guests.  
     
    The evening will conclude with music from the Sistema in Norwich tutor band, guests and friends. Join in the Sistema party and help us celebrate a programme that is changing lives, as we look forward to another 10 years of making a difference.

    From the NORCA & Sistema In Norwich website

    Please do come down and support this event, and the Sistema In Norwich project. Tickets for the performance are available from the UEA Box Office website, or directly from NORCA & Sistema In Norwich.

  • Summer Exam Success

    Summer Exam Success

    Huge congratulations once again to all my students who took music exams during the summer term exam period. With entries spanning all levels from Grade 2 to Grade 8 – across piano, drumkit, music theory and music production exams – it’s been another successful academic year, with a 100% pass rate yet again.

    I feel very privileged to work with such a talented and dedicated group of students every single week – and to be able to share in celebrating these successes – and I am extremely proud of all of you.

    I’d like to make a special mention of Jonah Williams, who achieved Grade 8 music production with a merit, and is now heading off to the University Of Liverpool to continues studying music and music technology at an advanced level. Jonah has already begun playing pro-level gigs, and is a passionate and intelligent musician; I have no doubt that he is going to make a success of this next stage in his musical journey as well. To see students I have worked with going on to forge their own careers and their own lives in music is a source of huge pride for me, and of course I wish Jonah all the best at Liverpool.

    The new school year begins in September (full term dates are now available on the Student’s Page) and I can’t wait to see what exciting new challenges this term will bring!

  • As a working musician, I find myself using Sibelius notation software all the time, in a variety of different contexts. With a hectic work life which spans touring with bands, teaching private students and youth orchestras and a wide range of studio work, I’m always looking for ways to make my workflow as efficient as possible and get the most out of whatever technology I’m working with.

    In June 2020, I’ll be coming to the beautiful Benslow Music campus to run a four-day course entitled Your Sibelius Toolkit, where I’ll be passing on tips and advice for making the most of this super-powerful music notation program and helping course attendees to feel more confident and empowered Sibelius users.

    This new course will look at using Sibelius notation software in a variety of different contexts, and will aim to make you a more confident Sibelius user. From keyboard shortcuts to customising the user interface, we will ensure that this powerful music creation tool works for you, complementing your creativity and processes, and allowing you to be more efficient in whatever you are working on. Participants should bring their own laptop with Sibelius version 7 or later to work on during the course. There may also be the opportunity to hear your compositions/orchestrations performed by the concurrent Chamber Orchestra course.

    Benslow Music January-July 2020 Prospectus (download in full here)

    This will be the first time that Benslow Music have run a specifically technology-based course, and I’m very excited to have been asked to come onboard and lead the course as their Sibelius tutor.

    It maybe a full ten months away, but booking opens to the general public this week, so get onto the Benslow Music website now to bag your place.

  • A recent article on the Sistema Europe website has put the spotlight on Sistema In Norwich’s ‘Performance Project’ – a brand new Sistema initiative for 2018-19.

    Over the course of 12 concerts and just under a year and a half, Sistema in Norwich will engage with circus groups, the Norwich-based Vagaband, fellow Sistema-influenced groups and established musicians and composers from across Europe.

    The project also provides the young musicians involved with the chance to compose for a variety of scenarios and formations, with pieces for soloists, ensembles, brass and wind sections all finding their way into the schedule.

    The Sistema Performance Project thus increases Sistema in Norwich’s social impact, provides its students with additional performance time and accelerates their personal development, promoting self-confidence, resilience and leadership – all while building upon Sistema in Norwich’s existing connections both at home and abroad.

    Sistema Europe website

    The circus performance in collaboration with Lost In Translation – which took place in October of last year – was an exciting and innovative project, expanding our students’ horizons and bringing them into contact with other forms and settings of orchestral performance.

    It is always gratifying to gain the recognition of the international Sistema community for our work, and it is an honour to be a part of a global musical movement with the history and pedigree of Sistema.

    And with eight more Performance Project concerts scheduled throughout this year, there’ll be plenty more opportunities to check out the great work of Sistema In Norwich for yourself. Head to the NORCA & Sistema In Norwich website for full details of dates, venues, ticket prices, etc.

  • Exam Success: Christmas Term 2018

    Exam Success: Christmas Term 2018

    I am delighted to be able to report another term of exam successes for my students – with candidates taking exams on piano and on drums, ranging from Initial Grade up to Grade 5, with a 100% pass rate once again.

    Big congratulations to all my students for their hard work and perseverance, and for their fully-deserved exam success. Now, keep practising – and onto the next exciting new challenge!

Kit Marsden // Musician