The Inner Ear

“We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.” Anon

When I was young, I learned music by ear. I would meet with my band every week for many hours, and we would decide on what songs we wanted to learn (heavy metal covers mostly). Then we would learn the songs together or separately.

The nice thing about learning music by ear is that you always have a clear vision (the recording) of what the music should sound like when you play it. You can keep checking to see if what you are doing sounds like the recording you are learning. Eventually, the recording gets into your inner ear and you can tell if what you are doing sounds correct. This is how I learned to play music.

With classical guitar, we learn music by reading written notes. One of the advantages to this is we don't have to guess what the notes are - unlike learning by ear. All the answers are there. However, one of the disadvantages is that we can practice a piece without knowing it. We can get into the habit of reading rather than hearing the piece with the inner ear. For example - the student will practice a piece, but slows down at difficult passages. Most of the time, they don't know that they are adjusting the rhythm. They can't know because they have nothing to compare it to - the correct version is not in their inner ear.

I believe the inner ear is one of the most important and overlooked parts of musicianship. Our inner ear is our "recording". It's our vision. The clearer our inner ear hears the piece, the easier it is to follow it and express it - just like a real recording.

Guitarists tend to do most of their practice with the guitar in hand, but it's equally important to practice the inner ear - read the score, feel the rhythm in the body, let your imagination run free with ideas. Do this without the guitar every day. This strengthens the "inner ear recording" of the piece. By doing this you'll see great gains in your rhythm, memorizing and overall musicianship.

Keep in mind that we are ALWAYS expressing our idea of the piece - whether it's clear of not. The word "express" is defined as "to put thought into words; utter or state: to express an idea clearly. Focus on getting the idea clear so that you know what it is you are reaching for in your physical practice. It seems basic, but is overlooked by most of us.

Efficient Action

Do, everyday, all that can be done that day - doing each separate act in an efficient manner - Wallace Wattles

Efficient action is a topic I've been studying carefully as of late. It's an incredibly simple idea, and perhaps this is why it is often overlooked. Action can either be strong or weak - efficient or inefficient. Strong action is guided by a concentrated mental vision, while weak action is derived from a distracted mind.

It's not the number of things you do in your practice which matters - it's the full concentration behind each seperate act which matters. Remember that the the body/mind is one unit. If the mind is not fully present, the physical act will represent that. We want to be fully present in each act with a clear mental vision guiding us.

I recently had a wonderful lesson with a student who was having problems with buzzes in the left hand. We tried many "tricks" to get her left hand to fret cleanly, but the problems persisted. I suddenly realized that the student was not guiding the left hand with her mind. She was pressing on the correct frets, but because she didn't have a clean sound in her mind, the left hand was acting inefficiently.

I then asked her to hear the piece clearly without buzzes in her mind. I told her to keep that imagined sound in her mind as she played through the piece no matter what happens. By concentrating on the clean sound, her body started to find the way to get that sound. The playing instantly became much cleaner. This is efficient action.

Keep your mind on the vision of what you want while you work - no matter how distracting the mistakes may be. Stay focused upon what you want and act towards it with your full concentration. When a mistake appears, acknowledge it - but stay focused upon what you want and continue to act with the clear mental vision guiding you. You can only progress with this kind of work.