Get Better At Music By Practicing Less

Fun Fact: you were waiting for Twoset to go on a roasting spree.

jokes on you i dont practice!

bruh, i literally need to practice more and learn... well ok

I don’t know how to learn. I just make cool noise..

Since we are discussing nomenclature and usage regarding "practicing" and "learning," I'd like to share: The word song has a very specific meaning: a composition that has text and real or synthesized vocals, or is an instrumental arrangement of a song. Young students are taught to call everything in music a “song” (I liken to the question: do we call every furry animal a cat? No, we don't). We need to teach this distinction as early as possible. Instead, we can use the terms: composition, work, piece, or what the genre is: Jazz, Ballet, Symphony, Opera, Quartet, Concerto, Overture, etc., etc. 🎶

Excellent video. Thank you very much.

As a french person, that french part made me laugh 😂

This entire video is my way of life
It's my motto, my perspective, and my mindset

Taking a break from your main instrument and just LISTENING to others whose playing you admire disconnects you from things you play through rote memorization. Instead of saying the same things over and over, you learn to converse rather than recite, discover instead of walking down the same road, and let your playing just flow rather than forcing it.
DO keep your chops up when you feel you need to, and if you only play when you want to, it will help maintain the wonder and keep it fresh.

40hrs a day minimum?

Ur awsome

May be a dumb question, but I am an adult beginner, so all my questions may be dumb...how do you know when you are no longer learning a new song and are now just practicing it? I keep hearing, "Don't practice what you know, practice what you don't know." But what is the definition of "know"? If I have the song memorized, but can only play it without mistakes 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% of the time, am I still learning it?

Hi! Actually your video convinced me to ignore my doubts and start learning a keyboard. Sometimes I think to myself to work on 2 pieces at the same time, one which I am already familiar with and the other is a newer piece because for my level learning a piece can take weeks even months so if I only work on that, not gonna lie it will be boring although I am not good at it yet. Does it mean I am not focused or it's totally reasonable?

The cow and potato story was hilarious.

Yeah, who was it...
Uhh...
Veritasium!!

He made a video about the:
10,000 hours to master something thing.

But he said that it's not JUST 10,000 hours.

I can't remember exactly, but it was something like:
1. It needs to be actual practice, you can't just repeat the same thing over and over again... Unless you want to just master that 1 thing, in that case, congrats!! You can play Smoke On The Water at 1000x speed :D!!
2. It needs to be actually QUALITY time spent, some things can't be mastered. An example was: There are people who spend THOUSANDS of hours trading stocks. But getting experience in those things is useless, because it's so varied and non consistent that information from the previous attemp won't help you, and will probably make you WORSE over time. Put something like chess? You play with the same 16 pieces against the same 16 pieces on the same 8x8 grid. If you've played an opening enough, you can look back and go "This is the best move" and especially if you learn Chess theory, which is basically just "This is the best move in this scenario"

There's 1 or 2 more points he made, but it's better if you just watch his video

My teacher always prefered the word " study" " . That always to us at least implied both learning new stuff and getting better at what u already learned

I try to tell people learning isnt practicing, but learning is incredibly important to practicing

When my friends ask me what im up to im just gonna go with “sorry, im studying”

Thanks 😊

I prefer my band directors version “practice to the point of automation”
Marching band btw

Some people equate "practice" with repetition. You might get faster with repetition of something you can already play. However you first need to be able to play it - practicing things you can't play (not yet anyway). Go ahead, pick a piece you want to learn, with a cool riff you can't fathom playing. Give it a shot - play that riff slowly, find the notes, string a couple together, add another, repeat until you can play it cleanly (as slow as necessary), add another note, repeat. When you can play the right notes in the right order with the right rhythm (even slowly), move on: you will repeat these again and again as you string together larger pieces of the song. Learn another measure, then practice playing from one into the next. I'll bet the transition from two parts you can play separately is difficult the first few times - I have the same problem. When you can play most of the song - it's time to find something new you can't play.

Try this - play things that are hard. Find that one thing you don't like and do it over and over until you can do it easily. Get a friend to practice with and take turns picking things to play so that you don't always get to decide - agree to make an honest effort with whatever the other person picks. However, I have one issue with the "practicing less" part of the video - even if you are practicing the "right stuff", getting good is going to take time - time spent practicing and not time spent "relaxing" (unless you physically need to recover from practicing). If you make a concerted effort to practice the "right stuff" once a week, you'll never compete with someone who does it twice a week (and they won't hold a candle to someone who does it three times a week). Those of you who are gainfully employed (old folks like me) can probably do your job blindfolded (possibly literally). Why's that? Well, you've probably done it 5 days a week for thousands of hours a year. If you approach music, the gym, another language, or anything else with the same plan - daily practice (even in a small amount of time) - you'll get a lot better results than irregular practice or wishful thinking...

I got a lot of chuckles from this - very funny and informative

I've been self-teaching myself guitar for the past two months and I didn't see much improvement (my progress is still the same as the first two weeks I practiced guitar). I thought I just needed to practice more until I found this video. I ended up practicing the wrong things and building bad habits in the last two months, but I'm glad I discovered your video and not waste my time practicing more. Thank you, Brad Harrison Music!

incredible content. subscribed!

Should change the title: Get Better At EVERYTHING By Practicing Less.
Great video!

Amazons amazing, it works for every single part in A personal growth and how to perform to design our life as we wish/want it to be. Learn the basics first……and go baby steps…. Thank you very much.

As a self taught beginner that is true.. I skipped mpst of the learning phase to play what it is that I want to play. Was I successful? Yes after countless of errors and repetitions to fix the errors. My sight reading is 0 to none. I play measure by measure.

The last I played the piano was 7 months ago.. and I want to play again if not for relocation (overseas) and having no equipment. Buying the yamaha p125 again is taking a bit of time due to lack of finance. Shipping all my equipment from US is as expensive lol. But that won't stop me. I want to play again. Just have to fix my finance issue.

That said, after playing for quite sometime.. it made me realize that playing measure after measure is becoming a hindrance of me playing and listening to the songs I want to hear and play. It takes too much time and I loose enthusiasm in the process. And for me, enthusiasm is a big part of the mix. Otherwise I won't play at all. Playing just to play is dull for me. As they say, you do better and make things better when you enjoy what you do. And now, I'm back to the learning phase. Even without a digital piano, I got to learn somehow (mental imagery).

Thanks for this! Made me realize some things I can do to improve.

Preciate it!!!

i havent watched the video yet, but i already agree. i dont own drums and have never owned drums, yet every time i get a chance to play the drums i have improved significantly. this is just because i spend a lot of time composing and i really focus on rhythyms when i write.

my technique is awful, but i can count and play along in pretty much any time signature you can throw at me.

Learning is just a part of practicing, reading the sheet music is a part of practice imp

There is a difference between practice and learning and you should do them separately... Thats it... Thats the whole 15 minute video. Thank me later

Practice should get you to the point where you decide to experiment what this thing can really do. Once you have access to that, you're ready to move into the real world, where an amateur rehearses until they get it right, the pro until they cannot get it wrong, with one proviso: that's fine for orchestral, but solo/impro means you almost have to revert. I talk about being an innovator on a new instrument, the low (tenor) whistle, in the mid-80s, sitting down with one of the greats of the folk world, to see how it would fit in bands. Thanks to LOTR, you now know of it as a bit of a wailer - what I was doing playing seconds to Paddy's lead took it places beyond. He really enjoyed it, because I wasn't playing dots, but the real expression of the trad tunes, two musicians together, not improvising, but understanding where the music came from.

Blow hard on my sax

Im a doctor in music and the way i teach depends on students capability. For example if its a kid you have to teach them indirectly. Since most of the time kids are not good with words but feelings and motion. Learning can be taught through the practice of a particular exercise. It is a method that allows the student to realize themself. With the continuous repetition of the same movement, a certain feeling can be gained to the student. Of course you are not alone in this. I will tell you if you are using too much energy, too tensing, posture of your hand and fingers all over the place and you think you did it great. No..... we are just starting. If you can play something with min effort and energy, your posture soft and you are clearly using this energy to create pressure on the strings. Then you pass yea otherwise go and practice

Thank you so much!

-Jesus loves all and wants to save all! Romans 10:9-10✌️

This is an excellent theory of education in general

People sacrifice studies by practicing music more.

Well, all the instruments are different but at least for piano, practicing just for accuracy in slow tempo is not really a good thing I think. Your body movement in lower tempo and in faster tempo are completely “different”, doesn’t mean just difference of speed, and I agree with your logic “if you practice mistakes, you can learn it” and as that logic, you will keep learning wrong body movements.

You gotta be careful to stuck in one position in your mind or physically, always you need to think and see the playing piano as stepping back and viewing a big picture, don’t get too close, just use a specific tempo as your need, go with original tempo, and if it’s not great at some parts, get slower tempo and fix some parts, if you feel your body movements too heavy or uncomfortable, go faster tempo than original and play very rightly, and get that feeling and go to slower tempo blah blah sth like that. Remember, when you learning something in society or work place, you don’t really get a chance to start that very slowly, but still you are good at those. Sometimes it’s better to just do it in fast tempo.

Also the one of the best way for learning and practicing music for accuracy is playing without instruments, with your imagination, sometimes you close your eyes or open your eyes and print the music in your brain with imagination and play that with feelings of your finger and body, connect more neurons.

Improvising is an another story tho.

Really agreed sir!

Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong.

So well explained!!! Thank you very much, that was really, really helpful. I will apply it to all kind of other learning-subjects too

great video man! very inspirational. ❤

I've stopped playing for weeks and I was always way better when I started again. I've always played by ear, and if you practice like that too often, you'll just keep playing the same patterns and rhythms over and over. If you flood your brain with constant input, it never has time to reflect on your playing and grow from it.

Thank you for this helpful video. So clearly explained. And thanks for the comments below. The comments are just as helpful as the video itself. ❤

I've heard the points you make from other sources but I appreciate how you've presented the logic in a way that resonates a little more deeply. I've hesitated to approach music this way because I thought it would take the fun away; however, I really identify with your point that a lack of growth can lead to boredom and quitting. I feel that way sometimes when I hammer away at my goals in "video game" style and see little to no progress. Great video

Got it in the first 4 mins, tks.

This on another level 🎉

Great video just in time, thank you, respect