Four Practice Techniques to Conquer a Difficult Lick
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Now, follow me for a second. You walk into your school ready to take on that new assignment your teacher gave. You feel ready to tackle the piece and show how much you got done for your next lesson. You walk into the practice room, take out your instrument or implements, warm up, and start making your way through the beginning of the piece. You feel great! You feel super productive! You’re nailing it, But then you hit the measure. This measure is faster, more technically difficult, awkward, and makes you hit a proverbial wall. I think we have all been there.
Thankfully, I’ve learned ways to deal with this particular issue from amazing teachers, colleagues, and online resources. This blog post is a collection of tips and tricks that I learned over the years to help tackle those difficult licks with ease. To help illustrate these techniques, I’m going to apply them to an excerpt from Neuse River a piece from my first volume of Miniatures.
Full Lick as Written from Neuse River
Practice Technique #1: Rate Variation
This technique is simply playing a lick at different rates of speed. This can be done in two different ways. The first is adjusting the actual tempo on the metronome and playing the lick as written. However, my favorite way to do this is to play different rates of rhythm under one tempo. For example, I would keep the metronome at 120 BPM and play through a progression of eighth notes, eighth note fivelets, eighth note triplets, eighth note sevenlets, and sixteenth notes (at this variation, it is the lick as written).
Variation 1 | Eighth Notes
Variation 2 | Eighth Note Fivelets
Variation 3 | Eighth Note Triplets
Variation 4 | Eighth Note Sevenlets
I love this method because it simulates working up the tempo of a small, but difficult chunk without having to constantly adjust the metronome between reps, while allowing the body and mind to gain the benefits of practicing at a wide range of tempos. For example, the slower rates allow the performer to practice this lick with extreme precision and accuracy, while the faster rates will allow the performer to learn the mechanics of performing a technically difficult lick at tempo. Both equally important.
Recommended Reading
Want to learn more about why slow practice is so powerful? Check out my article on Five Tips for More Effective Practice!
Practice Technique #2: Rhythmic Variation
This technique focuses on breaking the lick into various digestible chunks. First, you have to determine the size. In this example, we will use two or three-note based patterns. These chunks can be any combination of a single eighth note and any number of sixteenth notes. The patterns listed below are ones that I personally use often, however these patterns can be four-note based, five-note based, and so on.
Variation 1 | 16 - 8
Variation 2 | 8 - 16
Variation 3 | 16 - 16 - 8
Variation 4 | 8 - 16 - 16
Variation 5 | 16 - 8 - 16
Rhythmic Variation allows for the performer to muscle memorize small chunks which is a great tool, however, the magic in this technique is the shifting of the single eighth note. The shifting allows for your body to muscle memorize and practice the gaps left from the previous pattern, creating a web of mental connections between the notes in this passage. It’s also a great way to diversify the way you tackle an issue that requires more practice time and I personally find it to be pretty a fun way to shed.
Practice Technique #3: Hands Separation
This is a technique that can be extremely helpful to percussionists and pianists in particular. When practicing a lick try to play only the notes designated to a single hand. This is a method I use a ton when playing polyphonic music as it allows me to memorize and phrase a smaller group of voices, however, this can also be utilized when playing monophonic music like the excerpt from Neuse River.
The reason I like this method is that when playing a lick of this difficulty there are many things to think about, and part of why we practice is to minimize the number of things we have to focus on which is where hands separation shines. By taking away a hand, you are allowing your body and mind to focus, learn, and memorize the mechanics of an individual hand. Ultimately the goal is to not have to think about the mechanics of that particular hand or voice when integrated with the full passage.
Variation 1 | Left Hand Only
Variation 2 | Right Hand Only
Practice Technique #4: Blocking
This is another technique that will be especially helpful for pianists and percussionists. Blocking is simply turning the passage at hand into a block chord progression if possible. For example, the first beat of this passage can be played as an E-7 Chord, the second beat can be played as a Cadd2 chord, and so on. This can lead to some interesting syncopation or rhythm, but ultimately your goal is to distill this lick into a series of chords.
Blocking allows for the performer to see a more macro representation of the music. Seeing the first beat as an E-7 Chord rather than four individual notes is much easier to memorize and remember in the moment. It also helps the performer find shapes within the passage. For example, if I am blocking an excerpt that has the following pitches (Bb, D, F, and Bb) I would memorize the particular shape my mallet heads create when playing the root-position Bb Major chord.
Two examples are listed below for you. The second example is this technique at a smaller level, where I’m blocking based on notes played by each hand rather than all together.
Variation 1 | Full Blocking
Variation 1 | Hand-Based Blocking
Take Action!
As you go through your practice sessions, I suggest you experiment with each of these techniques in the pieces that you are tackling. Different contexts may yield different results and some of these may work better than others in your particular case. All in all, practice smarter, not harder and you will see a tremendous difference in the results of your practicing.
