David Dumais > Quotes

“Always remember that your goals are the most important. It is the first step to turning any dream or thought into reality. Without goals, you are inevitably going nowhere. Have goals and make them real by writing them down.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Chunk your music to simplify it. Break it down by phrases and sub-phrases. Do whatever you need to do to keep it simple! Don’t waste your time playing passages you already know well and can play. Focus on the practicing what you can’t play. That is where improvement lies.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Hold-a-note approach: For this approach, play the passage at performance speed and when you arrive at a note that is challenging, hold it for four beats or more (as if it were a long tone). This stabilizes the pitch and tone with which you have difficulty executing. If applicable, finish the rest of the phrase afterwards. Make sure you play past the note and through the passage to keep the direction and phrase of the music. Repeat this multiple times. Hold different notes if necessary.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Varied rhythms are useful for fast runs and passages. Diversifying the rhythms will help you keep your practicing engaged and focused while also enabling you to play evenly. There are many ways to vary rhythms. You can play dotted rhythms such as in Figure 1. You can also experiment playing the run in groups of three notes such as in Figure 2. For more diversification, play the run in groups of four notes, five notes, as well as in triplets as shown in Figure 3. Come up with new ways of varying the rhythms for your fast passages. Note that when you play a varied rhythm, you should also play the opposite varied rhythm immediately after. See A vs. B in the figures below.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Be patient and persevere and you will attain your goals.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“The most effective way I have learned to internalize rhythm and pulse is to halve the length of the beats per minute on the metronome. For example, if the piece of music is played at 60 bmp, then I will set the metronome to 30 bmp. This way I have to play two beats of music within one click of the metronome. This forces you to feel and know exactly where the two beats sit. Once you are very comfortable with the tips mentioned above, try challenging yourself further by playing with one click per measure. This will help you develop your inner pulse. For example, playing in a 4/4 time signature: 1. Play the passage so that the metronome click is on the downbeat (beat 1). 2. Play the passage so that the metronome click is on the 2nd beat (beat 2). 3. Play the passage so that the metronome click is half-way through the measure (beat 3). 4. Play the passage so that the metronome click is on the upbeat of the measure (beat 4). I know and I have heard many teachers say that you should practice as much with the metronome as without it. In my experience, the closer I got to being confident playing 1 measure in 1 click, the better I played without the metronome. I would strongly recommend playing a lot with the metronome at 1 click per measure and challenging yourself beyond that. Play 1 click for every 2 measures, even for 3 or 4 measures depending on the speed of the piece. This is what will help you play in time without a metronome.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Turn on the metronome against your recording and see how well you play in time.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Transposing your music into different keys can be challenging and may also seem like a waste of time because you have to relearn all the notes, but it can work wonders. Practicing transposing your music into different keys will help you hear the relationship between notes so that no matter the key or your instrument’s tendencies, you know the distance between the intervals. You will be able to play the correct intervals in any key, in addition to improving transposing skills.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“Always ask yourself the golden question: If I could master one skill today, which skill would make the biggest difference in my playing?”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“a-note approach: This approach is exactly as the name suggests. Start with only one note. Play this one note in time and repeat it until you are comfortable with it. Then, add a note. Play only these two notes. Repeat them over and over. When you are comfortable and it becomes easier to play, add a note. Repeat. You could learn an entire piece using only this method and never even have to do slow practice!”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional

“subdivisions on the metronome to the smallest note value that is in the passage you are working on.”
― David Dumais, Music Practice: The Musician's Guide To Practicing And Mastering Your Instrument Like A Professional