Jonathan Harnum > Quotes

“No matter what gifts you have, practice is the only way to get better at anything.

"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery it would not seem so wonderful at all” - Michael Angelo”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Those who can, do; those who do and understand, teach.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“If you want to get better, you simply have to practice. There’s no way around it. Even though Prasad, Sona, and Rex all had beneficial early experiences with music, each has had to spend thousands of hours in practice to acquire their musical prowess. Rex told me, “If people could’ve lived my life and all the hours I’ve spent practicing the tuba alone in some little room someplace, they probably wouldn’t label me as being particularly talented.”[6]”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Practice and playing music has to be like a religious experience. It has to be your religion, you know; it has to be your trance. You get something from a devotion to it and digging deeper into yourself and the nature of reality.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Forget about the 10,000-hour rule you’ve heard so much about. It’s a red herring. What’s important is not the hours you’ve practiced, but the kind of practice in your hours. Focus on the tree, not the forest.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“As a musician, when you listen to music, it’s not a passive act; you’re fully engaged in the experience, almost swimming around in it, perceiving detail and depth that casual hearing just can’t pick up. The way musicians listen to music is both more intense and more purposeful than the way “normal” people listen, especially if you’re listening to music you love, or music you want to learn. Tabla player Rupesh Kotecha calls it intricate listening, New York Philharmonic trumpeter Ethan Bensdorf calls it active listening, free-improvising pioneer and composer Pauline Oliveros calls it deep listening. Whatever you call it, listening this intensely takes practice.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“You want to be relaxed when you play, and practicing while worried or anxious won’t help you achieve that relaxation.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us. Virginia Satir, psychotherapist (1916-1988)”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“A painter paints pictures on canvas, but
a musician paints pictures on silence.”
― Jonathan Harnum, Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

“In his excellent book on classical music practice, The Perfect Wrong Note, pianist and teacher William Westney describes the need for privacy like this: The reason so many of us lose our bearings about practising early in life is that we practice in living rooms with other family members in earshot—and healthy practice would simply sound too obnoxious, intrusive, repetitious and unmusical for others to hear without annoyance.[1] There are two kinds of privacy that a practice room of your own will give you: one is inward, and the other is outward. The inward privacy is the knowledge that nobody can hear you, allowing you the freedom to experiment with any sound you want without fear of being judged. But it’s the long hours and the repetition that gets to others. In a private space, you can repeat something over and over and over again without fear of annoying anybody. Don’t assume the need for practice privacy will go away the better you get. Consider what the great composer Igor Stravinsky wrote in his autobiography: My family and I were quartered in a hotel in which it was impossible for me to compose. I was anxious, therefore, to find a piano some place where I could work in peace. I have never been able to compose unless sure that no one could hear me. A music dealer...provided me with a sort of lumber room full of empty Chocolat Suchard packing cases, which opened on to a chicken run.[2] That practice room wasn’t quite what Stravinsky was looking for, and he soon found another that suited him. Keep looking for a practice space that works for you.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“The fact that mirror neurons are activated when you hear and see a performance only reinforces why hearing live music is such a great idea. What kind of practice could be more enjoyable than kicking back and watching master musicians perform? I”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“The next micro-goal was to move from that second chord (Emin7) to the third chord (A13), an even more awkward chord for me. You can see there are many possible immediate goals for a practice session, and each of those is made up of numerous micro-goals, which are”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Taking practice apart for analysis kills something that is a dynamic, variable, and highly complex personal endeavor.”
― Jonathan Harnum, Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

“In the end, what it boils down to is that a great teacher will help you carve years off your practice time by showing you strategies and techniques that you probably won’t discover on your own, like the breathing trick tuba legend Arnold Jacobs used to avoid passing out. When Jacobs had to move a lot of air, he’d take CO2-rich breaths near the mouthpiece or breathe back through the tuba. He said, “When I get into these huge, massive blowing episodes, like The Great Gate of Kiev at the end of Pictures at an Exhibition, I will deliberately take the air back through the instrument to forestall hyperventilation.”[8]”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it. ~ H.G.Wells”
― Jonathan Harnum, Basic Jazz Theory, volume 1

“When great musicians practice, they go slowly enough that errors are avoided. When an error does crop up, expert practicers fix those errors immediately. That’s the strategy: fixing a mistake immediately. Anybody can do it, and anybody who adopts that strategy will get better faster than those who don’t.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“fulfilling appears to be rooted in the way our mind works, especially where our self-identity is concerned. We gush about our goals to others, they praise us for them, and this feels good. The reason the praise feels good is that it’s fulfilling our desire to be identified as a musician, or whatever new self-identity it is that we’re trying to put into the world. Our imagination is so good that it hamstrings us before we even get to the starting line. Our imaginative brain takes that praise in, and then fools us into believing we’ve already done what we said we were going to do, giving us “a premature sense of possessing the aspired-to identity.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“The crossroads is a practice room. The devil to be dealt with is practice. Wynton Marsalis calls it “tackling the monster.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“On the other hand, those with a growth mindset believe that intelligence is something that can be grown. Effort, work, and challenges are what make intelligence grow and flower and bear juicy fruit. People with a growth mindset aren’t as attached to demonstrating their intelligence because they know intelligence can be increased, and so intelligence isn’t a fundamental, unvarying aspect of their sense of self. Notice I said, “aren’t as attached.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“The more we study the
more we discover our ignorance.”
― Jonathan Harnum, Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

“I’m singing for the love of it, have mercy on the man who sings to be adored.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“There is nothing more serious than having fun.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Sharing music with others and the joy of making music is the main reason so many people practice so diligently. Money has nothing to do with that pleasure. Great live music is one of the best gifts you can give or receive. Good live music is social glue, and making music with others is its own reward, one that reaches far beyond mere monetary compensation. However, if you’re interested in supporting yourself financially with your music, I humbly offer up the following advice.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Goals are in a near-constant state of revision, especially the shorter-term goals, because as you come up against the reality of learning something, you have to adapt to adjust to that reality.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Focus on mastering the music as deeply as you can, and worry less—or not at all if it’s possible—about impressing others”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Absorb what is useful; discard what is not; add what is uniquely your own.”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Wayne Dyer, author (b. 1940)”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Those with a fixed mindset tend to learn things in a superficial way, just enough to prove they can do it. That’s bad enough, but it gets worse. When people”
― Jonathan Harnum, The Practice of Practice

“Two kinds of practice contribute to the illusion of natural talent. I call them “accidental practice” and “play as practice.”
― Jonathan Harnum, Practice Like This: 35 Effective Ways to Get Better Faster