意図的な練習

この話の要点は、ほとんどのミュージシャンは 7,300 時間から 10,000 時間の演奏をする傾向があるということだけではありません。 意図的に practice (or 10 years, whichever comes first) under their belt when they are considered “elite performers” but that it is not only the hours but the WAY they practice that makes the difference between the top musicians and just “good” musicians. (Maybe the hours of practice is why singers take so much longer to develop, since singers don’t tend to practice so many hours a day?)

Most of the top performers slept an hour more, as well. But the conclusion was not “the more you sleep, the better you play.” The conclusion was that these elite musicians were so much more tired – from concentrating so much when they were practicing – that they needed the extra hour or so of sleep to recover. Sleep was a by-product of the way they were practicing. Oh, so THAT’S why I sleep all the time! 😉

The criteria for eminent performance goes beyond expert mastery of available knowledge and skills and requires an important and innovative contribution to the domain. But it starts with expert mastery of the technique of the instrument at hand. You can’t express what you want to express until you have the technical TOOLS to make it happen. Some interesting things about the practice of the best players:

• 彼らは1回に1時間から1時間半、少なくとも1日3時間は一人で練習する傾向がありました。
• 彼らは午前中遅くに練習し、その日の遅い時間、午前10時から午後2時まで練習する傾向がありました。
• 午前中の練習から回復するために午後に昼寝をすることもあります。
• 彼らは睡眠をとることが重要であると判断しました。
• 彼らは、音楽の発展の過程で、最高の音楽教師を探すために多大な努力を費やしました。
• ほとんどのパフォーマーは音楽関連のことに 1 日 8 時間を費やしました。
• 彼らは DELIBERATELY PRACTICED: deliberate practice is highly structured with the goal of improving performance. Specific tasks are invented to overcome weaknesses, and performance is carefully monitored to provide cues for ways to improve it further. Deliberate Practice requires getting out of your comfortable zone and “stretching” your limits; it is not always the most fun activity. Musicians do it, however, because it enhances performance. SMART practicing means finding ways to slowly and methodically (and sometimes annoyingly) correct mistakes or technical faults out of their context, isolating the parts that are in need of remedy, getting immediate feedback (either from yourself, a recording, a teacher or a good set of ears), repeating the corrections methodically while concentrating on accomplishing the refinement at hand, and only after that is mastered to put the music back into its context. Render one skill or aspect of singing at a time into a habit, slowly and surely, in bite-size chunks. Teach your muscle memory what is RIGHT.
  

  Procedural memory is created through “procedural learning” or, repeating a complex activity over and over again until all of the relevant neural systems work together to automatically produce the activity. Implicit procedural learning is essential to the development of any motor skill or cognitive activity.[手続き記憶に関するウィキペディアの項目]

• ある先生からは blog.kennedyviolins.com: found that often the more academically capable students were usually the laziest when it came to practicing. He believes the reason for this, is that they were used to not having to try very hard in the classroom and naturally expected learning an instrument would be just as easy for them. When they found out that mastering an instrument like the violin was incredibly difficult and cognitively demanding, they lacked the determination and drive needed to overcome tough obstacles during a typical practice session. … They found that if they gave the student very targeted exercises utilizing scales, arpeggios and etudes, they became much more technically proficient at their instrument. In turn, this greatly assisted them in being able to learn just about any piece and it made the entire learning process easier and more fun.

Young “wunderkind” performers:

• 通常、初めて自分の分野に触れたのは 3 歳から 8 歳で、その時から勉強を始めました。
• 許容できる練習レベルで長時間過ごした後、個人は自分の体と生活に適応し、ゆっくりと徐々に練習レベルを上げました。
• Bloom (1985b) found that there seems to be at least one central person in a promising child’s near environment who firmly believes, as the child develops, that the child is special, that is, talented in the domain. This person’s belief prevails even though Bloom (1985b) found no evidence that, during the early phases, the individual exhibited any clear evidence of prowess.
  

  People believe that because expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance the expert performer must be endowed with characteristics qualitatively different from those of normal adults… We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain. [Ericsson]

エリートミュージシャンがやったこと ない する：

• 彼らがやった ない 集中力を持たずに彼らの音楽を聴き続ける。
• 彼らがやった ない すでに習得したスキルを繰り返すだけです。
• 彼らがやった ない allow themselves to repeat or “get by” with mistakes, so that this became engrained in their muscle memory.
• 彼らがやった ない 彼らの音楽を丸暗記してください。
• 彼らがやった ない 物事や間違いなどをただ繰り返すか、音楽を何度も何度も再生し続けます。

It is clear that skilled individuals can sometimes experience highly enjoyable states (“flow” as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) during their performance. These states are, however, incompatible with 意図的な練習、個人は、現在達成可能なパフォーマンスのレベルをわずかに超えるレベルに到達することを目的とした（通常は計画された）トレーニング活動に従事します。

1. 完全な集中力
2. フィードバック後の分析
3. 洗練された繰り返し。

It’s so EASY for you!

Everyone always tells me, “Oh, it’s just so easy for you, you just get up there and sing!!”

Aren’t you funny? Ha ha ha. Uh, no, Dimwit, that “ease” comes after I have worked my patootey off so that I am prepared, so it will LOOK easy. I deliberately go through many steps, painstakingly (and it can be tedious and boring, as well, but I try to stay concentrated) before I have rendered automatic ONE aspect of singing what I’m singing. Then I move on to the next aspect, trying to make sure I don’t screw up the one I’ve already worked on to “perfection.” I try to concentrate on one thing at a time, to isolate each thing I’m working on, and don’t let myself repeat wrong things so that my muscles and memory get used to doing that.

WAYS THAT *I* PRACTICE DELIBERATELY – THIS IS HOW I LEARN A SONG OR A SECTION OF MUSIC.

自分の弱点に絶え間なく焦点を当て、それに対処する方法を考え出し、発明する必要があります。すでに簡単なことをやり続けるだけでは意味がありません。

It is helpful to do these following instructions IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER, I have found. It is painstaking and requires a lot of concentration, but you will be astounded at the progress you can make if you actually go through all of these steps. And your practice time will fly by, because you are so concentrated. PLAN what you want to accomplish and what you want to work on in your session. Keep a practice notebook and make your “plan of attack.” After you have finished, spend another 5 minutes writing down what you have accomplished, and the progress you think you have made, or observations or “breakthroughs” or insights you had during your practice. Share these with your teacher at your next lesson. There is no time to get bored! Too many things to think about and do!!

• 私は音楽の中で一語一語の翻訳を書き出して、英語の翻訳を通して話します。. This is actually part of your PREPARATION for your practice time. Go back and TRANSLATE EVERY WORD AGAIN so you are sure that you know the meaning of every word. A lot of times we think we know the meaning because we’ve read someone else’s translation, but you’ll be surprised how many times you may find a slightly different word in translation that makes more sense of the phrase to you. Sometimes there are multiple translations of one word – write as many as possible over the word, and then go back in context when you know the other words to figure out WHICH meaning is the right one for your poem.  Many times translating will reveal new things for me in the interpretation and meaning of the song. Many times I will find that something doesn’t make sense, and I need to search for a better word in the translation, or put it in better grammatic perspective. Sometimes I have even found that the foreign-language text has mistakes in it while reading the English translation because it just plain didn’t make sense! At that point, I go back to the original poem (NOT on recmusic, but on a 文学的な site in the original language) and check that the original language text I have is correct. Recently in a German song, there was the word “Lüfte” and when I checked the original poem, it was actually “Lüste,” which made a heck of a lot more sense in the translation. Some music publisher had been careless. If things just do not make sense to you, talk or write to a native speaker about that phrase. It may be a misprint. But do the homework of looking up every word yourself. Ask a native speaker to help you with words you can not find – they will probably be forms of verbs that you don’t know.
• リズムをマークして練習します。 Preparing your score is part of your practice.  I write in “hash marks” in my score, if the rhythm is complicated, indicating the beats and say out loud “ta ta ta” to the rhythm, making time to consciously breathe well with support where I need to breathe when it will be sung. I will repeat certain tricky passages out of context slowly if I am having problems with them. I plan my breaths in the music, so they don’t just happen by chance.  I put in parentheses  where I might need one and it would work both musically and textually.  When I have mastered that, I slowly work it up to speed. Only then do I add in a measure at a time in front of the difficult passage while I am still slow, (working from the back end) and then slowly speed up the entire passage.
• 私はリズムに合わせて言葉を読みます, repeating slowly the words I make mistakes on. I isolate the words I have problems with and repeat them slowly and methodically, only getting faster when I have mastered the word. Then I slowly put them back into context, one word at a time working from the back… (Example – the line reads: “alles Sieche ist betäubt von ihrem Wohlgeruch.” I keep forgetting the umlaut on “betäubt.” So I say “betäubt” slowly three times in a row. Then I say “ist betäubt” in rhythm three times, then I say ” ist betäubt von ihrem” three times in rhythm, then I say “ist betäubt von ihrem Wohlgeruch” three times in rhythm, then I say “Sieche ist betäubt von ihrem Wohlgeruch” in rhythm three times, then I FINALLY say the whole line (breathing well beforehand) in rhythm: “alles Sieche ist betäubt von ihrem Wohlgeruch.” Whew! I’ve got it in my mouth now. My 筋肉の記憶 will remember it now better so my brain doesn’t have to consciously recall every sound as I’m singing – I can concentrate on other things. Perhaps you only need to repeat things twice to “get” them, or maybe you need to repeat them five times or more – that is what your feedback (to yourself) and analysis of your practice time does. Learn how YOU work best.
• I then read the foreign words out loud again, while looking at the ENGLISH word-for-word translation. Rinse and repeat. If you have problems with the foreign language, mark up your music with help! Write in markings of how to pronounce things, write in stresses in the text, where the accents of the line go, etc… Give a sustained, legato recitation of the text in the foreign language while looking at the English translation.
• 今では、外国語の単語をリズムよく声に出して発音しながら、上の英語の翻訳を読みながら、ほぼすべての単語に説明的なジェスチャーを加えています。 It’s a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head and playing the organ with your foot at the same time. 😉 I gesticulate something specific on every word. It gives me a physical gesture that applies to each word (pointing up to sky for “cielo,” for example.) This helps cement in the mind the words and their meanings. Your body and brain computes in “Sky” while you say “cielo” because you are READING the word “sky” and pointing up to the actual sky while you are saying “cielo.” This is ESPECIALLY helpful if you’re having problems with memorization and/or do not speak the language in which you’re singing. You may be able to incorporate a few of these gestures into your interpretation of the piece eventually, funnily enough!
• それから私は一母音で歌います (whatever my best vowel may be,) eliding one note into the next, taking care to “spin” the sound and connect it to my breath, while keeping the opening of the throat and jaw the same for all the different notes and make sure I am spinning one note into the next, making portamenti from one note to the next. I stop and isolate parts that are giving me trouble, concentrating on breath compression, placement and freeing up any tension in these problematic parts and repeating them slowly in bite-size chunks until I master them and then sing them in context. This way, I train my body to support in between the notes and at the ends of notes as well as attack phrases well (an attack that is not airy and not glottal.)
• 一息でうまく歌えない場合は、行の終わりを分離します。 そうすれば、十分な呼吸のサポートとともにそのラインを終えることを筋肉の記憶に組み込むことができます。 フレーズの最後の部分をマスターしたら、後ろから一度に 1 語ずつフレーズに追加し、フレーズの終わりでもまったく違和感がないまで、その単語だけを数回繰り返します。次に、フレーズの終わりに単語を 1 語ずつ追加し、その場所から毎回最後まで繰り返し、フレーズ全体をうまく構築し直すまで続けます。練習中は、行の終わりを無理やり押し出すことは絶対にしません。これは、悪い筋肉の記憶を強化するだけだからです。その行をうまく終わらせる筋肉の記憶を体に教え込みます。
  Let me add that usually breath problems at the end of a phrase (unless it’s just CRAZY LONG) mean that either I need to take an extra breath somewhere or that I am losing air somewhere along the line. So I do a few exercises to check where that might be. I sing the entire line with a tongue bubble outside of my mouth (like giving someone a raspberry!) and see where my tongue stops vibrating. THAT is where I am not supporting.
  I also do a sort of “technical checklist” before emitting any note in practice – sometimes I try to do all of them, and sometimes I just need to concentrate on doing one of the list until I get it mastered before moving on to the next item. Singing, in the end, involves remembering simultaeously ALL of the list, so the more you can get at once, the better, as they are all connected: 
  1. 私は喉を開き、口蓋を広く保ち、その音に空間を与え、歌う空間に息を吸い込んでいますか？
  2. ストローを吸うように深く低く呼吸し、肋骨を広げ、胸骨を柔らかく保ったか
  3. While keeping all this rib area open, am I connected to that spot about 2 inches below my belly button and inside my body about 2 inches before singing? The spot you activate when you’re doing Kegel exercises?
  4. Have I closed my vocal cords before I start that phrase? (I check by SAYING – mezzoforte – the word on which I’m losing air and then do a few glottal stops so that I feel my vocal cords closed before I begin the phrase or word. This works with ME, but will not work with someone who over-muscles things in their throat!)
  5. フレーズを歌うとき、呼吸のサポートとのつながりを保ち、声帯の軽いエッジで歌っていますか、それとも、特定のポイントで声帯に空気 (HHHH) を吹き込み、音を拡散させていますか?

  If I go through this checklist before singing each little part of the phrase and slowly fix the things I am forgetting to do, I guarantee you I will not be blowing extra air through parts of the phrase, and I will have a lot more “air” left at the end of the phrase. The breath support has concentrated the flow of the air to the good tension of the vocal folds by working slowly and diligently (concentrating until my brain wants to burst) on small bite-sized chunks of the music. I can condense them down to a almost-one-word checklist that I can use as key-words for ideas while I’m singing:

  1. 空間
  2. ワイドリブ
  3. スポット
  4. クローズドコード
  5. 角

  These mean something to me, and I can use them while I am breathing or singing in context as quick reminders of entire concepts on which I have worked slowly and diligently in practice. You will have your own “checklist” – and make sure you have a shorthand for your list!

• それから私は元の母音で音楽を歌います, keeping the throat open for all the vowels and making sure I am spinning one note into the next in a portamento. I stop and isolate parts that are giving me trouble, concentrating on keeping the same “default” embouchure inside my mouth and jaw for all the vowels, using only slight modifications to my tongue to make the different vowels and repeating them slowly until I master them, then putting them more and more into context, one measure at a time.
• ここで、このレガティッシモのラインの上に子音を戻します。
• 私は自分の呼吸を計画し、スコアにマークします。 歌う前に、小節全体にわたって長く息を吸うように計画します。時には、この特定のフレーズでは飲み込む、この特定のフレーズでは首をリラックスさせる、この特定のフレーズでは舌をリラックスさせる、入る前にこの 3 ～ 4 拍で呼吸する、と自分に言い聞かせてから歌うこともあります。前に述べたように、長いフレーズの終わりは十分な呼吸で分離します。こうすることで、十分な呼吸でフレーズを終える習慣が体に身につきます。その後で初めてフレーズを追加し、毎回 1 音早くフレーズを開始し、フレーズの終わりに喉と口が正しく開いていることを確認し、はるか下からのサポートで音に集中して、フレーズ全体を 1 回の呼吸で歌えるようになるまで続けます。
  Then I sing the phrase that comes before the breath and practice taking the time to breathe slowly and well before the problematic phrase, so I can “program in” the breath in context. Then I repeat the phrase beforehand, taking a quicker breath every time *that is still a good breath* until I can get the breath up to speed.
  I find it especially helpful to do the following: sing each phrase in time with the pianist, but take all the time you need at EVERY breath while the pianist just stops and hangs out while you organize a great breath and a great attack for EVERY breath. Then begin the next phrase and sing it in time. In this way, every breath gets programmed well in your brain and body. You ONLY take good breaths. Slowly work the breaths up to speed, so you program in that you breathe well and are not just gasping. Rinse and Repeat…
• 今、私は呼吸に集中し、顎を開いたままリラックスした状態で歌を繰り返します。
• 今 I sing through the entire song to remind myself to sing the markings, etc…
• 私は歌を繰り返しながら、翻訳を考え、演じます。

1 つの曲、アリア、または音楽のセクションでこれを実行すれば、少なくとも 1 時間から 1 時間半かかります。私は水を飲みに行き、何か他のことをしてから、休憩後に音楽に戻ってゆっくりともう一度演奏し、まだ間違いが残っている箇所を確認します。

This is the way to SLOWLY learn things, and once you put in this work, it will all sound “so easy.” It isn’t. It’s work. But this kind of work is what puts you in with the ELITE musicians and not just the “good” ones. Do not just run through your pieces and allow yourself to sing faults into your throat’s muscle memory. Stop yourself immediately and isolate problems, and FIX THEM. Only then reward yourself with the joy of singing through something!