The Tools of the Trade

If you get stuck, draw with a different pen. Change your tools; it may free your thinking. - Paul Arden

As I have mentioned several times, getting creative with your practicing techniques can yield fantastic results. Any and every exercise can be tweaked and tailored to your needs. In Dig Deep, I elaborated on the fact that we need to turn off the automatic pilot and really use our mind to analyze the problem and find ways to solve it.

Using your imagination to come up with new exercises is not only fun, it fires up the synapses in your brain, solidifying your skills.

Technology can be your friend in this area. In addition to listening to the repertoire you are working on and browsing the internet for articles and videos about music making (read here for ways to incorporate these into your routine), there are several tools you can use to enhance your practice sessions. Having written in detail about how to record yourself, I will now turn to a few other tools of the trade.

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