Practice Thoughts | 11: Doing vs Thinking (Patreon)

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Hi Everyone,

With that out of the way, in this lesson I'm tackling a concept that has been really hard for me to articulate in the past. I have really tried my best to look back and try to figure out how I got here, as well as try to figure out what the incredible musicians in my life all have in common.

Also, I chose the words "thinking" and "doing" for simplicity. There are probably more precise or specific words I could have used, but these will have to do! The category of "thinking" is in no way related to how smart you are, it's just a word to describe your general approach to playing music.

I made an effort to pinpoint this really crucial concept: balancing and deliberately practicing two somewhat opposite things. 

On the one side, you have thinking - being mindful and painfully aware of as much as possible while you're practicing AND making sure to be very specific about what your goal is. Am I writing music right now? Am I trying to implement a specific technique? How do I achieve this specific goal?

On the other side you have pure experiential creativity. NOT thinking, just doing. Wether that's playing a solo, writing a chord progression, adding a melody over the top of something - developing the ability to just create without thinking (too hard) and without needing to stop and ask "what EXACTLY am I doing?"

The best musicians I know are good at both things, and my goal is to help you practice both things to the best of your ability. 

Once you watch this video, consider which category you tend to occupy: do you lean toward thinking or toward doing? Neither camp is better or worse, but if you consider which one you tend toward, it might be easier to see what you need to practice!

THINKERS: Your job is to learn to let go sometimes. NOT all the time! Just sometimes. You don't always have to know what you're doing. I'd recommend these prescriptions:
• Loose soloing: find a jam track on YouTube or My Website and just explore making phrases in the key - not worrying about the chords, not worrying about chord tones - just tinkering and exploring without thinking too hard. Have fun and let go!
• Vague Community Challenges: Try writing little compositions for the community challenges that say things like "write something sad" or "write something spooky" without
• Try writing random chord progressions without thinking too hard about what key you're in!

DOERS: Your job is to sometimes sit down and do things exactly, specifically, and know what you're doing the entire time with absolutely ZERO guesswork. This can be tough, but here are some ways to approach it:
• Specific Community Challenges: check out Community Challenges with specific technical theory concepts, like "write something using a i - III - VI - V" or "Write something with a secondary dominant."
• Write with a specific goal: Write music with a very specific goal and write everything out along the way so you're sure you've got it right. Imagine a math problem where you're supposed to show your work. Imagine someone like me is going to ask you to explain every aspect of your composition.
• CAGED Soloing: My CAGED Soloing series requires you to very specifically map out shapes on the guitar AND write specific melodic phrases over these progressions so you KNOW where that phrase starts and ends. It's a lot of work, but the more you do it, the easier it gets!

If you've got more questions, or you'd like to get into a discussion about this, come hang out on the community forum.

Keep in mind: the goal here is to get out of your comfort zone in order to GROW your comfort zone. There isn't a correct way to be a musician, but skills like this tend to be universal across all musicians, with some people still being more comfortable in one camp and others being more comfortable in another camp. 

More from this series:

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Scott's Recommended Lesson Plan
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Scott's Jam Tracks
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Scott's Main YouTube Channel