(Taken from Rhythm Knowledge, Volume One, page 4) “Using Logic” It really IS easy when you know how!! Rhythm Knowledge is about practice management. There are lots of books that show you WHAT to practice (indeed, future books in the Rhythm Knowledge series will do just that). This book is about HOW to practice. Management is the art of control. Before you can control something, you must understand how it works. To improve as a musician, you must understand how MUSIC works, and how YOU work. Practice, in the case of a musician, is concerned primarily with two things: The Music (our chosen medium of expression), and the human body (the ‘tool’ with which we shape the medium). A musician performs music. Whether or not you composed a particular piece, you must be physically capable of playing the notes if you want to perform it. KNOWING how the body works makes it much easier to IMPROVE how it works …and knowing how music works makes it easier to improve how IT works!! Here is how this book (Volume One) works. Since we all have different needs and goals, the book doesn’t necessarily read from beginning to end, so skip around if you want. Depending on your particular areas of interest and expertise, many of the pages may need the support of exercises and/or further explanation, to help you to APPLY the concept at hand. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas and questions will ‘pop into your head’ as you read. Keep a notepad handy, so you don’t lose track of them. Taking the time to answer each question and follow up on each idea will enormously increase what you get from this book; more importantly, it will make this YOUR book. The Rhythm Knowledge system is deliberately modular, allowing you to choose what you want to improve, based on where you are, and where you want to go! This also helps you to avoid the trap of trying to understand everything at once, which only overloads the mind and undermines the value of knowing HOW to choose WHAT to learn. Some people need to focus on improving their practice discipline, while others need help to understand how subdivisions work. Volume One shows you HOW to develop the two most basic (and vital) musical skills: Knowledge of rhythm, and good practice habits. There are logical steps toward the acquisition of these skills, based on principles gleaned from the fields of mathematics, biology, neuroscience, management, and psychology (don’t worry, I’ve already done the gleaning part – we won’t be dissecting frogs today, we’re only interested in what our brains and bodies do when we play music). What you learn here can be applied to YOUR needs and goals, right alongside what you learn from other books, teachers, and of course, your own imagination. Volume Two shows you WHAT to practice, in order to RECORD what you LEARN from Volume One, so that you can USE your Rhythm Knowledge in the real world. Michael Mangini Musician, teacher, allergic to cats Back to "How It Works"