Adrian Valia — Music practice and the Soundbrenner Core 2

We went to Los Angeles to meet up with award-winning multi-instrumentalist jazz theorist and author of Music Theory Made Simple, Adrian Valia. We learned more about his thoughts on the Soundbrenner Core 2's newest features such as the practice tracker and how it helps with music practice and motivation.

‘So, how do you stay motivated during music practice?’

“I guess when I struggle with motivation I just try to find the reason why I'm doing music in the first place, and it sounds a bit extreme when sometimes you're just feeling lazy, but you have to keep a very strong goal in mind, like a very strong motivator. If you don't have that, if you're just thinking well I just need to do that to get better. That's not enough for me, I have to go a bit deeper and think — where do I want to see myself in five years, I need to connect with that idea and think that the only way to get there is one step at a time every single day.”

‘How does the Core 2’s practice tracker feature help music practice motivation?’

“It's cool! The fact that you can not only keep yourself accountable, but you can see how many hours you practice and how much closer you are to getting to your particular goals. I think especially with something like practice, which is something that most people do by themselves most of the time, it’s really important to have an external reference and to see how you're progressing — so you make sure that you're getting to where you want to be.”

‘What are the benefits of being able to share your music practice session with a community of musicians?’

“For me, being able to see someone else's journey and see how they're getting to where they want to be, whether that's in terms of consistency or musicianship, is motivating. It only gives me more energy when I'm able to keep myself accountable towards other people and to see how other people are doing as well.”

‘How does the vibrating metronome help with music practice?’

“So the great thing about the Core 2 is the fact that you can feel the rhythm yourself, and you're not relying on external sources. You have to embody that particular tempo which is paramount when you're practicing because of course when you're playing in real life you won't have a click track — if you don't have that it's really important to develop your internal rhythm and I think this is a great tool to get you between having absolutely nothing and having a very annoying metronome, I think this is a great way of internalizing rhythm.”