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This week, Shedding, Let’s go -
The term “Shedding” came from the jazz world, which simply means to train or to practice. (Insert the famous quote from Allen Iverson right?). My old voice teacher at Grambling State would often say “Practice makes perfect is not true. You can practice wrong all day. It’s perfect practice that makes perfect.” In the jazz world you may hear a musician go over the same three note phrase for an hour, not just to get it right but to know where and how to insert those three notes in any song they are playing. The term “woodshedding” actually means so much more than just practicing and is a great tool in any genre of music including rap, and in any area of business. Shedding is actually taking apart the practice and drilling it down to it's smallest concept. Some people call this peeling back the onion to go deeper than just practice. When I taught voice, I taught the techniques of breathing, vocal placement, how to achieve great tone; but what I didn’t teach was songs. Have you heard about Kobe Bryant’s (RIP) work ethic when it came to training? He didn’t go to the gym and do pick up games. He worked on areas that he wanted to be proficient in. He would show up 4 hours before a game just to shoot. Jay Z was reading at a 12th grade level in the 6th grade, and according to his teacher would read the dictionary for fun. Speaking of hip hop, shedding for a rapper might mean studying a dictionary or thesaurus for the perfect metaphors, for a barber practicing straight lines and new hairdos on wig dolls, dancers that shed on the perfect spin over and over, and the dreaded circle of 5ths for horn players that is played ad nauseam.
Shedding yields focus and growth along with consistency. Ask any successful person what the keys to success are and they will answer things like work ethic, persistence and consistency. You only achieve these things from….say it with me - shedding. Do yourself a favor today and go shed!
This week's Independent Artists of the Week, Itamiyo unsigned independent Rapper from Cameroon. Stream now on Spotify.
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