These short practices actually hurt you later on because you have to continue to practice the same sections over and over again. If this is you, we recommend that you try to get at least one hour of practice per day. This is the minimum amount of time that must be spent in order to see a change in your abilities over time.
You will be able to get a decent warm-up in minutes and tackle a few pieces of music. But this is where having a goal becomes important. The longer you practice each day, the sooner you will see your skills developing. Shorter practice sessions will result in more physical days before you reach your end goal. We recommend spending 1. These are the practices you walk away from and already feel better than when you went in. You will see yourself progressing and developing at a very steady rate over time.
This window of time is also perfect for creating a relaxed environment. Many times, practicing can be overwhelming for musicians, especially if you have a private teacher. Twice a week if you can manage it. The way to build endurance is to play in short bursts with rests in between and shorten the rests. By short bursts I mean like 10 or 15 minutes, then rest for 10 or 15, then play, etc. When your chops give out, you've gone too far. What works for me is setting a timer to 20 minutes, playing for 20 minutes, then rest for 10 minutes, 20 minutes of playing again etc This will allow me to practice basically all day when I have the time to do so and still keeping mentally fresh.
On the 10 minute breaks, you don't just have to wait Then conentrate on your first note. It is the most important note for the next 20 minutes. This trains you also to come in "cold" on those long symphonies we sometimes have to play. I've had to use practice mutes for 6 years now, and after you've found the right one, the adjustment to playing open is relatively easy and it just becomes part of your musical life.
You may have to try a few to get the right one, I'd avoid the Wick, even though it reduces a large amount of volume the transition time was the longest. Even if there's no need to use a practice mute, there's benefits to be had by using them to build endurance, like the East German athletes training on ramped race tracks..
Staccato practice may help you endurance, but make sure first you have appropriate embouchure and breathing management.
Its quiet and convenient, even if you only do 10 minutes here and there. It does seem to work though. I can play a lot longer if I record a phrase, listen to it, play again. In fact I sometimes run out of time before I run out of chops, depending on what I'm playing.
I play both trombone and piano and take them both up seriously, so my practice time is very much divided. So I find it hard to give a good practice on both and stay focused throughout and for as long as i would like.
So my question to you is what is the best thing to be doing in between practice that leaves you most feeling refreshed and ready to practice again? I have found that completely relaxing in between practice, i.
Whereas continuing to do something mentally taxing naturally wont help matters. So what is the best thing to do? Thanks for the comment and the article idea. You raise a great question — perhaps other readers will chime in with what has worked for them.
Like you, I found that watching TV and even playing on the computer tended not to be very conducive to a good day of practice. Have you ever experimented with taking a quick i. In theory, the ideal activity for between practice sessions would be something that allows you to clear your mind a bit and refresh your body or get the blood circulating a bit without being too strenuous.
You could even try an easy run followed by a shower. I play the accordion. This usually takes about an hour for me. After putting my instrument down, I do something that I can just do kind of on auto drive. Not something like watching TV, but something that still requires some amount of thinking, such as going to talk to a friend, going grocery shopping, reading a book, eating dinner.
When I feel more relaxed, I go back to the accordion and repeat the process. Sidenote on meditation. For me, it does help me focus longer. This is just for me, though. Hoped this helps. Good article — thank you! Thanks for the input! Figuring out what to do between practice sessions is tricky indeed — and I like your list of suggestions TV is definitely a no-no.
During exams last semester I snuck a table into my preferred practice room so I could study during my practice breaks. Worst idea ever… I felt like I was in a concentration camp. Now I keep my study strictly in the library and study areas, and I always a motivational self-help book into the practice room. Works a charm. I find that meditating for fifteen minutes or so between practice sessions is very effective for me.
It not only rests my mind, but slows it down and re-centers it; allowing my 2nd and 3rd practice sessions of the day to be longer and more productive. While there are many forms of meditation I prefer mindful meditation. Focused, deliberate practice is exhausting.
I love your ideas, they are really amazing. I play the Cello and the writing pad to write down your ideas and your thoughts about what your doing wrong, how to fix that problem, and etc is useful.
I think it is really thoughtful of you to be explaining to people who need help about their instrument usage and what they could try to do better or a little less with their instrument. I absolutely love the 5 keys for more effective practices that you wrote about.
I love how you showed and explained what performers and psychologists say and think about how many hours to play, how much practice is enough, is there a thing for practicing enough, and is there an optimal number of hours that on could practice.
Like the other person who responded, I also do other tasks between practice sessions. I find reading or watching tv is the worst things I could do. I never seem to be able to get back into practice mode. I find doing tasks like housework are a good break, like handwashing dishes, vacuuming or dusting. Getting out also helps so cutting grass or going out to run errands.
Great article! So many think that if they spend more time that solves the problem or gives them an excuse. Thanks Dr. Kageyama, excellently thought out and conceived article. These ideas are SO important. I wish somebody had taught me how to practice when I was a young kid. So many wasted hours. I spend so much of my time in lessons teaching my students these ideas.
Thanks for helping me focus my ideas and inspiring me to renew my goals to move my students in this direction! What a great article! Thank you for writing this so concisely:- , Ingrid.
Would you suggest that these guidelines for practice are the same or similar for all variants of musical genres? Classical, popular, jazz, folk? I play guitar, bass and piano but find it hard to practice on the bass because I am only practicing a part…yet when I play piano or guitar I play melody AND harmonic accompaniment and thus can hear and feel the entire form.
It's worth noting that professional brass players, specifically those in the Chicago Symphony who I have read interviews with, don't practice much at all. They've reached a certain zenith in their playing, and only practice enough to maintain that level. They're simply not going to get much better than they are, so it comes down to maintenance, and learning new material or touching up familiar stuff.
Bud Hirseth, legendary prinicpal trumpet of the CSO, stated he would only practice about an hour a day. Arnold Jacobs was the same way. But when you're in school, you're trying to learn and improve, so you obviously need to practice beyond the maintenance level.
If you're already playing in a bunch of ensembles, and doing sectional work for those, and perhaps gigging a little bit--then 3 hours a day is pushing it, IMO. And if you're at a lib arts college, and not a conservatory, you also have general classes to worry about, papers to write, chapters to read. And you may be working part-time in there too. So it depends on your level of commitment, and how competitive your school is. I was a trombone music major. I would do a warm-up routine of around 45 minutes, take a short break, then work on my solo lit and ensemble stuff, and each day a "challenge" session where I tackled an especially difficult etude for a while.
It often added up to only 1. And I did get better. Good enough to have some gigs as a sub with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and play as a rehearsal substitute with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Bottom line is, you will find out what works for you one way or another. But don't be scared by talk like "You must practice 4 hours a day and not have friends or a social life if you're going to be any good.
Joined Jan 22, Posts 2, Likes Best of luck with your studies. There are just so many different techniques to tweak and perfect that no amount of practice is really too much. Joined Jun 23, Posts Likes
0コメント