Practice Steps
Step 1: Set a goal
Having a goal before you practice gives your practice purpose. What do you want to accomplish by playing? You should have two goals: what do I want to be able to do long term and what do I want to be able to by the end of this practice time? The short term should build up to the long term goal.
Step 2: Make a plan
How are you going to achieve your long term and short term goal. Identify the challenging sections of the music. Where should you be working in your music the most? Not the easy sections!
Step 3: Warm up
DO NOT START WITH THE "PRACTICING!" Warming up is essential. Warm ups are not exercises. Warm ups are meant to prepare your body to play. Stretching, breathing, and short amounts of playing. Warm ups shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes.
Step 4: Exercises
These are not the goal. These are skill and technique builders that will lend ourselves to being more successful at our music. This includes scales, slurs, rhythm work, etudes, rudiments, velocity studies, and tonguing work.
Step 5: Practice CHUNK AND REP
Finally we work on our music.
Go very slowly.
Practice makes permanent. If you learn it wrong, it will be much harder to correct later.
YOU SHOULD ONLY BE PRACTICING A FEW MEASURES TO ONE PHRASE AT THE MOST at one time. DO NOT DO MORE THAN A CHUNK.
Go very slowly.
Practice makes permanent. If you learn it wrong, it will be much harder to correct later.
YOU SHOULD ONLY BE PRACTICING A FEW MEASURES TO ONE PHRASE AT THE MOST at one time. DO NOT DO MORE THAN A CHUNK.
Step 6: Warm down and reflect
Play slow, low, and soft. Let your embouchures get blood back into them.
Ask yourself what went well, what can improve next time, and what needs to be worked on next session?
Ask yourself what went well, what can improve next time, and what needs to be worked on next session?
Good Habits
Other good habits
1. Rhythm: Count and clap WITH A METRONOME or sing with the metronome
2. Check fingering charts as you go, but don't write in fingerings
3. Play with metronome slowly work tempo up as you go
4. Musicianship: Add tone, articulation, dynamics etc
5. Play with a drone
6. Be aware of how each note sounds, how it should sound, and how you are making the sound
7. Play a chunk of music correctly five times in a row. That is how we determine if it is learned.
If you play it wrong, you start back at 0.
AND AGAIN, PRACTICE SMALL CHUNKS
1. Rhythm: Count and clap WITH A METRONOME or sing with the metronome
2. Check fingering charts as you go, but don't write in fingerings
3. Play with metronome slowly work tempo up as you go
4. Musicianship: Add tone, articulation, dynamics etc
5. Play with a drone
6. Be aware of how each note sounds, how it should sound, and how you are making the sound
7. Play a chunk of music correctly five times in a row. That is how we determine if it is learned.
If you play it wrong, you start back at 0.
AND AGAIN, PRACTICE SMALL CHUNKS
