Klarinet Archive - Posting 000584.txt from 1997/07

From: Marissa Jeaninne Polsky <marteena@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: aching hands
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 16:57:40 -0400

I would like to thank Neil for his inspiring thread. I'm pretty
much a lurker on this list, although today I have written three times. I
am a colege student who is not majoring in music, and a lot of times I
wonder why I keep practicing and playing, since it won't affect me in my
later years. Right now, I participate in about 4 or 5 ensembles in a
semester, plus I take lessons. For a while, when, between teh ensembles
and practicing, I would feel like I couldn't take it anymore. Being
in the ensembles gave me a scholarship, so of course, I needed to keep
those up, but i had for a while a hard time justifying pracitcing for
my lessons, when my lips and hands were so tired from my ensemble
work. THe only justification I needed was practicing a piece I had
been working on after a two week hiatus from practicing "lesson
music." I loved the practicing and missed it a lot. Since then, i've
beentrying to do some sort of "endurance training," like Neil described, and I
think he explained it beautifully. I used to find that when I practiced,
because it seemed I had so little time to do so, that I would rush through
everything, try to get as much done as possible, skip warmups, and in
general, have a really tense practice session. I find that I do better in
all aspects musically if I relax, take a few deep breaths before I start
practicing, stretch my hands a bit (Right now, I make my money as a data
entry clerk, so I'm an expert on hand and finger stretches) do long tones,
and then a finger exercise, usually out of Baerrmann, in the key that
corresopnds to whateer I'll be playing, and practice one piece of music,
instead of the lesson book, the piece I"m playing, the pieces for wind
ensemble, band, orchestra, and quintent. If I have time, I will go on to
something else, but my goal is to spend an hour to two hours of good
quality practice time working on one thing.

Neil, You're right on track.

Marissa

"Outside of a dog, Books are a man's best friend;
Inside of a Dog, it's too dark to read."
---Groucho Marx

   
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