Klarinet Archive - Posting 000272.txt from 2005/10

From: "Margaret Thornhill" <clarinetstudio@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] short-time maintenance practice (new thread)
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:45:02 -0400

Over the years, one of the main concerns of my adult students has been that
of efficient daily practice. The adult amateur who is new to serious study
is often the best off in this regard. A professional in another field, often
past the mortgage/baby sitter/college-debt period of life, any time he can
invest in the clarinet seems like gravy. But for the advanced student with
one or more degrees in clarinet performance -- now in a demanding day job
with a mortgage and a child--it's another story. Suddenly, she is forced to
shift down her aspirations for mastery and perfect control into a miserable
five or six hours a week of practicing, (if that!) to accomodate the
financial and personal demands of adult life. To complicate matters further,
into these few hours come sporadic gigs, for which the personal practice may
be almost non-existent.How can this person hold onto his or her standards
without feeling diminished as a player? It's the top-notch sightreaders who
survive this cycle longest without help.

It's reassuring that if you were well-trained, that training doesn't
entirely leave you. The finger response may be a little slower, but the
fingers will not move in a different way; the musical instincts do not
disappear; and unless you've stopped playing clarinet entirely, you won't
have to rebuild your support. But there are two main areas of loss I keep
seeing in these situations: control and the habit of critical listening.
Endurance, though probably adequate for a community orchestra rehearsal with
lots of stops, isn't adquate for an hour of sustained playing. And, sad to
say, this player may be accepting a lot of sub-par details simply because he
hasn't been spending much time listening to himself--he's substituted the
ensemble rehearsals, in many cases, for solo practice time. To get to the
point where you are truly able to continue to grow as a player under these
time-constrained circumstances, you first need to get past the endurance
issue, while also rebuilding the habit of selectively critical listening.

My suggestions for building endurance in your practice time may seem simple,
but they aren't necessarily obvious:

1. Build a practicing routine with the cooperation of your
family/partner--it will be easier for them to respect your need for work
time if they know when it is. Make your transition time between day job and
practice a "ritual" if need be, but a short one. Try not to deceive yourself
regarding the trade off between relaxation, exercise, beverages, need for
sleep and your ability to focus. Pick a time, and as closely as you can
stick to it, even if it isn't every day. Don't work in the room you use as a
home office, and turn off the phone.

2. Script your practicing--choose an order of materials to work on and do it
every day the same way during the week (remember, we are talking about
practicing for a particular purpose here.) Set it up so you are not giving
yourself frequent breaks during that precious hour. Don't practice when
hungry.

3. As simply stated as possible: to play longer, we can either play longer
times (out of the question for you) or we can Play Longer Things. In other
words, given a choice of how to fill your precious hour's practice, put
aside the sightreading, the orchestra excerpts, the ensemble parts, and the
short, choppy one -line finger or articulation studies in favor of material
that requires more sustained playing: you can't afford the scatter-shooting
practice style that most of us advise our youngest students to do (ten
minutes of this, five minutes of that.) Concentrate instead on two -or
three-page etudes or long (preferably legato) exercises. You'll get farther
with materials you've already mastered,--again, less impetus to stop
playing-- but in case you need new materials to try for this purpose, here
are two ideal suggestions:

Jeanjean's "Vademecum" is a quirky collection of seven sequenced scale,
arpeggio, and interval-based technical exericses, each two and three pages
in length, with no respite. Unlike his etudes, these are mostly diatonic,
standard technique. When these are mastered, the entirely of this little
book can be read through in less than 40 minutes. While "about" exploring
tricky finger alternations, the entirety of these studies is legato and thus
gives your embouchure a workout at the same time. True multitasking!
I've recommended this to many an advanced student as a short-term daily
workout to regain embouchure control, followed by work on repertoire.

In a similar vein, another favorite is the Hamelin Scales and Exercises
(Gammes et Exercises, also Leduc.)
The big payoff in this book is a series of arpeggiated exercises in velocity
that travel back and forth up into the altissimo register, fully integrating
the high notes into the entire range of the instrument. Organized by key,
these and the elongated scale repetitions in the front of the book are
really ideal for regaining control of the highest register while burnishing
your command of diatonic passage work. Used selectively, this book can give
you more bang-for-your-buck in twenty minutes of scale work than most other
"methods."

4. Choose a mentor whose ears you can trust to help you catch the bad habits
you've let slip by, and accept his or her priorities. Sometimes, its the
small things that make all the difference--or vice versa, in your
perfectionism, sometimes, "you can't see the forest for the trees." I'd like
to say more about reviving your keeness of observation here, but perhaps
that's best for another post. There's a fine line between noting what's gone
wrong and beating yourself up so much about these things that it paralyzes
your efforts to do sustained playing --or destoys your estimate of your
worth as a human being!
A tape recorder can also be a powerful tool for objectivity in this process:
record tonight: play in the car while driving to work tomorrow; try not to
run off the road.

Yes, there's a certain small segment of the clarinetist population who are
so gainfully employed that their rehearsals and concerts for the most part
take the place of practicing. But the finest players all find time for
individual work. The drive to perfection is just as effective when taken in
tiny steps, listening to yourself alone for even a few minutes a day.

Margaret Thornhill

http://www.margaretthornhill.com

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