 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sarawashere
Date: 2015-12-10 18:40
Good Morning (or whatever time of day it is there),
How do you know if you're over practicing? I think I might be, but I'm not sure.
Thanks,
Sara
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-12-10 18:55
It depends on who you are, what you're practicing and why you're practicing. So more explanation is needed.
I might suggest that if things are getting worse instead of better, the explanation is either over-practicing or incorrect (unproductive) practicing.
Karl
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Author: sarawashere
Date: 2015-12-10 19:50
I'm doing 6 hours a day. I think I'm being pretty productive, but it does seem like things are getting worse, especially tone, which is supposed to be becoming less of an issue but now sounds muddier. I'm learning the Saint Saëns Sonata for an audition in Feburary, which I'm terrified of.
Sara
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2015-12-10 21:25
3 hours a day of focussed practice with plenty of rest time between sessions will be far more productive than a 6 hour bash.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2015-12-10 21:55
sarawashere wrote:
> I think I'm being pretty productive,
> but it does seem like things are getting worse,
You have to see how contradictory this is.
What do you feel is improving with 6 hours a day?
If the only down side is that your sound is getting muddier, you may be overusing your reeds. If you aren't changing reeds at intervals through those 6 hours, they may be water-logging or you may, as you tire, be pinching them closed. As reed problems or fatigue develop, you can easily start to compensate in ways that are destructive. Make sure you're resting at regular intervals and, I'd say (others may disagree), change your reeds out each time you rest.
I'm certain there are players here who have put that kind of time in during preparation for specific events - major auditions being perhaps top among them. People have different tolerances for tedium, which is what 6 hours of practice per day can easily (I would say almost certainly will, at least for me) become, so the time involved isn't really a good criterion one way or the other. I'd go along with Norman that 3 well-organized, purposeful hours' practice are as good as - better than - 6 hours of undirected, unplanned practice without specific goals to aim for. We don't know what you're doing for those 6 hours. But you need enough rest and you need a purpose for each hour - each minute - of the time you spend. If things seem to be going downhill and you can't find and eliminate the reason, it may be time to stop for awhile and refresh your body and your mind.
And maybe take the clock out of your practice room entirely.
Karl
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Author: frenchbow44
Date: 2015-12-10 23:03
Hi Sara!
When I went to Interlochen, all of the teachers and clinicians there told the music students to practice in shorter increments of time every day. Say you want to practice two hours a day. Just practice for thirty minutes in the morning, thirty minutes at noon, thirty minutes around three, and thirty minutes at night. Of course you can obviously practice for longer or shorter, and for less or more time periods throughout the day. However, practicing for an entire 6 hours straight will definitely work against you. Believe me, I speak from experience.
I hope this helps!
Maye
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-12-10 23:09
Two stories:
Itzhak Perlman said of practice that 3 hours should be enough. And by that he meant, play 50 minutes, break for 10, play for another 50, break, 50.
John Yeh once said that he practiced between six and eight hours a day through college and he is thankful for it. He was at the time, the youngest person to win a permanent spot in the Chicago Symphony, which he did shortly after college.
If you go by the numbers, someone who practices six hours a day has put in TWICE as much time on their horn at the end of a year as someone who practices three hours a day.
HOWEVER
You need to figure out how to ALWAYS practice productively and without physical strain (well, too much physical strain).
I actually witnessed (and I'll bet there are others) a high school student "practicing scales" with headphones on, while listening to his favorite tunes.
Don't do this
So the answer is up to you.
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2015-12-11 01:03
If you like playing 6 hours a day take breaks about every 30 minutes for your mind to refocus. Anything much over the 30 minute mark, at the most 45 minutes may not be as productive as you think. I didn't come up with this. These are facts and studies of the brain and sadly I don't have any place on the internet to send you to read about it.
I'm surely not against practicing a lot of hours. Keep the mind fresh.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-12-11 01:22
As has been suggested, you might best not only look at the time your spending, but how your spending that time.
While their reasons for benefit are multifactorial, one reason shorter practice sessions (within reason) work is that they often force the player to be more productive with their time.
Are you, for example, never taking phrases faster than you can play them? Are you wasting time going over phrases you can play? Do you have a methodology to practicing?
By no means does one system work for all, but here's one approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Z1y7E7_04&list=PL687A2CA6AD606559
(Personally, I think Mr. Spring's secret is placing a clarinet strap around his neck, and not using it ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif) )
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-12-11 01:44
One must keep in mind about Mr. Spring is that he is talking about a WARM UP. He is only playing within limits that he has already established in his technique over time (he already tongues really fast; he already knows his scales etc.).
After that initial 45 minute warm-up......... he moves on to practice '"white hot" technical stuff.'
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2015-12-11 17:23
I agree about Robert Spring. Another poster on this board (GBK, if I remember correctly) talked about playing through the Baermann III at least every day. That's too much for me at my current level. But once you have stuff under your fingers, that might be a good warmup, or thing to do in your morning practice session and hit other stuff later.
I don't practice nearly as much as I should, nor as much as I want to (and those are two different amounts of time BTW), but I worry more about mental fatigue than physical fatigue. So I would agree with the above posters about shorter increments, with breaks inbetween. Maybe practice for 30 minutes to an hour and then take a few hours break.
Depends on YOU whether you want to do 2, 4, 6, however many hours a day. I know personally I'm going to hit the practice room hard starting in about two weeks for my two weeks vacation, then I'll probably be fairly busy until March when I have a nice cool 40 days off to travel to my next duty station (farewell Fort Jackson, hello Redstone Arsenal!), where I'll probably practice 3 - 4 hours a day between clarinet and sax. And then, we'll see how my schedule looks at my next band between office work and group rehearsals/performances.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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