 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-02-26 19:59
For my 3.5 years of clarinet, I've managed to play 45-60 min, 5 to 7 days per week. Of course, some of that time is lost to reed fiddling and such. My original idea was to advance at a respectable fraction of the rate of someone who entered a university as a clarinet major with little previous experience- foolish perhaps. My goals were very different as to what I wanted to be able to play, but skill is skill. The 80-20 rule suggests I should get 80% of the benefit from 20% of the practice time. So I should be 80% as good as if I'd given it 4-5 hr per day (something about that doesn't seem right). Obviously there are many other factors- I presume the input of faculty would be worth something as opposed to doing everything on my own. On the other hand, I would fear being routed in other directions from where I wanted to go. That issue goes way back for me, to when I rejected signing up as an organ major at the University of Houston in 1970 because I had zero interest in what I would be studying. And I ended up as an engineer with unfulfilled music ambitions.
But I digress. My question here is- how much time do you devote to your clarinet? ...other music (arranging, other instruments, etc)? What's your ratio of performing, ensemble, and individual practice time? Do you think that more would take you further- you just can't fit it in or muster the motivation?
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-02-26 22:47)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-02-26 20:22
Doubling aside, I'd say you should have about three hours per day every day for advancement (that should include a 10 minute break per each hour). This advice came from non other than Itzhak Perlman, advising that three hours should be sufficient.
Of course many folks go crazy in school and attribute their careers to putting in far more per day (8 hours or so) but this is subject to individual goals and NOT causing physical harm to yourself in the process.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2014-02-27 01:24
Stan:
What one of the (IMHO) best living pedagogues had to say about his teacher, one of the best (IMHO) American pedagogues (alive or dead), about teaching and practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU9w4nfyZN8
I can tell you what I do, but our goals/motivation/time/willingness to spend on reeds may differ, mine being, as a hobbyist, forever improving my proficiency in the classical repertoire through spending time deligently taking on the etudes in all the well known books, forcing myself to sight reed, and focusing on getting better at performance by performing difficult passages repeatedly at slower speeds, and working my way up, glued to my metronome.
I know Stan that, at least based on your youtube videos, that you perform in other genres, no less deserving or deserving of practice time.
In this fictional college major, would you want to be a performance major, and if so, in what type of clarinet playing (orchestral, jazz band, all, military, something else) would you want to do for both a living and enjoyment? Maybe we can work backwards from there.
I do not include reed time in practice time, and choose to spend every practice session working on reeds only a little bit, not much different than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y0Zv3EZ-Ms Mark Nuccio's approach.
If reeds get so bad that practice time is compromised, which is usually not the case for me, you'll find a Forestone on my mouthpiece.
I've never had an issue with being motivated to play--only lack of time to do it. When I get discouraged I turn to youtube for inspiration.
If Mate can do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrS-CanzAtU I tell myself that I can get the Spohr Clarinet Concerto #1 down.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-02-26 21:40
Paul-
* I'd say 3 hr per day sounds about right for a university student or similar, and I am aware of the 8-12 hr/day folks... I never thought that really did them any good.
Russ-
* Impressive Ridenour video, I hadn't seen that one before. Must have been wonderful and terrifying to study under Opperman, I had a couple of similarly demanding engineering profs who did not always get what they wanted from me. 4 to 8 hr per day is brutal.
* My practice time has varied in content. Mostly I'm playing and replaying my own interpretations of the solos as you see on YouTube- because the notes are not fixed but continue to evolve over time. And some phrases are still just in my head and haven't yet made it onto the keys. After a very long time- hundreds of reps?- my arrangement will stabilize and then I continue to work on pushing the limits of dynamics and other music interpretive issues without loss of technical control. No song is ever done. I do spend some time on technical exercises, but rather than the Rose etudes I'd probably be playing as a university student, I'm using my transcriptions of Fountain and Goodman, LOL and loving every note of it. This all goes way better on a great reed, as you might imagine... less efficient on the poor ones.
* Not sure what my desired music major would have looked like- but for a clue what would have made me sit up and take notice, you need to go read this Facebook note, "Observations about a chord sequence in a 3 chord song" all the way down to and including my comment "If, when I was 18...". https://www.facebook.com/notes/stan-kelley/observations-about-a-chord-sequence-in-a-3-chord-song/452487061452656. Let me know if link doesn't get you there.
* I've sacrificed a lot for the clarinet time I've spent since 2010, not reasonable for me to have done any more. Future circumstances could of course change either direction. And actually, my clarinet time per day is more like 60-90 minutes counting setup, teardown, and some of the reed and similar operations.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: muppie
Date: 2014-02-27 12:08
Do you guys practice 1-3 hours consecutively or do you do it a bit here and there throughout the day?
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Author: pewd
Date: 2014-02-27 20:21
Stop watching the clock, go practice until you're done.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-02-27 22:19
pewd wrote:
> Stop watching the clock, go practice until you're done.
>
I can't argue with the sentiment, but there are many things in my life I WISH I could do that way- not the least of which is SLEEP. Alas, I and most of the rest of us are slaves to clock and calendar.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-02-27 17:46
The only arguement against "practice until you are done" is that you may think you done in twenty minutes. I would say you'd need a couple hours just not to LOSE what you have if you play for a living.
Doc Severenson used to do this old school technique of practicing a difficult lick 100 in a row....perfectly. If he screwed up at the 73rd iteration he'd start back at 1. You can't play like that and be done in time to catch "The Bachelor" on tv.
...................Paul Aviles
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-02-27 23:03
A public music performer is a bit like a restaurant, in that if even 1% of the time you really mess up- it doesn't matter how good the other 99% is. On your worst day, when you're in a surly mood and the reed is not cooperating and you just found a dead insect inside your horn, and it's time for your solo- you still need to hit it perfectly. So I totally understand Doc's method. Guess it's time to rethink some of my own practice habits.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: In The Mood
Date: 2014-02-28 07:59
I practice until I drop!
I'm coming back from a long layoff in music practice, (a year or so)!
Been back only about 3 months, now. My stamina is not what it used to be even a year ago, but that is understandable at this age! I'm 67 and usually put in a good two hours of playing time, breaks not included in that amount of time.
I was playing for 3 to 4 hours before the layoff, but it is taking time to build up my lungs; I hope I can do it again! My embouchure is good now but my brain fills with oxygen and after 2 hours, I can't think straight; I make simple mistakes then.
I want to play, but I just can't! I'll continue to continue and hopefully build up my practice time to 3 or 4 hours.
Ernest
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Author: pewd
Date: 2014-02-28 08:16
> Stop watching the clock, go practice until you're done.
To expand, decide what your goal for today is.
Don't just practice - think about what you want to accomplish first.
Then practice until you're done.
Most of us split up our time between scales/exercises/etudes/literature/tone/tuning, etc.
Too many folks focus on x minutes per day/week/month, whatever, and not on learning specific items.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: claire Inet
Date: 2014-02-28 16:34
Wow - I'm lucky to get one hour on Saturday and then another hour on Sunday for a grand total of two hours per week. I guess I'll scale back my expectations for a grand performance career (ha, ha).
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-03-01 03:46
I said I do 5 to 7 days per week. Actually I often go 20-30 days without missing any. Other times between illness and the stuff of life I might miss 2-3 days or more in a row- that's no fun.
But I missed yesterday, and today was really really good. That's happened before and I don't think it's an accident. I haven't yet actually scheduled off days to try to take advantage of that effect, but perhaps that would be wise. Hmmm- I'm pretty sure we're supposed to rest one day out of every 7 anyway.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2014-03-01 17:51
I have only 45 minutes to one hour a day to spare between household duties which currently include painting and gardening, to homeschooling my son, to yoga and doing a full time job. My hope is that with an often disciplined and sometimes free-form approach to music I can continue to make some progress. When I retire in three years, I see no reason not to devote 2 hours a day but right now I easily and happily do a more limited schedule. My fear would be that I knew I had to devote 2 hours a day no matter what, I would soon look at it as a job and not a joy. My brother used to rent a tiny practice space in NYC back in the 70's and practice there all day and still find time to play gigs in a band. I feel he burnt out with that schedule almost the same way I self destructed with the same schedule in ballet. Never again.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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