 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarinetgiggirl
Date: 2002-09-17 17:27
Can anyone give any hints on how to structure time spent practicing?
Work committments mean that I often have only 30-60 minutes a day to practice during the week and I want to get the most out of that limited time.
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Author: Gerry
Date: 2002-09-17 18:26
I recently purchased Benny Goodman's Clarinet Method originally published in 1941. In it he gives a nice breakdown of a study session and it reads.
"The study period should never exceed one hour. Rest at least fifteen minutes between periods and concentrate on something entirely different from music before resuming practice. Good results are impossible without practising at least one hour daily.
Divide the hour as follows:
1. 10 minutes for scale practice.
2. 10 minutes for sustained tones, including crescendi & diminuendi.
3. 20 minutes for technical exercises.
4. 20 minutes for phrasing lessons.
On practice, the student should always mark the bars or phrases that seem difficult and repeat them until they are easy to play. Never think of any passage as being "HARD" (within reason), but say to yourself that it is unfamiliar and needs more practice."
Sounds like excellent advise and comes from one who knew. Hope this helps.
Gerry.
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-09-17 22:37
Personally, I would spend more time with the scales (and arpeggios, and other scale patterns like Baermann 3...) than on the long tones. I only do long tones every few practice sessions, and then maybe only 3-4 long tones (held about 16-24 counts total, and with cresc. and dim.) TOTAL. Scales are much more important...
Do you take lessons? Your teacher probably has a good idea of what will help you the most in your limited practice time.
While generally good advice in terms of a segmented practice session, I find BG's comments to be a little vague. I mean, are you assigned "phrasing lessons?"
If so, then spend the time on them...but it really depends on what you've got to work on. I'd say (at least) 20 minutes for scales/scale exercises, 20 minutes for etudes or studies, and 20 minutes on repertoire. Maybe substitute 5-10 minutes with sight-reading exercises if you'll need to be doing that, and maybe a coupla minutes for some long tones. Halve everything for a 30 minute practice session...
Katrina
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2002-09-18 01:26
LOL
I actually liked BGs regeme, although what you think was 'vague', any intelligent person would substitute that with what they think is important. I like to do a good 45 minutes; that's when a little muscle fatigue sets in and the mind begins to wander. This is the best time to hop onto these forums! Or, do something totally mindless. I find putting on pop music a great help, it gets my spirits back up and gets my mind away from clarinet. Half an hour later, and I'm ready to tackle the Arnold Fantasy for a thorough 45 minutes!
Also, a method my teacher taught me, is the 'you can't possibly get it wrong' method: When you come to a bit that is "...unfamiliar and needs more practise", do it SO SO SO slowly that you couldn't possibly get it wrong. Increade speed until you do get something wrong or feel unstable about it, and this is now your benchmark; the challenge is to practise just before this point so that you may push this point further and further back, day by day.
I got Weber #2 ready for a workshop class in less than a week this way. It's a quick, reliable and thorough method.
Your thoughts?
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Author: Kat
Date: 2002-09-18 02:45
Morrigan,
I guess I'm used to dealing with the "lowest common denominator," i.e. 10-13 y.o. kids. None would understand what BG meant! ("Any intelligent person...hah! Not some of my students!) In fact, I have to tell them verrrrry specifically how to practice. We practice practicing in the lessons...I still am not sure what they do once they leave the studio! Even the 14-16 y.o. kids can make me crazy too! Sometimes the grownups too...lol!!!
Ultimately, I don't have enough info from the original querent to address her concerns specifically...all I can give right now is general advice...
Katrina
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2002-09-18 02:49
Practising is different for everyone. So much depends on your level of playing and what your weaknesses are. You can never go wrong with doing scales etc. but you must do them correctly. Steady, evenly, listening to tone quality for eveness and intonation. Articulation is important so you should do some of this in different artciulations. There are many types of "long tone" excercise to do but if you don't listen and watch your just putting in time. When you practice something like long tones, 12th etc. you have to know what your doing it for. You should always include some music in your practise schedule, either musicial etudes or music, or both. Divide your time as you see fit to keep interest, work on your problems, articulation, tone, etc. music. I don't agree with BG, when I was a student I'd prascise 2-4 hours at a time. Sure I'd take breaks, five minutes here and there when I got tired, or fed up. Everyone is different. The key word, "concentrate". Bye! Edypal
PS. I wish we had spell check on these!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-09-18 03:08
Ed Palanker wrote:
>
>
> PS. I wish we had spell check on these!
Working on it, Ed. Sometime in the future.
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Author: clarinetgiggirl
Date: 2002-09-18 07:39
Thanks, this seems like really good advice. I shall give it a go, though I am not sure my neighbours will appreciate all the long tone exercises!
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Author: Katfish
Date: 2002-09-18 13:21
Speaking of Spell check, sometimes it may cause a problem. My friends spellcheck always red flaged his name, Myron, and offered the alternate spelling moron.
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Author: mlb
Date: 2002-09-18 13:36
Spell check:
I did a grad school paper on the bassett horn. At least I *thought* I did it on the bassett horn. I typed when I was tired and the next day realized I had typed Bassett HOUND repeatedly.
No spell-checker was gonna remedy that one!!!
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-09-18 16:18
If you work on clarinet as an amateur, it's for amusing youself not for toiling yourself with practice fro practice.
I would suggest play mainly Rose 32, and sometimes Rose 40.
The former gives beautiful composings and essential techniques, and the latter mainly exercises for technical agility. Almost everything in them. Add your favorite practice of Mozart, Waber, Danzi, Poulenc, Bernstein, Debussy, Schuman,etc. There are not so many tunes for clarinet fortunately.
If you are dilligent enough to practice scales, choromatic scale is the most effective scale study.
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Author: Seamus Kirkpatrick
Date: 2002-09-18 21:54
I'd highly recommend trying this... (at least for technical stuff)
Get something like the nine excercises at the start of the Langenus method (something that just goes through all the scales with an emphasis on clarinet trouble spots), set your metronome at 40 bpm and play through the study at a speed where you can get your technique ridiculously correct (even one note per beat). I'm talking entire body (hands, arms, throat, tongue, shoulder, back, bum, legs etc)as relaxed as possible, fingers barely moving, embouchure as relaxed as can be, consistent tone throughout range etc...
So that you don't go nuts, treat it as a meditation and enjoy the feeling of playing slow and perfect.
If you do this every day for only about ten to twenty minutes (you may find you enjoy more) you won't have to practise as much technical stuff anymore because you're actually practising at a speed where you can nail stuff and practising long notes as well. (I realise that's not answering your question directly, but for me, the learning of this technique meant I had to spend less time freaking about technique, so that made a big difference to my practise schedule)
Try it for a while and give it a chance if you're interested though.
thanks for listening
Seamus
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2002-09-18 23:33
Seamus - I'm gonna try that, it sounds like it could really work!
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