 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SuzyQ
Date: 2004-02-10 03:11
Hello my fellow BBoard members!
Any practical ideas on actually getting your brain focused in the practice room?
Lately my practices have been so unprofitable, because I can NOT stay focused on the music in front of me. As I work on a piece I suddenly find my thoughts a millon miles away daydreaming about some musical event, or other aspect of my busy life. I love music dearly, so it is not that I don't enjoy it or don't want to be practicing.
What do you do as you strive to have profitable pratice sessions?
How do you declutter your brain from everyday stresses in order to stay focused?
I am going insane!
~Suzy
Post Edited (2004-02-10 03:11)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-02-10 03:24
Try concentrating on your practice. As in concentrating so that you don't have room in your brain to think about other things. For instance, instead of just playing the scales, concentrate on making your fingers move lightly, on the tone, on the speed and evenness, on articulating (whether it be staccato or as smooth legato as you can possibly get). If you concentrate on your practice maybe you'll push the other things aside. Plus I bet you'll get better quicker too.
Also, I know for myself, it helps to have noise around me. If it's too silent, I start thinking about things. It's wierd, but for myself, distractions around me end up keeping me from being distracted. Maybe it would help you if you put on some TV on the background. But nothing you'd be interested in watching! Put on the weather channel (Lord knows I can't stand watching that one!) just so there's noise in the background.
Or try practicing in short spurts. Instead of sitting down for two hours, try sitting down for forty five minutes on a study piece or something. Take a break and work on something else. Then come back later (hours even) and work on fun stuff, performance pieces, or the like. Then at night do forty five minutes on scales/long tones/basics. Something like that.
Hope some of this helps.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2004-02-10 04:39
I've used this word often in recent posts, but only because it works so delightfully well...
Downbeats. Find the next one, and realize how you'll get to it. Once you get there, don't linger or sit on it. Think of where your fingers will be when they reach the next downbeat. As long as you're consciously looking for downbeats, you're too busy to be distracted.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: ksclarinetgirl
Date: 2004-02-10 04:46
I agree with the noise thing, but while practicing? I have to have noise on while doing homework and whatever else, but I like to be able to hear what I'm playing. I'm curious, how many kids are in your family Alexi? I have a younger brother and three younger sisters and I have a theory that that contributes to the need for noise...
Anyway, back to clarinet.
With me, I get through scales, Baermann, Rose, whatever else so I can work on something that I've wanted to work on for a long time and that I truly love playing. That may part of your problem, if you're not enjoying what you're doing, it's hard to focus. For example, it's EXTREMELY hard for me to focus in Band Methods class because I don't enjoy the teacher and his teaching style, so I'm always thinking about something else...
My two cents
Stephanie :o)
"Vita Brevis, Ars Longa"
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-02-10 05:06
I have one younger sister who isn't much noise at all. Otherwise it's too quiet in my house. I can concentrate both ways really, however prefer for some background noise to be going on. I like to do my homework in a noisy place as well (my favorite place would be the laundrymat, but I don't htink they'll stand for my practicing in there . . .) I love noise. And noise loves me!
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2004-02-10 16:45
Suzy,
My teacher way back in college had me read two books:
Zen in the Art of Archery (by Eugen Herrigel)
How to Meditate (by Laurence Le Shan)
I may have the authors' names not quite right...LOL!
All the best,
Katrina
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-02-10 18:00
Suzy -
Give the first, best minutes of a practice session to the basics. Do one Baermann 3 exercise, dead slow and with a metronome. Do one Kroepsch exercise, the same way. Hold your concentration until you get one exercise just right. Never go faster than perfect.
Then, play something you love, just for your own pleasure. Then go back and repeat the exercise, take what you love, and repeat the exericse a third time.
Typing teachers say do this "3 times 3" -- that is, run the same thing in the middle of the session and again at the end. It's the perfect repetition that makes the difference.
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When you're working on a sonata or concerto, once you get the notes under your fingers, play the solo part while reading the bass line, or a middle part. This gives you an alternate perspective and enriches your understanding. Particularly when the other part is an equal partner rather than an accompaniment (say, a Brahms Sonata), you can't understand the music until you know all the parts.
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Make a clean break for a while. Stuff a swab up the bell, finger low E and play bugle calls. Find someone to play duets with. Find a bassoonist and switch instruments. Take off the mouthpiece and play Flight of the Bumblebee on it. Make deliberately ugly noises. Anything to clear your mind.
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Everyone's mind wanders. When it does, don't kick yourself. Just bring your attention back to the music. When you're too tired to do that, knock off for a few hours.
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Some people maintain concentration better than others, but you can train yourself to do more.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: paulwl
Date: 2004-02-10 18:29
*** deleted by poster *** -P.
Post Edited (2004-02-14 14:04)
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Author: SuzyQ
Date: 2004-02-11 19:10
~thanks a bunch! I learned much from
all of your helpful replies. I can honestly say my I was very pleased with my practice this morning and I got much more than usual accomplished.
Alexi, I'm not sure about the noise thing.. I have 5 noisy siblings, and a Mom who plays oboe, so I never have much of a chance to practice without the noise! Maybe I could concentrate better without the noise!
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-02-11 19:25
Quote:
Alexi, I'm not sure about the noise thing.. I have 5 noisy siblings, and a Mom who plays oboe, so I never have much of a chance to practice without the noise! Maybe I could concentrate better without the noise! Maybe! We're all different. I can go with or without noise, but prefer to have some noise in the background. And the silence of a library drives me nuts (I HATE libraries. I've only studied in one once in the past four or five years due to the dreadful silence). However maybe that's what you need. Experiment with all the ideas and find out what works best.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-02-12 03:14
Practise is pointless if your mind is totally distracted, in my very humble experience.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
Post Edited (2004-02-12 03:44)
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Author: CJB
Date: 2004-02-12 08:00
I can sort of understand sfalexi's desire for noise. I remember in the dim and distant past when preparing for my ABRSM Grade 8 which seemed to have endless scales to learn once I'd got the scales learnt and was just playing through them to improve fluency I'd regularly practise them whilst watching TV! I had a pot with each scale needed written on it and pull them out 1 at a time......any mistake and it went back in the pot. It had the advantage that I got the scales done and kept up with Eastenders (or whatever soap was on that day) so could keep up with the conversation at school the following day. Somehow I was always left with F# melodic minor at the end of every session - I still tie my fingers in knots on that one. However where I disagree with sfalexi is that when doing the initial scale learning, or going through pieces, studies etc it needs to be quiet.
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Author: elmo lewis
Date: 2004-02-12 22:02
You have to learn how to concentrate just like you have to learn how to practice and learn how to breathe and learn how to do everything else necessary to play music. You can't just walk into a practice room and expect to be able to concentrate for an hour. You have to gradually build up your ability to concentrate just like you build up the ability of your embouchure to play for longer lengths of time.
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Author: tetiana
Date: 2004-02-12 22:22
Yes, of course it's important to be focused and ideally a practice session will have you committing your total undivided attention and unwavering concentration.
However, there are times when, for whatever reason, your concentration wavers. IMHO this does not mean that the practice session is a waste of time. Quality is important, yes, but quantity is not meaningless. At the very least, your fingers and lungs and embouchure are getting a workout. Being dissatisfied with the quality of a practice session every once in a while is important so that you can strive for the next one to be better, more focused.
I don't know if anyone has ever done this playing the clarinet, but I have definitely heard of pianists practising scales while reading the newspaper - the idea being that some physical routines can be accomplished with a minimum of focused concentration. Maybe it's the limbic brain that kicks in - like driving a car.
tetiana
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