 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jessica
Date: 2016-03-12 08:36
Hello!
Soon I will be going on a road trip and have decided not to bring my clarinets with me for security reasons.. don't want to risk it. I will be without them for 10 days and I'm a little worried because I haven't taken that much time off since before I started playing clarinet! I've heard mixed opinions about taking a break that long, some say it's a terrible idea yet some say taking a break is sometimes exactly what we need to refresh ourselves.
I'm sure we've all heard this quote:
"If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it." I can't imagine what would happen after 10...
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience taking a break like this and if it has a negative impact on your playing? For a little background, I'm a second year Clarinet Performance major and am used to playing for upwards of 6 hours a day so this is definitely going to be a change for me. Also, does anyone have any tips for mental practicing? I keep hearing people talk about how there are ways you can "practice" without physically being with your instrument and I would love to learn more about that!
Maybe I am just over thinking this and should just rest my mind and enjoy the much needed break...
Thank you for your time!
Post Edited (2016-03-12 08:39)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2016-03-12 08:44
Bring a crappy mouthpiece, Reeds, barrel, and ligature at least. The fingers muscle memory won't be lost so quickly over a vacation, but the embouchure muscles are what I'd worry about. Just hold it in your mouth an hour a day while reading a book or something.
Personally, I enjoy a break now and then and almost always return refreshed and sounding/feeling good after a vacation. I just got tired (literally) of having to rebuild the embouchure strength again and again.
Alexi
PS- listen to some good clarinet music and just get it nice and entrained in your mind. And relax and enjoy!!!
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-03-12 14:07
If you are that well trained I wouldn't sweat it. Many professionals take vacations once a year or so and their wives wouldn't put up with their practice in Mallorca!
The embouchure is the thing you'll notice on return but again, if you are that well practiced upfront, you'll be back on game in a day or two.
But don't fall into the the "death spiral" of thinking that you get better with big breaks (you may think you sound better AFTER the break). That could lead to more breaks to get even better and so on..........death spiral.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2016-03-12 14:09
I go to sleep by resting my hands on top of the covers and going around the circle of fifths in scales, scales in thirds and arpeggios. It distracts my mind from other thoughts.
Cut a third of a plastic milk-shake straw and use it to practice embouchure endurance a breath control. You can also use a couple of hollow plastic coffee stirrers.
Take along a portable CD player and earbuds and listen to great music and great performers. Or tune into YouTube on your smartphone.
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-03-12 18:14
Jessica wrote:
> I'm sure we've all heard this quote:
> "If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics
> know it; three days, the public knows it." I can't imagine what
> would happen after 10...
>
As I remember, the quote is attributed to Jascha Heifetz. But, according to more than one writer of his time, Heifetz took summers off once the regular concert season ended in May or early June and didn't pick up the fiddle again until August to prepare for the beginning of the next season. His sometimes excruciating practice routine to get back in shape after a hiatus was the subject of a TV documentary. Bloody, broken blisters until callouses had re-formed and hours of technical exercise and review of repertoire for the coming season. When he said what you've quoted, he was no doubt making a point about his habits once the season was in full swing and he had to keep up with a non-stop performance and rehearsal schedule.
In the years before the era of 52-week contracts and back-to-back summer festival seasons, many Philadelphia Orchestra players took the summer off. I'm sure this was true for orchestra players everywhere. They described their pre-season practicing and the first couple of rehearsals as uncomfortable and sometimes awkward. Even a few weeks (let alone 10 days) off didn't cause permanent loss - all of those top musicians back in the 1950s and before couldn't have made successful careers otherwise.
>
> Maybe I am just over thinking this and should just rest my mind
> and enjoy the much needed break...
>
Yes, I think so. If you have a performance coming up within a few days of the end of your trip, it might be good to try to keep up some of kind of embouchure conditioning, but otherwise you can enjoy the break and just plan to spend a couple of days rebuilding your stamina.
FWIW, my wife and I visit our daughter in Phoenix for at least a week once a year and I've never taken so much as a reed with me. I know from experience that my first practice session when I get back will be uncomfortable and probably a little shortened and that I shouldn't start any new reeds until I'm more comfortable. It doesn't take long to get back to normal.
Karl
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Author: jthole
Date: 2016-03-13 03:02
Last year I had to take a break of several weeks because of surgery, and I cannot say that I benefited from the break (I did benefit from the surgery though). However, it also didn't take me that much time to pick up again, so I wouldn't worry about 10 days.
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Author: JHowell
Date: 2016-03-13 07:48
I think "mental practice" has much to recommend it. Most of us spend far too much practice time repeating, becoming more accustomed to how we already sound and not enough acquiring better targets and working toward them.
If you were to take copies of some pieces you are working on (copies are good so you can mark them up with abandon), including the score/piano part, and spend some time every day studying, that would be a good start. Pick a phrase and see what you can hear in your mind's ear. Can you hear the pitches, and understand the harmony? Can you identify chord tones and nonharmonic tones, and identify the kind and function of the latter? The more you can notice about the music, the more you'll have to say musically, and the more reasoned and artistic your playing will be. Playing expressively, which is to say, expressing ideas that are contained in the music and making them evident to the listener, is different from playing "with feeling," which is to say, "I played it that way because I felt like it."
I've come to love having lots of pieces and scores on my iPad (I use ForScore for storage and organization) because I can mark the heck out of a piece as I study it. And wipe all the markings out just as easily. A particular motive can have its own color, a big, swooping line can show where a phrase goes, big marks for important dynamics, and so on. The whole point is to exercise the imagination, to more clearly hear how we want to sound, which, as I think Arnold Jacobs said, is more important than hearing how we actually sound. Ten days spent focusing on music and refining your musical goals might be a good thing.
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