 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Charlotte
Date: 2003-11-11 04:07
This is something we ALL need help with. Learning to practice takes, well, practice. We can all use our time more efficiently than we do. Why spend 2 hours a day practicing what we could really do in 1? Or 4 hours when we only utilize 2 really well? Let us know how YOU use your practice time. Include your age, if you would like, because obviously a 14 year old will probably not play as often as a conservatory student. I'd like to hear how often your practice (not including rehearsals and stuff) and what you practice (scales, books, methods, etc.) I don't think we need to get into reperatoire, but include that too if you'd like. What do you do when you get distracted or frustrated? What about when you get nervous? I'll begin if you don't mind. . .
I'm a 19 year old sophomore music education student (definately NOT at a conservatory). I practice 4 hours a day, but sometimes I don't feel quite efficient enough. I warm up for about an hour with long tones and overtones, then all of the major and harmonic minor scales, major thirds, major thirds in a strange pattern (let me know if you want this. . . it helps to learn thirds!) and major 6ths (all extended). Then I work on some technical studies (for you flute players out there, I use the Trevor Wye Complete Daily Exercises, it's fabulous, but you have to look out for the editing errors!) I usually have three etudes to learn a week, one from Koehler Book 2, one from Anderson Op. 30, and one from the Flute Detache Book. I do my major thirds with mixed articulations (these are the scales I need for my jury this semester) and work on some tuning with a piano and a tuner. Then I work on some solo stuff. Sometimes I throw in minor thirds or other scalar passages, once in awhile Wind Ensemble music or orchestral excerpts. I find myself easily distracted. I try to bring myself back to the music, but it's REALLY hard. What do you do to fix this? When I'm frustrated, I try to play something not so technically hard, and something I really like (my favorite is Faure's Morceau de Concours.)
I'm sorry this is so long, I didn't mean for that to happen. I hope we get some good ideas flowing around here. You all sound like such dedicated musicians that I'm sure we can all learn a lot from each other.
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Author: Musical Mind
Date: 2003-11-12 02:26
Hi, I'm a 15 years old sophomore high school flutist. I have played the flute for 5 years. I'm very interested in and fascinated by music, particularly flute. I believe practicing needs a lot of patience.
Because I'm not in a music college yet, I practice at least 1 hour on week days and 2 or 3 hours on weekends. And I haven't made myself to practice all of the major and harmonic minor scales, thirds, and etc. daily yet. I'm currently working on Trevor Wye's Practice Book for the flute Book 1: Tone and Book 3: Articulation. Trevor Wye's books are really awesome; they make you to concentrate, listen to yourself, and analyze what were wrong. And I'm thinking about buying more of his books to practice efficiently. And I sometimes practice this book called, "100 Classical Studies For Flute." And importantly, I practice in front of a mirror. I don't care how many notes I can play; I want to play the flute in right ways.
When I get distracted, frustrated, or nervous, I stop practicing. I take a break until I have a feeling that I really do want to practice. I think I get distracted sometimes because I'm tired after going to school or worn out from practicing. There's a really good website about how to practice: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~leonard-garrison/practice1.html. I should visit that website and read again some time.
Concludingly, I hope also that we get good ideas of how to practice efficiently in this topic.
"It is a question of time, patience and intelligent work." - Marcel Moyse
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Author: Jill
Date: 2003-11-13 17:57
I'm a 15 year old hs flute student too. I don't practice as much though. Only like half an hour a day. I play C Bb F Eb and G major scales, and I haven't really thought about my minors, I guess I should though. I play out of the ugly orange and green advanced studies book, which is pretty boring. When I get frustrated I try to pick up something new and come back to it later. I think this is fun to hear how other people practice.
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Author: Carolyn
Date: 2003-11-15 17:56
I'm a 16 year old saxophone player. Our school has block scheduling, so everyday my music class alternates between Band and Jazz Band, and each class period is 1 1/2 hours long. Before and after Jazz Band and Band, i take the 5 minutes when everyone's sitting around talking waiting for the director to start, and I'll run through all 12 major scales, major triads, major sevenths, dominant sevenths, etc. This way, when I practice at home (my busy schedule and the fact that my saxophone needs to be at school everyday for class cuts down on my at home practice time) I can work on other things.
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Author: Dawby
Date: 2003-11-15 21:17
I'm 25 and graduated college with a BA in Music - emphasis in flute performance. (Not a conservatory.) In college, I practiced 2-3 hours/day during the week and up to 4 (or 5!) hours on the weekend. I started with the Red Trevor Wye, using about 30-45 minutes. I spent another 30 or so minutes doing major/minor scales, triads, arpeggios, etc. The rest was spent working on recital material, etudes, etc. Keep in mind, I did all of this for both flute and piccolo, which is how I often got longer practice times. I get VERY distracted - particularly if I have been working on a piece for a while. When this happens, I move on to a different piece - one that I enjoy. If I'm still feeling distracted and can't focus, I stop. For longer practice sessions, it's OK to break for 5-20 minutes at a time without having to do a full warm-up upon returning.
In high school I practiced 1-2 hours during the week, 2-3 on the weekend and spent much more time on long tons, overtones, scales, and all that technical stuff than I ever did on full pieces.
Now that I have graduated, I'm not playing anywhere with a group or anything, but I still spend at LEAST one hour a day practicing/playing. I'm still focusing on the technics, but it's nice to have a 100% choice on my own of the pieces. I've been doing a lot of orchestral studies and learning how to play antique flutes and piccolos.
My husband is also a musician - guitar and vocal - and we will practice together a lot. There's a lot of nice music out there for flute and guitar.
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Author: Philip
Date: 2003-11-19 01:29
I come from a musical family and I follow the general rule I was taught, which is that musical instruments require two hours of study every day possible after the first year. The breakdown is 1/2 hour of scales and exercises, 1/2 hour on the music piece of the week, and one hour on recital pieces. One day per week should be set aside for theory, ear training and improvisation study.
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Author: Bari
Date: 2003-11-22 15:25
I'm a sevnth grader.I play alto and bari sax at Indian Trail Middle School,Johnson City,TN. I usually practice about 7 days a week. Most of the time I practice from about 20min-1 or 2 hours. I usually just practice my 12 major key sig. scales from memory. Next I do Chromatic scalesand warm ups from the Foundations of Superior Performance book by Richard Williams and Jeff King. Next I do articulations and such from the Standard of Excellence by Bruce Pearson. Lastly, I do songs for my concert (and other songs from sight reading).Also,(I don't know if you have this or not)but I do my tryout peice for an honors band called Junior Clinic.
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Author: me
Date: 2003-12-02 09:31
hi, i am a 14 yr old and i play both clarinet and bass clarinet. i do lots of other things as well so i dont practice a lot. i usually only get to do between 1/2 hr and 2 hrs a week.
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