How I Practice
It takes all of us a long time to figure out how we practice best. Some people like to practice for a few hours straight and call it a day, while others of us enjoy practicing for half an hour, taking a break, and coming back a little while later. Everybody is unique, and you should try new things until you find out what’s going to make you successful. Here are the things that work for me; hopefully some of them work for you, too!
Keep track of what you do and how long you’re doing it.
I enjoy using an app, Modacity, to log what I do each day and how long I spend practicing. It has a stopwatch feature that really helps me focus; once the timer is on, I’m practicing, and I’m not going to take a break to check my phone or mess with my reeds or do anything except play until I turn the timer off. This narrow focus is extremely beneficial, because I’m not halfway paying attention to something else, I’m honed in on getting better.
This is also good because I know how long it’s been since I practiced something. I’m preparing for an audition right now, and I realized yesterday it had been five days since I’d practiced the A clarinet excerpts for the audition! Whoops. Those got moved to the top of my priority list.
Don’t feel like you need to practice one thing for ten or fifteen minutes.
I used to try to do this. People would say, “Oh, I spent half an hour on Firebird yesterday!” and I thought, “Wow, is that how people practice successfully?” No; it’s how some people practice successfully, but not me. I’ve found that I learn best by doing every excerpt for just a few minutes every day. I might only practice Beethoven 6 for three or four minutes a day, but I’m getting good work done during those four minutes, and I’ll do four more minutes tomorrow. I retain my improvements better if I work on the piece every day, instead of letting it sit untouched for three or four days. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot; you might find that you’re moving forward more quickly because you’re not having to fix the same things you fixed last time.
Don’t practice for longer than you can comfortably.
According to my timer on Modacity, the longest I can practice in a day is about an hour. That’s actual playing time, so I’m really spending closer to two hours in the studio messing with reeds, checking Facebook, doing whatever. I used to feel bad when people would say, “I practiced for three hours yesterday!” but I think that many of these people aren’t doing efficient practicing. Any middle school kid can play through a book of Disney tunes for an hour, which is a kind of practicing, but it’s not the kind of practicing that will win an audition. Practicing smart and making progress every day is way more important than the hours themselves. Practice for as long as you can without losing focus or causing pain. If either of those things happen, put the instrument down for a few hours. If you play when you’re past focus or comfort, you’ll only build bad habits instead of improving– and you might actually injure yourself, too.
Spice things up.
Have your routine, but don’t get so bogged down in playing the same thing every day that you no longer find it exciting or fun. If you’re audition prepping and you’re tired of playing your excerpts, throw in an etude every day to read through, or practice one of your favorite repertoire solos just to keep it up. If you lose the fun, you’ll lose the music.
Find a fundamentals routine that works for you.
The short version of my daily “fundies” routine is about twelve minutes. I do Weber long tones, register exercises, some over-the-break routines, a few articulation drills, and my Klosé scales and arpeggios. Boom, I’m warm! Starting every day with that has really improved my consistency and my technique. If you’re a younger player, I highly recommend at least doing the Weber long tones and Klosé scales every single day; I think you’ll be surprised with how much it will help. I also have an expanded fundies routine that I do when I’m not in the heat of audition season/recital prep/other situations where I’m already overworked. It includes full-range thirds and full-range major and minor scales. I’ve also started adding in very slow scales with octave drones (ie C3, C4, C5 all at once) to practice my intonation. All of this can take close to half an hour, but it’s worth it!
I hope this has been helpful; please leave a comment and let me know if you have other practice habits you love or if any of these work for you! If you have a topic you’d like me to address on the blog, please head over to my contact page and leave me a suggestion.
