What about using mouthpiece buzzing in the practice room? I had a teacher once that wanted me to buzz pop goes the weasel all the time. I did not get the point of it, and right now I do almost no buzzing in the practice room. Can you mouthpiece buzz without a piano? When and where and how in a practice session is this productive?
On 8/5/07, Jonathan West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On 05/08/07, Reba McLaurin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Thanks for all of the good information, How can I get a copy of > > orchestral musicians CD Rom. What is that? > > Google is your friend. Type that phrase into Google, the first hit is the > home page for the product > http://www.orchmusiclibrary.com/ > > > > Also, sightreading is > > something that I generally ignore. What is the best way to practice > > that? > > This come up every so often on the list. You can find my description of how > to practice sightreading here: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/horn@music.memphis.edu/msg04213.html > > > > > Shouldn't I be doing long tones, too? > > Of course. They should be part of your warmup. > > > > > I like to do long tones on all of the notes on the instrument for one > > minute every day. Is this a waste of time? One of my teacher's > > teachers did that and he was a great player. > > > > There are two possible purposes to long-note practice. One is to use a > modest amount of it as part of your warmup. A one-octave scale ascending and > descending with crescendo to the middle of the note end diminuendo to the > end is sufficient for that part of a warmup in my opinion. > > If you have problems maintaining stability of pitch and tone over longer > notes, then more long note practice over a wider range is probably a good > idea. Consciously think of maintaining breath support from the diaphragm > when you do so, and concentrate on *not* allowing the throat to constrict, > if that happens to be one of your problems. > > > Another problem that I always run in to is time management in the > > practice room. I really only have two or three hours a day to > > practice, because I work two other jobs plus students, etc. Sometimes > > I don't even have that much time. My list of things to do in the > > practice room seems to always come out to what seems to be about four > > or five hours of work. Any ideas on this? > > If you are practicing intelligently and intensively, you should be pretty > much exhaused by 3 hours practice in a day. You certainly shouldn't need to > do any more than that. Therefore, I suspect you are in fact wasting much of > your time in the practice room. > > The essence of effective practice is that you *practice getting things > right*. If you get something wrong, it is almost certainly because you have > played it too fast to get it right. Most people, when they even notice they > have got it wrong, repeat the whole piece or long passage again, and almost > certainly make the same mistake again. What they are doing is practicing > getting it wrong. And the more they practice getting it wrong, the better > they become at getting it wrong. > > I don't know whether you fall into this category, but based on your > descriptions, I suspect that you may. If I am doing you an injustice I > apologise. But for the benefit of anybody else who recogises themselves in > the description above, I go on to say how you *should* practice a difficult > passage or etude. > > First of all, you have to decide that perfection is your aim, and you are > not going to be satisfied with less. Saying to yourself "it was nearly > right, and I'm sure it will be OK next time" is the greatest enemy of > progress. > > Second, when you notice a mistake, STOP, immediately, before you have a > chance to forget what the mistake was or where. It might be a piece of > awkward fingering, it might be a short passage with a high note that you > mispitched, it might even be a slur that wasn't sufficiently clean. Go back > a bar or so, and practice just the fragment that contained the error. If the > error is repeated, go about 30% slower and do it again. Keep slowing down > until you find a speed at which the error goes away. > > Then, having found a speed that is OK, repeat several times at that speed. > If you find yourself still making regular errors, slow down even further, > until you find a speed at which you can play the fragment at least 3 times > in a row (and preferably 6 times) with no error at all. Resist the > temptation to go any faster in later repetitions. What you are doing is > practicing getting it right, and the only way you can practice getting it > right is to practice at a speed at which you know you actually can get it > right. > > Once you have managed 6 error-free repetitions, try the fragment just a > little faster, 10% or so. If all is well, repeat 3 times at that speed, and > then go a bit faster still. If you make a mistake, immediately drop the > speed by 30% and do the 6 repetitions at the slower speed. > > Gradually, you can get the speed back up to concert speed. Having done that, > go back a few bars and put the fragment back into context. Hopefully it > should now be fine. Carry on until you come to the next difficult bit, and > repeat the process. > > This practice technique is *very hard work* if done properly, and is very > tiring, but there is no more efficient use of practice time. This is because > of two things. > > 1. You spend most of your time practicing the difficult bits, which after > all, are the bits that need the practice! > > 2. You spend most of your time practicing playing those difficult bits right > (albeit slowly to start with. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes > permanent, and you want to cause your practice to get you to permanently > play passages correctly. Repeatedly playing correctly instills those habits > and memories. > > Hope this helps! > > Regards > Jonathan West > > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/sallym.of.mclaurin%40gmail.com > _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
