A student approached me with the complaint that practice was not fun. That’s not unusual to hear from a musician whether young or old, beginner or experienced. As a matter of fact, I agree. Not only can practice get boring (!) at times, sometimes it even feels like torture. Here are 4 ways to add some levity to your practice:
- Make a Game out of Practice
- Develop a Relationship with Your Horn
- Set a Goal
- Use Practice as a Reward from Work
Make a game out of practice.
When I was growing up, I shared with my brother the household chore of mowing the lawn. It was a big lawn! Front yard, back yard and two side yards. Jim and I took turns with this chore from week to week. He gave me this tip that he used to make this long, arduous job somehow bearable – and actually fun!
He imagined that he was giving a haircut to a giant. Details of the story varied from week to week. One week, he told himself he had to complete the haircut without waking up the giant. The giant was a grumpy fellow who would give my brother grief if he woke ol’ grumpy from his nap. Well, that explained the time I saw Jim quietly jogging behing the electric mower, gently moving the electric cord out of the path of the machine. Ha, ha, ha. Suddenly, mowing the lawn was fun.
You can apply this idea to practice. Let me know what games you come up with.
Develop a relationship with your horn.
When developing a relationship, one of the first things you do is learn more about the object of your affection. Listening to recordings of your particular instrument as played by the greats is one way to get to know it better. Attend live performances where your instrument is a featured instrument.
If you can listen to a live show, you’ll develop your relationship more deeply. Live performances are full of great risk and great potential. Neither performers nor audience know how it will all turn out until the moment of performance actually arrives. How exciting! How enlivening!
Listening, whether to a recording or a live show, is best done with eyes closed and ears open. Sure you can play a CD in your car and listen while you drive. But you won’t be able to give the music your full attention. Focus on the sounds. Be aware of any emotions or physical sensations that may arise. A ride like this has not happened before and may not happen again.
Bring these new experiences to your next practice and see what a difference it makes.
Set a goal.
Before you set a goal, remind yourself what got you into this music life in the first place. What is it abut the saxophone, clarinet, or other instrument that makes you feel excited? What is the source of your passion?
I took up the saxophone at age 10, when my dad, in a friendly manner, challenged me to choose it over other instruments because “it has the most keys and it must be the hardest to play.” That dare served me for a couple of years. It got me started. Somewhere in those first few years, I learned that I love the sound of the sax. I discovered that the sax speaks to me. In turn, I poured my heart into my playing. I wasn’t very good by the teacher’s standards, but that didn’t bother me. I had a connection to my horn.
With your connection in mind, you can set goals. Make some short-term goals like ‘memorize the E major scale in two octaves.’ And make some long-term goals like ‘extend the range of my horn to double high C.’
As you take the steps to achieve your goals, being reminded of why you’re in it will help you through the moments of frustration that we all experience from time to time.
Use practice as a reward from work.
Persistence. I’ve always believed that persistence pays off and there are times when that belief has benefited me quite well. When the spring pruning is done at our house, it generates a large pile of branches and limbs that lie in the driveway waiting for me to saw them down into firewood. Once I start the sawing, I want to finish it. However, this is the type of project that needs to be broken down into smaller pieces. My back will thank me later. It’s also a good example to explain yet another way to make practice more fun.
Let’s assume that this job will take about three hours to complete. Use your music practice as a reward for every 45 minutes of sawing (or whatever housework you’re doing). Saw for 45 minutes. Go into the house and play for 10 minutes. Go back to sawing for 45 minutes, then play some more – 10 minutes only. One more shift of sawing for 45 minutes and then 10 more minutes of play.
During those three 10-minute practices you can play whatever you want; scales, longtones, Beatles tunes, make up your own melodies, play along with the radio. Practice becomes play! Because you are only playing for 10 minutes, there’s no time for the practice to get frustrating!
Albert Einstein
“It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.” (When asked about his theory of relativity)
Portland Music Events
There is plenty of great live music in Portland. Here are just a few:
MarchFourth Marching Band
M4MB has events over 4 days, March 1-4. Some are 21+, others are all ages. I’m looking forward to hearing them on Sunday, March 1. Their website describes them like so: MarchFourth Marching Band is a mobile big band spectacular, consisting of a 12-piece horn section (4 saxophones, 4 trombones, & 4 trumpets), a 10-piece drum/percussion corps, anchored by electric bass (battery powered). The sound is huge, melodic, and dynamic, taking audiences on a musical journey around the globe.
Portland Gay Symphonic Band
The PGSB under the baton of Joseph Accuardi will be in Disguise for this third performance in the 08/09 Season of Illusions.
Another exciting night of symphonic band music, including “Masquerade for Band” by Persichetti, “Gloriosa” by Ito, “Of Sailors and Whales” by McBeth and much more.
The performance will be presented on Friday, March 20th, 2009, 8pm at Kaul Auditorium on the Reed College Campus located at 3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR. Tickets are $12 in advance. At the door is $15 adults, $12 students/seniors, cash only. Portland Gay Symphonic Band is a part of Rose City Gay Freedom Band, a 501(c)3 organization.
THE PROGRAM
Scenes From The Louvre – I. The Portals – Della Joio
Of Sailors and Whales – McBeth
Masqurade – Persichetti
-Intermission-
Hammersmith – Holst
Gloriosa – Ito
Danza de los Duendes – Galbraith
Oregon Symphony
Oregon Symphony has a subscriber package called Inside The Score. Each performance is about an hour to an hour and a half long. No intermission. They perform just one major work.
Sunday, March 8, they are performing Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Conductor Carlos Kalmar will speak from the stage and provide some background on the music, make it come alive for the listener. From the website: This is one of the great English orchestral masterpieces. The work consists of fourteen variations in all, cryptically dedicated to Elgar’s wife, friends and colleagues. It’s not too hard to identify them (we know the “Nimrod” variation best), but the variations are wrapped in a further mystery which has never been resolved. Perhaps Carlos has a theory he will share with us…
I urge you to get out and enjoy some live music in the coming weeks. These are just three options among the hundreds available.
All the best,
Meg Grace
No Comments