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/archive%40jab.org
