Perhaps the most perplexing thing that I come across as a professional musician and trumpet teacher is how lacking we are as musicians in our abilities to practice our craft effectively.
Poor practice habits and direction are certainly very prevalent among those who are learning the instrument. This is not such a big surprise because so many students are not taught what practice time means and how to do it most effectively. The perplexing thing that I see is that there are many out there playing for a living who still struggle with practice and how to practice with effectiveness.
Fortunately, learning about private practice and the most effective methods are something we can all beneffit from. There have been many who have written on the subject. For our purposes I will be drawing on the wisdom of several different sources to help shed light on this subject.
In today’s post I am going to start off with a very easy formula for structuring your time and then talk about how to execute it most effectively. This is only a sketch—each player will likely need a modified version of this.
Goal: Goal-Directed Private Practice 6 days a week (between 30-45 minutes each day).
Daily Routine:
10 minutes Warm-up/Maintenance:
Includes Lip/Mouthpiece Buzz, Flow Studies on Trumpet, Scales, Flexibility Studies, Articulation Warm-up
10 minutes Technical Study:
Includes a single target area for the day (for instance multiple tonguing, slur/tonguing mixed articulation, interval studies, awkward finger combination studies, special articulations, etc)
10 minutes Musical Study:
This includes doing lyrical songs and etudes, mixed etudes, solo, church/hymn music, etc.
Throughout all of this session sound quality needs to be a major focus. Additionally you need to work to unify everything musically—play with a purpose.
During the next few posts I will expand on different practice methodologies, ideas to keep practice fresh, and literature/resources to utilize.
