Food for thought
What Marching Band student do throughout the school year WITH Marching Band
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THIS.... Doesn't exist |
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A typical practice session for Mr. Quakenbush
A few years ago, students asked what I tried to focus on during my practice sessions. After some thought I produced this as an outline for student musicians. I can say with confidence that my time in practicing is very important and I can utilize my practice time efficiently. I believe an overall concern about “how much time” I practice is not what I believe is my drive but what I can accomplish during my sessions is more important for me than duration.
A few of my beliefs about music making.
You are totally in control of how you sound. If you are struggling to produce proper sounds or you are unsure what a good sound is, ask you band director and they will be able to steer you to resources that may help.
I must be prepared. My involvement in making music means that I have duties and responsibilities to be prepared and not be a weak part of the overall session.
- If I have questions, I ask!
- My instrument must work properly.
- I must be a good section leader or section member. Accepting and giving instruction is a part of the process. Be a good role model even if you have different ideas about how something should be played. That is how you grow as well
Self-regulation is your key focus (your ability to control your productivity with getting desires done while being efficient in the time and within the environments i.e. distraction, that effect it all). I am often struck by poor sound production from students. This is an individual responsibility to play with your best sounds always! If it begins sounding bad, self-evaluate and find what the concern may be. Take the time to monitor your habits and you may be able to fix something in your playing that will be beneficial in other aspects of your playing.
Time should be “semi-planned” out for aspects that will benefit you in preparing for the following musical event; be it a concert or band class. If extra time needs to be spent on a certain aspect of you playing, do it! Maybe put another aspect off to another day but be you best player by looking at all aspects of your playing. Be humble and acknowledge weaknesses.
Get music and space ready and have a “game plan” in place BEFORE you start this part of the session. It has been proven that without an organized plan, students are less motivated and likely to be distracted while guessing about what is needed.
Prepare your space-less distractions the better. Organize your time into stages or progressions toward your goal. Get your electronics ready if needed: Tuner, metronome, (Spotify or YouTube-for recording references- though, this can be used to prepare for the sessions as well).
Let’s look at practicing like a fine meal.
- Appetizer
- Breathing. Take a few moments and get the body prepared for the tasks. This gets the body prepared for the tasks of producing the required airflow for producing good sounds.
- Reed Preparation or Mouthpiece Buzzing (this gets the blood flowing and muscles in the embouchure “awake” to begin practicing) or making sure the reed is saturated so it will function properly.
- Mid-range Long tones at differing dynamics with focus of crescendos and decrescendos at different duration. Notes used should be those that are easy to produce without strain or undo tension. Work for consistent and beautiful sounds with the least amount of tension present.
- Salad
- Slurs and scale patterns. These get air moving; embouchure and oral cavity lose and get the fingers moving. Concentrate on producing your best sounds across all octaves and phrase lengths. Care should be used to also listen to intervallic spacing and not perform these out of tune or with poor sounds. There are so many opportunities online to find scales in differing patterns and modes. Don’t tire yourself out on these too much. Just like filling up on salad ruins your meal!
- Smooth Lyrical playing. Gage your progress by feel; if you feel like you are working too hard or too much, it might be a day to focus on these fundamentals and not go too far or too fast and begin playing poorly. A word to begin considering is “efficiency”.
- Efficiency It minimizes the waste of resources such as physical energy, and time while accomplishing the desired output.
- Rest. This allows blood to flow to the embouchure and to begin thinking about the next task. Going to get a drink of water or to turn on tuners or metronomes are a bit of a break to focus on the new tasks.
- Articulations with dynamic variants can be included here. (Legato, Staccato, Accents, slurring and/with articulations pairing) Any articulation practice can be augmented with the use of a metronome. Remember that articulation is tied to not only beginning sounds but also length AND clarity of ALL sounds produced. This included the ends of the notes as well. Make sure you listen to the whole sound being produced.
- Main Course
- Music practice. This time to begin playing selected musical choices that can be played well and some needs to be worked on. The combination of music you can play well and music that needs work, can be easily heard, and felt, flow between these two classifications of music is important in understanding building musical phrases, working out fingerings, and breathing strategies.
- Do not forget to mark your music.
I am struck by how many students work on music but neglect to mark it properly, or at all. Use your music like a worksheet in marking anything that will help you succeed. No one cares what you write on your music to be successful; that is until you don’t play your part! - Scan and build sections of music proficiency. As you go, add to your practice so that you will build ability and likewise endurance.
- Do not forget to mark your music.
- Sight-read. Different styles with different requirements. Work on tempo control and don’t be afraid to do the same reading many times, each time better than the other.
- Keep all the musical aspects that you have achieved in mind as you begin to challenge yourself with tempos, articulations, ranges and phrase lengths. Work on being consistent with great technique and your best sounds-always.
- Music practice. This time to begin playing selected musical choices that can be played well and some needs to be worked on. The combination of music you can play well and music that needs work, can be easily heard, and felt, flow between these two classifications of music is important in understanding building musical phrases, working out fingerings, and breathing strategies.
- Dessert
- Your choice! It can be fun stuff you have played, or jazz music, anything that keeps the last part of your session entertaining and motivating.
- Coffee or tea
- As you finish up, you may want to listen to some music, or watch a video! Plan ahead by writing down today's experiences and tomorrows expectations. This is not a race and it never should be. Practice with intent daily, with even small accomplishments in mind and shortly these skills will begin to build. You may not experience it immediately, but the effects will be acknowledged by the people around you.
Studies have shown that students that practices/study small amounts of time daily, will see benefits and will do just as well as the student that crams for an exam. However, the student that practiced at programmed intervals will remember the material weeks after the tests. Therefore, in the hope to develop long-term memory the student can recall and use stored memory to help developing skills that are more inter-connected.
This is the proper and most useful definition of thinking.
Hope this helps
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Habit I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly, correctly. I am easily managed - you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people; and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human being. You may run me for a profit or turn me for ruin - it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I AM HABIT. |
How to be a Champion You wonder how they do it, You look to see the knack, You watch the foot in action, Or the shoulder or the back. But when you spot the answer Where all the glamours lurk, You’ll find in moving higher Up the laurel-covered spire, That most of it is practice, And the rest of it is work. — Grantland Rice 
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