Overpracticing/overtraining

[MaryAnn]

I read an article recently in a bike magazine about overtraining; I was surprised to find it had a medical definition, and that it was characterized by a lengthy period (weeks, months) of feeling tired and not being able to attain previous results.

This, I also found recently, can happen to brass musicians. A few weeks ago we did two concerts containing Tchaik #5. It was quite a blow for me on 2nd horn; despite putting intense time into trying to build up stamina, for the performances I only just barely made it to the end of the concert where the horns have to do some bells-up blasting. Then I immediately went on vacation, and basically did not play for almost two weeks. This, in the past, has spelled near-disaster in that it will take me twice as long, on average, to get back the stamina I had before the break.

But....not this time. Last night I played through Tchaik #5 with the stereo, as I have quartet Thursday and needed to give the old chops a workout in an attempt to last the night; and two previous nights I made a point of doing significantly more than the night before. So....last night....I made it easily through to the end of T #5 with no chop collapse in sight, no heavy fatigue, no straining to hold for just one more phrase. Playing with the stereo every night was what I did to be able to play the concert, so it was a "typical" workout for me, before the vacation.

I must have over-trained, over-practiced, for quite a long time before that. I really am at a loss to tell when I am doing that. It is not a problem on tuba....I can play virtually forever, at least as long as any group I've been in has required me to. I supsect that the ergonomic lack of ability to use pressure, has something to do with this; I can't force playing longer than is physically possible with muscles only.

But it reminded me of the guy who posted some time back about getting ready for a solo contest and he was getting worse each day; some told him to lay off for a while, but I bet he was unwilling to do that....it seems counter-intuitive to lay off when you are trying so desperately to gain strength.

Food for thought, for those of you out there in amateur-land or student-land, who are sometimes given more to do than you are ready for.

MA

[SplatterTone]

With muscles, over training happens when the break down that occurs during training exceeds what can be recovered during the rest period. When training daily with a significant degree of intensity, the muscles never recover completely before the next day; but they recover enough to achieve progress until one eventually reaches the limit set by one's physiology (genetics, age, nutrition, anabolic steroids, etc.).

Then, it is common to not train for an extra day or two prior to a competition to allow the muscles to recover fully.

[Charlie Goodman]

This happened to me a while back before one of my college auditions. I had been working and working working to solidify my high range and didn't seem to be making progress. I was forced to take a four-day break because of a weekend trip a week before my audition. I was worried I'd lose some ground, but when I came back, Iplayed better than I had in about a month.

[iiipopes]

Yes, when I got back into tuba playing after being away, I tried to speed things up with the pencil between the lips and using the embouchure muscles to raise and hold the pencil in position. I did it too much, lost flexibility, and almost had to start all over again.

[MaryAnn]

I think you nailed a possible key....loss of flexibility. I've had "loss of" flexibility basically as long as I've played horn. When I've been away a few days, I have flexibility for about one practice period and then it goes away again. I've gotten used to playing without it, and never could develop a lip trill.

All this comes from more than a modicum of impatience, technique that was trying to catch up to musical experience gained at reasonably high levels on stringed instruments, and demands of both private teachers and ensembles that were beyond what I should have been doing.

For some, a private teacher's role is to push them into excelling; for me, a private teacher's role is to install patience genes and power brakes.

MA

[Art Hovey]

I'm finding that practicing hard every other day seems to work better than every day. (On the off days just a little light playing)

[iiipopes]

I agree. It gives the embouchure more time to recouperate, and still maintain flexibility. Weight trainers use a similar regimen to build muscle.

[MaryAnn]

Well, I've decided to put into practice, for as long as my impatience will let me, a different sort of routine. The entire thing about practice is putting long term goals ahead of short term goals.

I had a large upswing in tone quality over the last six months, by doing a breath attack exercise to start notes. This prevents the use of the tongue to get the lips vibrating....you have to close them, like a camera aperture, around the air column to get the vibration started. This results in a correctly shaped aperture and resulting mellow tone quality. Then, I remembered a horn club meeting during which I succeeded in grabbing the very low parts for the entire time; at the end of that, I was able to play a high C easily, which is not usually in my range repertoire.

So, using those two experiences, I want to combine the effects of the habit of forming the embouchure via air attacks and also the relaxation of embouchure that comes from playing low for an extended period. I have a couple of Mozart trios that appear to have been originally for woodwinds; I'm starting my practice session on the 3rd part, which is quite reasonably low, and playing the entire thing using breath attacks only. Then I move to the 2nd part, and then the 1st part. This takes about 45 minutes, and the music (so far) is interesting enough to keep me playing, as opposed to dry exercises. I don't have the patience to do just mouthpiece work or scales/arpeggios for 45 minutes, although I did do that kind of thing back when I was in college on violin.

The parts I have to play in groups are generally not taxing technically, although often they are taxing in terms of endurance. I'm hoping that by focusing on relaxed technique and tone more than usual, that I'll make some technical progress and maybe reach a point of playing a couple things that have been beyond me to date, such as the Brahms horn trio and the Gliere concerto. I'll check back in in six months if I have a progress report.

MA

[Tom Mason]

I attended a clinic at this past Midwest that dealt with part of this subject.

A saxophone professor related to the audience that he had to spend some time away from playing the horn during a Christmas break due to catching the flu. As he sat around the house, he practiced fingerings without putting air through the horn. By doing this, he kept the fingers woirking on the sonata he was preparing for a recital while allowing the body to heal.

Of course, we all come to a point where practice on a given day does not help. As a preacher told us one day, the congregation can only handle what the rear end can handle. With that in mind, I tell my beginner students to practice and fix one problem a day. Hopefully this helps keep a student from burning out and not practicing at all. As far as advanced and professionals, I think that sometimes we try to fix too many things in one setting. We too need to practice with a focus to acheive the goal without having too many goals in one session.

Tom Mason