How long do you practice?

[quinterbourne]

I remember when I used to practice 4-6 hours a day. Then I started to really pile on musical groups... which left me with doing 2-4 even 6 hours of rehearsal every day. So, I needed to cut back to 2 or 3 hours of individual practice a day.

I found that if you raise the quality of your rehearsal time, instead of the quantity, this will really do wonders for your playing. I think I get done in one hour what I used to get done in two hours.

Now, it's still good to have a good quantity of practice hours put in. This is not a means for a lazy person to reduce the amount of time they are able to practice - only use the "raise quality/reduce quantity" concept if you HAVE to reduce the amount of time in the practice room.

Ideally, if you practice 2 hours a day with low quality... you should change it to 2 hours a day high quality (instead of one hour high quality).

How do I raise the quality of my practice time?

a) have a plan. know what you are going to practice.
b) think of short term and long term goals (devote some time to concerts coming up soon, but give some time to concerts far in the future).
c) work on the stuff that needs work - not the stuff you can play well already.
d) spend a lot of time in "critical" thought. That is, examining what is wrong and how to fix it.
e) spend time buzzing on the mouthpiece (but don't just buzz away, think of pitches and melodies).
f) work on aspects that will improve all qualities of your playing. Don't just practice the music. Practice scales and arpeggios, as your music will have them in there. It's better to practice a scale in isolation that to have to practice it over and over again in multiple pieces.

[ArnoldGottlieb]

I keep a book of what I'm practicing so I know where I've been and what I want to do. This book contains goals, tunes, exercises, tempo's, and is in a language that anybody else picking it up might not understand. I had the good fortune to study bass (and later tuba) with Joe Solomon, and I've added a link to his article. http://chrisfitzgeraldmusic.com/article ... lowway.htm I would suggest reading this article and if you don't get it, I would suggest reading it again.
Peace.
Happy Chanukah
Arnold S. Gottlieb

[CJ Krause]

I i i i i

[quinterbourne]

I think there was a bit of a jest in his post.

But seriously, ask 95% of the people in this one community band I play in... I'm pretty sure they don't practice outside of rehearsal. We're not talking about professional groups here...

Well, just FYI, I am done with this community band. Too many trumpets - I HATE competing with forward facing instruments (and I'm sure horn players feel exactly the same way). So dang many of them and they are always out of tune... they are either sharp, sharper or I swear they are playing on trumpets pitched B natural instead of B flat. The thing that bothers me the most that they seem to not care that they are horribly out of tune - they just blast away. I guess most of these guys haven't moved their main tuning slides in the past 40 years, so why should they start now???
Whenever I think I'm out of tune, I try to play softer, and try to think of what's going on, try to fix it.

I guess I'm really pickin' on the trumpet players, mainly because I sit next to them. Unfortunately, it's not just the trumpets - but the whole band. They don't listen and have no respect or sensitivity. When you have a 50 piece band with only one tuba player (who isn't playing a beast of a 6/4 BAT, but a little 4/4 Conn 3J)... you can't blast it all the time!!! I don't know about you guys, but my chops really, really tire very quickly while playing with a group that is so out of tune. It must be the embouchure (subconsciously) trying to change to match the 49 different pitches in the room at the same time.

Oh well, have fun without a tuba player! I hate them so.

[Kevin Hendrick]

we are supposed to practice,,, i thought that is what rehearsal was for

You CAN'T be serious!!!

Of course he can, and don't call him Shirley ... oh ... you didn't ... sorry 'bout that ... "Never Mind!"â„¢

(BTW, FWIW, WGAS, etc., I thought that was what the gig was for ... )

[quinterbourne]

Of course he can, and don't call him Shirley ... oh ... you didn't ... sorry 'bout that ... "Never Mind!"â„¢

(BTW, FWIW, WGAS, etc., I thought that was what the gig was for ... )

I swear that some of these people in the community band are (or at least sound like they are) playing some of this music for the first time in concert. Hello!

And last year they were such a good group... add an extra 15 players and everything goes down the crapper.

[John Caves]

You know what they say: "Practicing shows a lack of self-confidence"

[tubatooter1940]

Confidence is good but you got to clean your material up the best that you can.

[sinfonian]

Would have like to seen a couple of choices for weekly. Like:
♦ < 2 hours a week
♦ 2 - 5 Hours a week
♦ > 5 hours a week.

Most of us who have carrers and family outside of music are lucky if we can squeeze in a couple or practice sessions a week let alone daily.

My anwser would have been 2 - 5 hours a week.

Just my 2¢.

♪♫

[adam0408]

I always say that I need to get more practicing done, but I can never seem to do it, because of endurance issues and time issues. I go to a liberal arts college, so its not all about music and I have lots of other stuff to do.

we have an hour and twenty minute rehearsal every day, and that weakens my chops sometimes for when I wish to go practice later in the day. The most I probably have practiced recently is 2.5 hours, not including breaks.

[ahowle]

Four hours of PRACTICE (not rehearsal, not playing duets, but actual practice in a practice room by myself) would be a light day, or a day where I had too much stuff other than practicing (like rehearsals, a lesson, or classes) for me. 5-6 hours of practice is pretty standard. Add rehearsals and a lesson to that, and I'm playing 9+ hours most days.

[ahowle]

WOW! Thats alot!

I don't think of it as being a lot. In fact, I hope to begin playing more than I already do. My brain, however, is often turned to gravy by the end of the day and the trick will be to maintain mental focus for longer.

[quinterbourne]

I used to practice 5 or 6 hours a day. It's just a matter of building up the endurance to do so. Unfortunately, with academic study, I just no longer have the time to put in much more than a couple hours a day, especially when I add in 2-4 hours of rehearsal most days... but I make the most of those two hours I do practice.

The problem with practicing so much: eventually you get really good, then lots of groups get you to play with them... so you don't have time to practice very much (because you're always rehearsing), so then you start to suck... then those groups let you go, so then you start practicing a lot again... it's a bitter neverending circle. I've learned to be very selective in regards to who I play with.

[TubaRay]

In my opinion 5-6 hrs. of practice constituting a standard day is a great deal of practice. It was never standard for me, and I worked very hard at things when I was both an undergrad and grad student. From your comments, it sounds as if the very problem I would expect you might have, is one you are having--staying focused. If you are mentally able to meet the demands, the physical shouldn't be that difficult.

I remember when my chops were the strongest, I would practice through breaks given during rehearsals. I had no fear whatsover that my chops would get tired. They didn't. When the band would go on tour for three or four days I would feel as if my chops had lost something. This would occur despite playing two or three hourlong concerts per day.

I am a strong believer in a person doing what works for them. I don't know what your goals are as a player. It sounds as if you have some high goals. As long as you can stay motivated, focused, and enjoying the practice, I believe you are on the right track. Most importantly, where you mind is willing to take you, your body will most often follow.

Best wishes.

[Mark]

To paraphrase Socarates: "long enough to get it right".

[ahowle]

Thanks tubaray,
Yeah, you're right - I don't have any problems with physical endurance for the most part (however sometimes after several hours of practicing higher exerpts at a high dynamic I do become physically tired). The main thing that will make me unable to play anymore is mental focus. For a while I would practice in blocks of several hours at a time with no breaks at all (not even for a sip of water), and I thought that because I did not become physically tired that I was okay. However, I started to realize that I was completely mentally unfocused and I was not really getting much done. The biggest thing that helps me practice for 6 "straight" hours is to take a 5-minute break every 25 minutes, no matter how I feel, and go do something outside of the practice room that is completely different, whether it is taking a walk, checking my email, or whatever. In fact, both this post and my previous reply to this thread are what I've done during my practice breaks. The breaks keep my sixth hour of practice in a day just about as efficient as my first hour. It may have something to do with the fact that I rarely physically get tired as well.