A Good Way to Practice?

Hey guys, I want to know how you guys practice for music. It doesn't matter what instruments you play, I just want to see how you guys overcome your obstacles in your daily practices. For example:

1. If you are really tired and stressed out, but you know that you must practice for a better grade in school, what do you do? (In terms of University)

2. What kind of things do you practice? (ex. Scales, Long tones)

3. Other things that you would like to add ;)

Thanks for your participation

Hey guys, I want to know how you guys practice for music. It doesn't matter what instruments you play, I just want to see how you guys overcome your obstacles in your daily practices. For example:

1. If you are really tired and stressed out, but you know that you must practice for a better grade in school, what do you do? (In terms of University)

2. What kind of things do you practice? (ex. Scales, Long tones)

3. Other things that you would like to add ;)

Thanks for your participation

1. short interval.

2. (I play the violin) right hand exercises, left hand exercises, bow exercises, scales with several rhythms + arpeggios, piece, studied also using rhythms and other techniques.

3. I hate doing it.

If it's raw note-learning you're aiming at then the only way to get it done properly, I find, is to play through the piece two bars at a time with five repeats of each of the two. That is to say, you play bars 1 and 2 five times, bars 3 and 4 five times, etc.

However, if you feel so inclined, the bar/beat quota may be adjusted either way depending on the relative difficulty or easiness of the section.

The next thing is fingering. As a pianist, I've found that if you don't get it right from the word go, you just invite trouble. You make the piece more challenging for yourself and you waste time later re-learning material with the correct fingering. Nobody needs that.

I tend to drink fluids and caffeine when I need to practise (hydration plus mental alertness). Coke is good for this (the drink...).

Other than that, just do enough of it and do it properly, basically.

P.S. Moving to Performance forum.

1. If you are really tired and stressed out, but you know that you must practice for a better grade in school, what do you do? (In terms of University)

2. What kind of things do you practice? (ex. Scales, Long tones)

3. Other things that you would like to add ;)

1) I don't change anything if I have something coming up. It's been a long time since rhythms and pitches have been a problem, so that's not an issue. I try and be consistent - changing something a week before a gig (or a level exam, or audition) is a bad idea.

Tired? ...yeah, short intervals works. Don't let it wear you down, but work enough to at least maintain some semblance of decent playing.

Stressed?! Playing should help de-stressify you. If you get agitated and tense while practicing, you're doing it wrong.

2) Really, I practice only long-tones. To me, as a brass player, my sound is everything. I just improvise, slowly...I practice watching TV, on mute.

3) I'd like to add that I've been playing a long time. Stuff I had to work long and hard at to get to this point: Scales (and chord/scale relationships - all modes, all the time); flexability; tuning (holy frig - VERY important, buy a tuner); time (again, VERY important, buy a metronome).

...have fun.

I'm finding this very helpful. Thanks.

While on a hiatus from music making in public for an indefinite period, I'm considering taking some lessons in viola, piano and voice.

Because of the way my life went, I only ever took 2 years of piano lessons, and less than a year of private lessons in string playing and singing. As a result, I never learnt how to practice correctly, nor did I learn any advanced techniques on my instruments. Don't ask me how I became a moderately successful professional musician without this skill - for one thing, singing came pretty naturally to me, and that's my main thing - but I might have been more successful if I'd been able to practise more effectively.

At this late date, I am afraid that it will be difficult to unlearn all my bad habits and set my course straight.

Does anyone know how likely this is to be effective in mid-life?

I'd say go for it. You're very musically adept and eager to learn, and with some good help I'm sure you'll become aware of any bad habits you may have developed and learn to consciously alter these, so that after a while, you'll have established a new, good habit.

I've been singing since I was like, 6 or 7, and in all those years only once had a year of singing lessons. Now, since I want to go into choral conducting, I'm taking voice lessons again and it's amazing how much I've already improved in a few weeks. It just takes practice and discipline. Not that I'm the epitome of these virtues, but if you don't practice, it won't happen of itself. At least, no change will come about automatically.