Practice exercises & Practice space

[Squeakie]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone did any practice exercises that they find particularity helpful.
I’m trying to get better control of the second octave top notes, a, b, c# and d, and the third octave d and e, which is about all I can manage.
I’m also trying to get better with jumping octaves.
I do a set of six fingers down, three down, (bottom) five fingers down, three down, six down, three down, then reverse, jumping up the octaves then reverse. On my Blackbird, I can go one skip higher, doing a seven note run. Then I go on to do that starting on low E, doing the same basic thing, just a note higher. That’s kind of my big warm up, to get the fingers moving, other then just running up and down the scale. e3 is really the highest I can go, and that’s only on certain whistles. A lot of that is me not wanting to blow hard enough, because it’s annoying to my dogs and husband. Right now I’m working making the back bedroom into my music room.

This leads me into my second question, is there something effective I can do to make the room a little more soundproof that isn’t permanent and too costly? I’ve read hanging thick fabric curtains on the walls can help. I was thinking about getting some sheets of insulation foam and just tacking them up on the shared walls, also. My husband claims it doesn’t bother him when I practice the high notes, but I want to be considerate to him, and also my three small dogs. I wear a set of headphones to muffle the volume a bit when I’m doing high note practicing to protect my hearing, I can just imagine what it would sound like to my dogs if I didn’t put them out of the room. My one dog is extremely loyal to me and would sit with me if I would let her.
Lisa

[Tommy]

Hi,

I’m trying to get better control of the second octave top notes, a, b, c# and d, and the third octave d and e,

Lisa

I am not sure you need the third octave d and e ?
It is seldom that I play the second octave b or above.

[Mr.Gumby]

I was wondering along similar lines. Why would you put yourself through that. I'd not go beyond top c, anything that goes higher than that I'll happily put aside (or play on the pipes).

Start simple, I would suggest play simple tunes with a limited range and get used to the instrument. The nstep by step add more and extend your range as you feel more comfortable. Feeling confident with what you are doing is important, you wanting to shield yourself with headphones and putting up barricades around you suggests you're not. You need confidence hitting a note.

You can work out some excercises if you want to go that route (I'd prefer just to play tunes and that has worked for me but I did put some practice in to iron out some issues I found tricky when learning).

Try an exercise in thirds:

DFEGFGBACBdcedfegfagbac and then straight on back down again bgafgefdecdBcABGAFGE FE D

once you manage that, try it in triplets DEF EFG FGA GAB ABc Bcd cde dfe efg fga gab abc and back bag agf gfe fed edc dcB cBA etc

for octaves/intervals perhaps something along the lines of :

dA eA fA gA aA bA c a bA aA gA fA eA dA and the same going back to B : dB eB fB gB etc do that until you can do it well at a fair speed. You can ofcourse alternate your octaves with other notes as well and set up more practice runs. Also try something in the key of G (GBAc Bdce dfeg fabg afge dfec dBcA BGAF G(end or restart here)

You can design/work out that sort of stuff easily,set yourself a bit of a challenge. Do an exercise like that for a minute or two and go back to playing. Return to these things ever so often but don't overdo it, a few minutes excercise, play for a bit, more exercise and back to playing.

[Squeakie]

I was wondering along similar lines. Why would you put yourself through that. I'd not go beyond top c, anything that goes higher than that I'll happily put aside (or play on the pipes).

Feeling confident with what you are doing is important, you wanting to shield yourself with headphones and putting up barricades around you suggests you're not. You need confidence hitting a note.

I’ve played wind instruments for a long time, I’m confident. Back a thousand years ago when I was in school, I regularly competed in performance competitions on clarinet. I’m talking about being considerate to the ones I live with.
I put on headphones as to not damage my hearing any further than it already is, though that’s something I do only when I’m focusing on practicing notes about high g. Below that, it’s not an issue, I don’t find anything to be that shrill or piercing, no matter which whistle I am using, though my husband said the one with the red mouthpiece (Mel Bay) is red for a reason, as it is quite loud and the red is to indicate danger, as could be used as a sonic weapon if I really put some wind into it.

Thank you Mr. Gumby for the exercise runs, I’ll certainly give them a try. Playing clarinet, there wasn’t an issue with getting consistent high notes since it had an octave key, so I don’t recall doing exercises to hit those high notes.
Right now, I t’s more or less what I’m doing now, doing runs, then playing some simple song I already know, then going back to practicing runs to improve my speed and accuracy.
I’m looking forward to getting my Cd’s of Irish Airs to listen to. As I mentioned before, it comes with the sheet music, which to me, will be helpful to follow along. My free time is extremely limited. I put in a minimum of a ten hour workday, check in on my 89 year old mother, along with taking care of my own household. I’m also on call basically all the time for emergencies, as I work for home care and hospice care provider company. I’m half office worker, half trainer/oncall worker for when people call in sick or their car breaks down. I’ve just got called to go work this afternoon to cover a shift, during the Packer game, of course.
I wish I had the luxury of time to just listen to music and figure it out as I go along, but I don’t. I used to just work as just an aide and field trainer, and had more free time, but I was offered health insurance and benefits, and couldn’t turn that down.
I do prefer to just noodle away, figuring out a song as I listen, it’s relaxing and fun. But, If I want to learn anything, time wise, I need read the music to get the basics of the tune down, and go on from there, playing along with YouTube or other recordings, learning the finer nuances and variations of a given song.
Anyhow, thanks for the responses, maybe I won’t worry so much about hitting the really high notes, and focus more on developing speed and accuracy, then move on to ornamentation.
Thanks, Lisa

[Tommy]

Try an exercise in thirds:
DFEGFGBACBdcedfegfagbac and then straight on back down again bgafgefdecdBcABGAFGE FE D
once you manage that, try it in triplets DEF EFG FGA GAB ABc Bcd cde dfe efg fga gab abc and back bag agf gfe fed edc dcB cBA etc
for octaves/intervals perhaps something along the lines of :
dA eA fA gA aA bA c a bA aA gA fA eA dA and the same going back to B : dB eB fB gB etc do that until you can do it well at a fair speed. You can ofcourse alternate your octaves with other notes as well and set up more practice runs. Also try something in the key of G (GBAc Bdce dfeg fabg afge dfec dBcA BGAF G(end or restart here)
You can design/work out that sort of stuff easily,set yourself a bit of a challenge. Do an exercise like that for a minute or two and go back to playing. Return to these things ever so often but don't overdo it, a few minutes excercise, play for a bit, more exercise and back to playing.

I agree with Mr Gumby to practice with arpeggios (broken chords). I find that they also lead into playing a tune or developing a tune of your own.

[Mr.Gumby]

I agree with Mr Gumby to practice with arpeggios (broken chords).

I'd think of arpeggio exercises more as this sort of thing : DFAd AFDF AdAF EGBe BGEG BeBG FAdf dAFA df--)

Seriously though, I only suggested those things in response to the OP. They can be helpful if you're so inclined and they will help getting to grips with your instrument. But, as I also said, I would prefer to just play tunes and spend a bit of time ironing out any issues as they arise.
I have never done that sort of exercises when learning, but if you feel that sort of thing works for you, work away at it. But it would not necessarily be my favourite approach. You may as well play the Monaghan jig or something like that for your workout. More enjoyment and satisfaction in that.

[jiminos]

I play tunes to practice. If something in the tune gives me fits, I practice that until I get it

[Tommy]

I agree with Mr Gumby to practice with arpeggios (broken chords).

I'd think of arpeggio exercises more as this sort of thing : DFAd AFDF AdAF EGBe BGEG BeBG FAdf dAFA df--)

OK