How do all organize your practice time? I have two young kids who keep me hopping, so I’m always trying to squeeze the most out of my very limited flute time (I’d say about 1/2 hour per day on average). What would you do with that amount of time?
I feel that pain! Between working on the PhD and making drums I have little practice time as well. However, even 30 minutes a day is better than nothing. Some things I do to maximize limited time-
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Play irish music in the background while I do other work so that I am sure whatever tune I would be working in is in my head.
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It helps me to learn by ear, because a) the tune is memorized in your head, which b) seems to me to increase the efficiency of finger-memory.
and
- Don’t be afraid to go slow, especially at first, to be sure you hard-wire the neurons to play crisp and clean before you turn up the speed. Even with just 15-30 minutes a day of repitition of playing something correctly, is better than 3 hours of practicing slopily, at least I think so.
Hope you can dig up more practice time!
Rob
Rob listed good points. It definitely helps if you listen to Irish music often, even when you’re doing something else as it will increase your exposure to the music idom. You’ll find yourself noticing and appreciating more and more subtleties the more you listen to it, absorb the style and apply it unconsciously in your playing
If possible it might be better the increase the frequency of your flute practice. (i.e. two sessions of 15-20 minutes than 1 session of 30-40 minutes a day) If your lips touch the flute more often, it will not forget the feel of your embouchure so quickly and you’ll take less time to “warm up”. On the other hand if you practice one block of 30 minutes a day your mind/lip has to recall how to do the embouchure thing after not having done so for a dormant period of 23.5 hours. On a bad day that entire 30 minute practice time might be burnt for warming up and you wouldn’t be able to touch on other aspects of flute playing.
You might like to keep a whistle handy so you can practice your tunes, rhythm, phrasing and other stuff as well when you have a small gap of free time.
I good friend of mine(and excellent sax/flue player)always tells me - it dont matter how long you practice as long as you do it everyday. He practices in pockets of 5-15 minutes and sounds great. I followed it and it works for me. He has this quote ( from where i have no idea):
You don’t practice one day, you know it.
Don’t practice 2 days, your friends know it.
Don’t practice 3 days and the whole world knows it.
Hope this helps.
I try to spend at least 1/2 hour a day in practice, and if that is all I have, then I do the following:
Scales - one step - 5 minutes (defgabcd, etc)
Scales - double step - 5 minutes (df,eg,fa,gb,ac,bd etc)
Scales - thirds - 5 minutes (def,efg,fga,gab,abc,bcd, etc)
The scales (Especially if I have limited time) I do mostly in D and G, up and down the scale, 1 to 2 octaves, sometimes 3 if my embouchure is cooperating.
Next part -
5 minutes - review recent/old tunes
10 minutes - work on one/two new songs
That takes 30 minutes, and gets a lot of good work in a short time.
Aodhan
Silly question: Are practicing scales a necessity in Irish music? I’ve always hated the routine ‘playing scales’ in classical piano.
I find practicing scales for me, no matter what instrument, helps me to warm up and to get familiar with the sound and feel of each note. On the flute it helps to direct the air stream automatically. I like every other note then every third note for that.
I keep a Seery polymer handy so when I’m finished my “formal” practice, whever the spirit moves me, I pick it up and play four or five minutes - like between reading posts.
BillG
On 2003-01-24 16:01, psychih wrote:
Silly question: Are practicing scales a necessity in Irish music? I’ve always hated the routine ‘playing scales’ in classical piano.
Opinions may differ wildly. I like scales and especially scales in different intervals (would be cdefgabc, cedfeg…, cfdgea etc. in C for simplicity), because it helps your intonation if you listen, your tone and basically every single thing you will ever play is just a combination of scales or intervals. This is especially true for Boehm, where some transitions take a lot of practice to do smoothly.
The other advantage of playing scales (or something very simple like them) is that you will be playing something simply enough and slowly enough that you will be able to pick out problems and work on them. When playing a jig a rough transition or an off intonation can fly passed so quickly you don’t really notice… and that means you don’t every really fix it.
Of course, this works only for me; I’m sure there are excellent players who would keel over if someone made them practice this way; the important trick is to find what works for you based upon your tempermant and your goals and then do it.
Richard
On 2003-01-24 16:01, psychih wrote:
Silly question: Are practicing scales a necessity in Irish music? I’ve always hated the routine ‘playing scales’ in classical piano.
Depends on the person. I like the scales because they occur so much in Irish music, and they help me get used to skipping notes when going up and down in a song. Also, I find they help me get into the rhythm for playing.
Aodhan
An easier way to practice without scales, if you dislike them (and I do) is to find pieces, a jig or the like, that uses arpeggios in the tune. Practice that tune to warm up, play slowly, so that, as earlier stated, you don’t let a clumsy passage fly by, unfixed.
There are many simple Irish tunes that are little more than scale practice. Practice them slowly and precisely, even if you find them too simple for your ability. If possible, play the same tune in a different key, moving the tune up a half-step or whole step. Try it an octave higher, if it doesn’t venture too far into the 3rd octave (which most simple systems can’t support well enough to bother).
I think scale practice can be a learning experience, and if you’re inclined, go ahead. There are definitely note changes that you will suddenly find slow you down, that you may not have found simply learning tunes in the familiar keys.
That said, scale practice bores me to tears. I think the easiest way to do a bit of both is what I outlined above. Most people practice too quickly on their tunes, and mistakes are not corrected. But, if slowed down, the tunes and note changes will become quite precise, and the same benefits will be accomplished in a seemingly less drill-like way.
If I had only a half an hour on a given day, I’d practice nothing but scales, arpeggios, long tones and other exercises. I’d use a metronome and a tuner.
It’s more important to me that I develop my embouchure, build strength and stamina and improve intonation than that I learn (or work on) any one tune.
I use an exercise book called Better, Stronger, Faster by a fifer named Bill Hart. It’s available on the Company of Fifers and Drummers website:
http://companyoffifeanddrum.org/store.html
For $10, it gives you a whole bunch of great exercises. Lots of you could probably think them up and write them out yourselves, but haven’t. The book gives you a nice blueprint for practice.
I also like a lot of the other suggestions on this thread - like having a whistle or polymer flute handy for 5 minute mini-practices and having the music you’re working on playing in the background.
If I’m working on a particular tune, I sometimes make a loop tape with an old fashioned answering machine outgoing message blank (Radio Shack has them). It’s a 2-minute tape that continuously cycles, so you don’t have to keep rewinding. They’re great for the car - keep your hands free for your cell phone, coffee cup, bagel and whistle. I have no cd player in the car - I spent the money on fifes, flutes and whistles.