How to break up a practice session

[artsohio]

I was wondering how you more experienced players broke up your practice sessions.

On my silver flute, my routine is something like this:
10 min long tones
20 min scales, arpeggios and scales in intervals
15 min fingering and tonguing exercises
20 min etudes
30-60 min rehearsing parts and solos.

On the traditional flute, on the other hand, I usually just pick up the flute and start picking out tunes a few times a day. Occassionally I do some of the exercises in Larsen's book.

Is the nature of traditional music more rehearsal oriented or would I be making more progress if I used the metronome and tuner to practice in a more structured way?

[dunnp]

Half a tune......slug of cider, beer, wine
listen to something i'm working on
half that tune .......slug of cbw
whole set i like
marlboro
slug
listen
listen
listen
tune
air
smoke
slug
listen
Good Luck (listening is the important thing)
Take Care, Patrick

[pixyy]

That must be the most solid piece of advice I have seen in a long while...

Jeroen

[Jens_Hoppe]

On my silver flute, my routine is something like this:
10 min long tones
20 min scales, arpeggios and scales in intervals
15 min fingering and tonguing exercises
20 min etudes
30-60 min rehearsing parts and solos.

Good grief, twenty minutes of scales...

I am firmly in the "informal" camp here. A, er, practice session for me would go something like

10-20 seconds: Play slow stuff just to get my embouchure reasonably aligned.
5-10 minutes: Play tunes - either tunes I already know well, tunes I can kindda hum but haven't really played much , or I explore tunes from, say, CRE. Unless reading from CRE, stand in front of mirror, so I can see how cool I look.

At this point there is usually something else I have to do, often indicated by my daughter tugging at my leg, so I put away the flute until next time.


Jens

[peeplj]

I keep a flute assembled and ready to go on my computer desk.

I grab a tune or tune when I can. Usually it involves having about a 30-second window, so I grab the flute, start honking out something, maybe get two or three tunes in, then it's back to the real world.

--James

[artsohio]

The technical work is all on my Boehm flute. I'm more of the "grab it and toot a bit" type otherwise.

I think I will start playing an air or two first on the simple-system flute. It will certainly be more fun than long tones and will calm the nagging voice in my head chastising me for not warming up properly.

[Dana]

On my silver flute, my routine is something like this:
10 min long tones
20 min scales, arpeggios and scales in intervals
15 min fingering and tonguing exercises
20 min etudes
30-60 min rehearsing parts and solos.

I think your practice routine shows a lot of dedication. You should make really good progress this way. Don't forget to also have fun!

Dana

[artsohio]

I think your practice routine shows a lot of dedication. You should make really good progress this way. Don't forget to also have fun!

Dana

Not so much dedication as fierce competitiveness! I want those solos! They are mine! MINE!

Actually, I'm kind of at a standstill currently on the old concert flute. I'm thinking it might be time to take a little break and just do some unstructured playing on Irish flute right now (A Tibble PVC currently, which is fine but I'm still counting down the days until my Casey Burns Folk Flute arrives!).

I've been playing the concert flute for over 20 years and sometimes I have to put it away and focus on another instrument for a few months to remind myself that music is supposed to be fun, not a chore. I just wanted to make sure that 1-2 hours of regimented practice wasn't the expected standard in the traditional world!

[trisha]

At this point there is usually something else I have to do, often indicated by my daughter tugging at my leg, so I put away the flute until next time.


Jens

Thank goodness I don't have five legs ....and as for Doc . Informal, has to be. This is a family home - need I say more?

Trisha

[dunnp]

In as much as I am kidding in my first post, it is how I practice most of the time.
I have seen so many Boehm flute players who don't quite get the point that Irish music is meant to be enjoyed. They play tunes as written in
"the books" and don't seem to get it ( not all, there are some brilliant players of both I've met).
On the other hand when preparing for a recording/ long night of tunes/ working on difficult passages ect. I play for as much time as my time will allow. and think consciously about every ornament, tone, note, embouchre (sp.?) for a while.
Then I give up and just play the hell out of it.
One tip I like to use (don't know if it is that much help to others) is to practice certain notes that are difficult on my flute, a Lehart ( and every flute including the best need extra care on certain notes/ passages), and see how loose and tight I can get them with different lip shapes. I try to get the notes by not overblowing so much as tightening and loosening my lips until I like what I hear. For years I played sharp in the second octave beacause my mind said blow harder like on a whistle.
Also I think my first post is still ok, listen to the players you would like to sound close to and try to hear what they are doing with their tone.
Some days I want to be loud and harsh others I want to relax the tone a bit.
And listen to Veillon (Kornog or solo), He's one of the few out there who consistantly uses the whole range of dynamic possibilities of his flute and you can feel and hear it in his playing.
This is probably not much help to the experienced player like your self but a good starting point for some others. Remember this music is a joy to play.
Take Care, Patrick

[artsohio]

Thanks for the advice, Patrick. Good exercises, those.

For the Boehm flute there is such a huge body of technical literature that you can use to address problems. "Having trouble with x? Then work on #y from book Z for a while". For a lot of players (myself included) it's only sometime in college that you realize that just spending a set amount of time on those exercises doesn't magically cure your playing ills, that you have to be constantly listening and adjusting to get the most out of them.

In ITM it seems like you need to listen, evaluate and adjust from the beginning just to progress, that there's no set methodology to happily, okay 'mindlessly', chug through. I'm beginning to see how players can be both very good and not be able to read music.

I'm sure I'm boring everyone with my analysis. My little one (in my avatar with his papa) has just started kindergarten all day-everyday and I'm trying not to think about my newly empty nest

On the other hand, there's no five year old constantly requesting "Drowsy Maggie" and I get to practice without a precorder accompaniment!

[Dana]

My little one (in my avatar with his papa) has just started kindergarten all day-everyday and I'm trying not to think about my newly empty nest

On the other hand, there's no five year old constantly requesting "Drowsy Maggie" and I get to practice without a precorder accompaniment!

Sometimes that empty nest feeling can be pretty good, can't it!

Dana