Arnold Jacobs Sums Up Practicing in One Sentence
Andrew Hitz
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Finding the Sweet Spot When Practicing
Andrew Hitz
"Lack of focus when practicing comes from one of two things: boredom or frustration."
—Lance LaDuke
If you are bored, raise your standards. That side of the equation is very straightforward (although not always easy!)
If you are frustrated, break the passage down to its individual parts (fingers, ear, rhythms, range, dynamics, etc) and figure out exactly what requires attention.
If a passage is in the upper register, it may appear that range is the reason you are missing a lot of notes. But if your fingers are close but not exactly correct, you will continue to miss those notes until you clean up the fingers.
So continuing to hang out in your extreme high register with sloppy fingers will not only not fix the problem, it will tire you and only reinforce the bad fingers leading to even more work later on.
There is a sweet spot that lies between boredom and frustration. The best players in the world are also the best practicers. They have found a way to hang out in between the boredom and frustration and get more done in less time than those who don't.
More done in the practice room in less time? Sign me up!
Activity Is Not Productivity
Andrew Hitz
Activity is not productivity. Have a plan set before you start practicing and execute it. Then evaluate how it went afterwards.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Silence Can Not Improve
Andrew Hitz
The last four words of this quote pretty much sums it all up, doesn't it?
Arnold Jacobs on Developing the High Register
Andrew Hitz
This is a really great way for a student to begin developing their high register on any instrument. Starting with something familiar takes a few layers of complexity out of the equation.
And playing music rather than exercises will keep the brain focused on the phrasing which keeps the wind or the bow moving.
Become An Elite Problem Solver
Andrew Hitz
I was listening to the Unemployable Podcast hosted by Brian Clark the other day and heard a great interview with Tim Ferris. Tim is the author of The 4-Hour Work Week and a number of other books and is one of the elite thinkers in the world today.
He said something that had nothing to do with music but that really got me thinking about practicing. He mentioned the importance of becoming an elite problem solver.
I immediately thought about the practice room. And I thought about how any of us who are really good at practicing (you do anything for over three decades and you're bound to get pretty good at it!) had to learn how to practice.
And when you break it down, all practicing is is targeted problem solving.
Being an elite problem solver in any field first involves identifying exactly what problem needs solving, then systematically trying various methods until the problem is solved.
Rather than having the overall goal of "getting better at the trumpet", perhaps instead have a goal of "getting better at problem solving" in the practice room. This 30,000 foot goal will help anyone to get better at specifically targeting exactly what it is in their playing that needs improvement.
The greatest players in the world on your instrument are, to a woman and a man, elite problem solvers in the practice room.
Let The Ideas Out
Andrew Hitz
"If you have enough bad ideas you will have absolutely no trouble having enough good ideas. What people who create do is they let the ideas out. they sit and they do the work and the ideas come. Good ideas, bad ideas."
—Seth Godin from Leap First
Seth Godin was not talking about the practice room in the above comment but he might as well have been.
It is imperative that we "let the ideas out" when we are in the practice room.
Of course we need to focus on a daily basis on range, dynamics, articulations, releases, slurs and everything in between. This is the homework that every great musician on any instrument has done in spades.
But no one really cares if you are only a great technician on your instrument. Sure, you'll probably have a career of some kind (if you are truly a great technician and not just a good one) but you won't have one that is very rewarding or that has much impact on the world.
The ideas are what affect others. The ideas are why we all got into this crazy business in the first place. And the key to having great ideas is to have lots of ideas.
Ideas are why some people prefer Phil Smith, some prefer Chris Martin, and some prefer Thomas Hooten. It sure isn't because Phil can slur better than Chris or Thomas can. They slur equally well.
Yet all three of them play with enough clear ideas and storytelling in their playing that it is quite easy to prefer one over the other two. And that's what it's all about.
And the only way to ever approach the quality and clarity of the ideas of any of those three trumpet players is by letting the ideas out. The good ones and the bad ones.
That's exactly what they did.
The Best Practicing Advice I've Ever Heard
Andrew Hitz
Five words:
Put your damn phone away.
Walt Disney's Insights Into Practicing Effectively
Andrew Hitz
Who knew that Walt Disney was a practicing guru?
I frequently see students start to practice a solo or etude at the beginning of piece. That's where they tend to start the first time they play it.
And the eight time they play it. And the 18th time they play it. And the 80th time they play it...
Guess what starts sounding really good? The opening of the piece!
Whenever I have a student who is not quite prepared to play an etude in a lesson it almost invariably becomes obvious when they get to halfway through the piece. Whether that's the B section, or a difficult variation on the main melody, or a key change.
If I ask them where they kept starting when they practice, they always say the beginning of the piece.
Don't "repeat successes" by going over the music you can already play. Target specific sections that need improvement and start with those sections the next time you sit down to practice.
You will be blown away by the results in a very short period of time.
Horn Practicing Tips
Andrew Hitz
Are you a horn player looking for some ideas for the practice room? Or maybe you have a horn student in your band who is looking for some help with how to get better?
There is a great website by two fabulous horn players and teachers, John Ericson and Bruce Hembd, called Horn Matters. It is a horn resource filled with tips on just about everything horn related you can imagine.
Follow the link below to 10 pages worth of links to stories about practicing. They cover everything from warming up and transposing to focus in the practice room and tonguing.
This is a great resource for horn players and teachers of all ability levels!