A Brief Guide to Smarter Practicing

After learning about Colin's experience, I decided that the most effective way to practice is to be:

mindful

organized 

efficient

healthy

Mindful practice means always having a goal or point to your practice sessions. Always think musically, even in your warmup. Mindful practicing also involves keeping an active and focused mind that stays present for the task at hand, i.e. don't wonder what you are going to eat for dinner as you are working on a Bordogni etude.

1. Remove distractions from your practice area, i.e. turn off your computer, phone, 

TV, etc.

2. Focus on your own playing, not the person who is in the next practice room.

Organized practice techniques can help you become more efficient during your practice sessions.

1. Make time to practice. Sit down with your calendar and schedule when you will practice each day (and stick to it!).  

2. Keep a practice log that shows what you are working on for your weekly lessons.

3. During your scheduled practice sessions, plan what you will work on and for how long.  You may want to use a

        notebook or small dry erase board.

4. Record your practice sessions or lessons and listen to them afterwards. Take notes and evaluate yourself-- you can

        be your own teacher!

5. Keep all of the materials that you are working on in one space.  You may want to have a binder or folder with tabs

        that keeps your music organized.

Healthy practicing can help you avoid injuries. 

1. Three to four 45-50 minute practice sessions are better and more effective than a 3 hour long practice session.

2. Take breaks during your practice session. You can still be productive during these breaks-- if you recorded

        yourself, then this is a good time to listen and evaluate your recording, mentally practice, conduct and sing, study a 

        score, listen to a professional recording, etc. 

3. Maintain a relaxed posture, and note any tension that may be causing you to use more pressure. If this tension

        creeps in, then try to pinpoint where/why it is occurring, take a quick rest, and then resume in a more relaxed state.

4. Remember that muscle repairs itself roughly on a 48 hour basis. Plan intense 

practice sessions with this in mind.

Healthy living habits can help benefit you in all areas of your life--even in your trombone playing! 

1. Engage in regular exercise (at least 30 minutes 3-4 days a week). Try practicing right after you exercise-- you will

        be surprised at how much air you are able to take in!

2. Get a good night's sleep. Even though you are college students, you still need rest. 

3. Start your morning by eating a healthy breakfast. Beware of eating overly salty/sugary foods before a practice

        session or performance.

4. Drink lots of water, especially if you are practicing and exercising a lot. Also, be mindful of the types of food that you 

        consume before you play.

 

5. Brush your teeth before you practice and wash your mouthpiece and horn regularly, especially during flu season.

College can be a stressful time for music majors. The most successful music  students are well organized and self-motivated.  Take one (or all!) of the suggestions above and try it for one week as an experiment. What works for you? What areas are you weak in? Do you notice improvements in your trombone playing? 

STS Master Class: Colin Williams, 06/22/2010

I played selections from the first movement of the Tomasi trombone concerto for Colin during his class. The main point that he tried to make to me is not to get too caught up in the small elements of rubato-- think about the big picture. I had/have trouble with this aspect in my playing, especially in the Tomasi with the vast number of markings. I'm trying to work on not, for lack of a better word, romanticizing every small gesture, but rather striving to achieve long, sweeping musical lines.

The rest of my notes from this class were directed to the other participants. In every brass pedagogy course I've ever taken, we always had to list "teaching points." Think of the next statements that way; these points can be used for any brass or wind instrument. 

•  Even though it's a waltz, play more fluidly.
• Make slurs much more like the human voice. Think of Bordogni No. 6 and play in all clefs.
• Sound more vocal or song-like. Sing a phrase to get a more natural and musical sense of phrasing.
• Always go back to the basics.
• Drive wide and awkward intervals with your airstream.
• Work on Arban's Articulation Styles.
• Think of the tongue as a traffic cop for your airstream.
• If you blow faster air, then the tongue can almost bounce or spring off of the airstream like a lawn sprinkler.

As you may or may not know, Colin injured his lip and had to take a few months off of the horn to heal. The second half of his class developed into a Q&A about what happened to him and how we as trombonists can avoid/prevent the same thing happening to us. I do not want to necessarily hash out all of the details of Colin's injury (I'm sure you could email him with any questions), but what he basically said was that he did too much playing without rest for about 5 years straight. On top of a very demanding workload with the Atlanta Symphony, he would push himself too hard in his individual practice sessions. Though it is good and healthy to push yourself in your practice, you must find time to rest and rebuild muscle. Colin suggested that we as brass players should find a few weeks a year not to play. Apparently even Joe Alessi takes the month of August off from his horn, according to Colin. Colin said that some warning signs might be difficulty producing a clear sound, leading to using more pressure, which can cause partial muscle tears and muscle thinning. On this same note, we must remember that being out of shape is different than not having the muscle.

After the class, everyone was pretty horrified after his descriptions of feeling a white-hot needle sort of pain in his lip when the muscle tore. Honestly, most players don't have to worry about this sort of thing. Practice smartly and efficiently, take breaks, etc. Since then, Colin is back to playing in the ASO. He is such a beast at the trombone and a really nice person.  I can't wait to hear him again!

A Brief Break

To those of you nice people out there in blog land who follow this blog, I apologize for being so lax! I had the best intentions in June while at the STS to update Ladies in Brass, but that whole week was much busier than I could have imagined, and the rest of my summer went much the same way. Better to be busy than bored, I suppose. Luckily, I kept a journal of notes during the masterclasses, so now I can finally turn them into L&B entries.

Another quick note-- I won the solo competition at the STS!!! Here's a link to another blog of mine detailing that experience, along with some books that I read over the summer. http://amidwesterntale.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-horn-new-books.html

Southeast Trombone Symposium

Greetings from Columbus, Georgia! I am participating in the Southeast Trombone Symposium at Columbus State University, hosted by my former professor Dr. Brad Palmer. It's been a great week so far--I have met some really great trombonists, played in quartets and octets, attended masterclasses, and heard outstanding faculty recitals. Tomorrow is the solo competition, which I am a finalist for. I had intended to update this blog throughout the week, but as it is Thursday, you can see that I did not accomplish my goal. I have been so busy and dead tired that I am just now getting to the updates. Luckily I have been taking notes, so I will break it down by day and activity.

Visit this link for more information: http://music.colstate.edu/trombone/STS_2010.php

Atlanta Symphony Trombone Section: Colin Williams, George Curran, and Bill Thomas

Dr. Palmer conducting the CSU Trombone Choir.

24 Posts and Counting (not a TLC production)

Well, I made it-- I now have 24 blog posts to my name. If there is anyone else out in the blogging interwebs that happen to be reading this, Ladies in Brass began as a class assignment for Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature. What started out as a pesky assignment actually turned into something that has captured my interest. Before Ladies in Brass, I had not really given much thought to women in music- except for the fact that I am a female trombonist.  Since then, I have discovered that this subject is important to me.  Why does society place gender roles on the arts? What does it really mean to play with masculinity? Does an all-female ensemble really sound different from an all-male ensemble? What does it mean to be a strong female brass player today? These questions are bouncing around my brain as I type. I think I have scratched the surface on a few of them, but I will continue to dig deeper.  So, Professor Manning, feel free to continue to subscribe to Ladies in Brass, for this blog has just begun. Thank you for helping me discover an interest that I didn't know I had.

TubaCor Interview: Female Composers, Word of Advice

JD: Which new female composers would you recommend for brass ensembles of all shapes and sizes?

LF: There are a lot of composers listed on my website (www.linfoulk.org).  Those who are writing quite a bit for most brass instruments include (these are in no particular order): Elizabeth Raum, Barbara York, Libby Larsen, Joan Tower (she wrote a new piece for B5 called “Copperwave,” which I think is very strong), Lauren Bernofsky, Gwyneth Walker.  Monique Buzzarte (trombonist in NYC) also has a great site for locating brass works by female composers: http://www.buzzarte.org/database.html.

JD: What advice would you give to an aspiring female brass musician?

LF: Have an awareness of, but don’t dwell on being a female brass musician.  As Susan Slaughter once said in a 1991 article in the Boston Globe, “I tell my female students they can’t be ‘as good as’ anybody else; they have to be better.”  Practice more than anyone in your circle.  Also, don’t be a victim.  Any time you hear crud from colleagues, the problem is with them, not you, so leave it there.  Develop a thick skin to slip on when you have to deal with particularly difficult colleagues.  They can’t get at your core unless you let them.  Finally, playing a brass instrument is highly demanding physically.  You have to be assertive in your approach, even if you’re not a particularly assertive person.  When you perform, you are an actress who must express a full palette of characters and emotions, which includes aggressive, loud, and angry.  Many girls are trained to suppress those emotions, so it might be uncomfortable to play music like that.  But you have to get over that if you play a brass instrument—it’s not who you are, it’s the character you play.

TubaCor Interview: Choosing Repertoire

JD: What are your thoughts on performing “audience pleasing” repertoire and more serious works?  Are there any composers in particular that you feel are capable of pleasing a general audience and that satisfy your expectations as a serious brass musician?

LF: The Vivaldi Two Trumpet Concerto and the Brahms Duets that we performed is the first time (outside of church and wedding gigs) that I have performed a solo transcription for a “serious” concert!  Unlike the tuba, the horn has great solo repertoire all the way back to the eighteenth century.  So my teachers always discouraged me from playing transcriptions.  It has been so fun to play the Vivaldi and Brahms, however, and we plan to do more transcribing for TubaCor, as that fits in with our mission (see item #1 above).

My brass quintet talks about this a lot—we only perform “entertainment” music at Christmas time (that’s when our Kalamazoo audience is the biggest) and otherwise our mission is to perform serious art music.  Some argue that performing entertainment music is good for building classical music audiences, but I don’t buy that.  You’re training that audience to want/demand more entertainment music.  It’s not likely that that same audience will come to hear you perform the Etler or Husa quintet and truly appreciate the performance, unless there is a lot of pre-concert talk and educating audiences about that kind of music.  My quintet tries to program music that is both serious and pleasing and I guess that’s trying to reach everybody.

I like much of Eric Ewazen’s music and TubaCor plays a trio by David Gillingham that is well-written and challenging, while also being “audience pleasing.”  There are a lot of others, but these two come to mind immediately.