Blog

Dealing with Frustration During Practice

Dealing with frustration during practice is a huge part of having a good practice technique. Who hasn’t given an angry stomp or jumped up and down while growling because you just can’t get that tough lick? How many times have you banged your fist on the piano because your fingers won’t do what you’re telling them to do?

The point is, how do you get past the frustration without giving up? Here is step-by-step what I do.

Step 1: Display Your Frustration

If you’re not alone in the room, skip to step 2.

If you are alone, don’t be afraid to show your frustration. You’re angry with your body, the music, the composer, and yourself. Go ahead and yell. Scream. Growl. Throw a mini-tantrum. This step shouldn’t take longer than one minute, ideally it should be about 20 seconds.

Step 2: Breathe

I usually take a one or two very deep breaths after my 20-second mini-tantrum. This gets oxygen pumping into my brain so that I can work on a solution.

Step 3: Puzzle Mode

If you think of the situation as a puzzle, you will automatically engage the part of your brain that solves problems. What is the source of the problem that you’re encountering? Fingers? Embouchure? Rhythm?

When you’ve figured out the source, you can decide on a good practice technique. I have a bunch of articles describing different practice techniques in this section of my blog if you’re blanking on which one to use.

Figure out two or three different practice techniques to do, starting with the most likely, just in case the first one doesn’t work.

Step 4: Use your Plan of Attack

Go ahead and use the practice technique(s) that you chose. If you need to take another mini-tantrum break, go ahead and do it, but you’re not going to let this problem have the better of you.

Side Note for Gifted Children

Gifted kids tend to have the hardest time of all with frustration during practice. They don’t understand how to handle themselves when they can’t get something right the first time. They’re used to everything coming easy, without effort. Sometimes they don’t even realize they’ve learned something in school because they learn it so quickly.

Many gifted kids don’t encounter a problem they can’t solve or something they can’t easily learn until they’re an adult and then they don’t know how to handle it. This process will help them learn how to logically get them through problems they can’t instantly solve rather than get frustrated and walk away.

This is why learning a musical instrument is especially important for them. They need to learn how to learn. They also need to learn how to solve hard problems.

On top of everything, gifted kids’ emotions have a tendency to run higher, which causes the frustration to instensify. That can be a recipe for disaster, unless you have a process to work through it.

Conclusion

This is my process of how I work through my frustration when I’m practicing on piano or flute. If you have a different process, feel free to share!

Taming Chaos: Creating a Routine when You Have None

Creating a routine is tough. Usually a routine is created, not by you, but by your circumstances. Right now most of my students have no schedule because of the Coronavirus shut-down. After that, they still won’t have a schedule because of summer break. We’ve been in this situation for about a month, and schedule-wise, it feels like July.

I feel like I’ve struggled with this concept all my life. As a child during the summers, I saw the days slip by, with nothing done. Same with weekends. I saw how Sundays were much more productive than other days because I had to get up for church.

As I got older and had jobs from my teen years on out, I saw how much I could accomplish when I had somewhere to go or a task list for the day. As a teen, I read Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, who touched on this subject and gave suggestions on how to get past the doldrums of no routine. They both talked about how much happier people are when they have a schedule and tasks to do.

How does this have anything to do with music? It’s easy to forget to practice when you don’t have it scheduled into your day. Creating a routine will help with that. So, let’s take a look at some different ideas on how to create structure in your life.

Daily Routines

Back in 2002, I stumbled upon the Flylady system (not an affiliate link). One of the premises of the program is to have a routine that goes with each meal. We already subconsciously do things related to each meal – incorporate getting ready for the day with breakfast, doing the dishes for the day after supper, etc.

Her philosophy is that you can add anything you want to these normal routines. For example, my lunch routine is to eat, fold a load of laundry, then practice. This way you’re not creating a routine from scratch, but you’re building on several small routines that are already in your life.

Louisa May Alcott alluded to this system in Little Women. She mentioned that Beth would find herself cleaning up after herself without realizing she was doing it, and she was happier for it.

Have a To-Do List

If you have a to-do list, you can make sure that you have things like practicing on that list every day. In the process of doing your list, make sure that you’re doing like with like. For instance, computer stuff can be done all at the same time.

20-Minute Chunks

This combines well with a to-do list. Set the timer at 20 minutes throughout the day. Switch between the different tasks on your to-do list. I go into more detail about it here. I’ve discovered over the years that it’ll cut your homework time down by half.

Scheduling Out your Day

This can be taken in two ways. Elon Musk uses the time blocking technique where he takes his to-do list, estimates out how much time each item will take, and puts it on his calendar. This works great when you have a ton of stuff to do.

On the other hand, many of us have too much time on our hands, and so are forgetting to do the important stuff. Jane Austen suggested in Sense and Sensibility to divide your day out into sections and do certain things at certain times. Her examples were practicing music, reading, writing, needlework, and taking a walk. This is a system designed for people of leisure.

Alarm Clock

Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in a project. All of a sudden you look up, and it’s been 6 hours. There goes your day, and you haven’t even eaten. I like to have several alarms go off throughout the day to remind me to do certain things. For a long time, I had an alarm go off at 9AM to remind me to write music.

Conclusion

It’s harder than most people realize to go through life with no structure, no routines, and no schedule. It makes some people cranky. It makes most people forget to do that one thing they were supposed to do today. I hope these suggestions help you get out of the funk of the doldrums and into happy, productive days.

Music Ensemble Etiquette

Etiquette in a music ensemble can be somewhat of a mystery. There are a lot of unsaid rules and norms out there for how to act among other musicians. This article should help to solve some mysteries and help you make a good name for yourself among your peers.

I’ve only ever played in America – the Midwest and in the Pacific Northwest – so some of these norms might be different where you live.

General Etiquette

Let’s get some of the basics out of the way that apply to every group situation. It’s good etiquette anywhere, not just in music ensembles. You probably already know this, but someone might need this information.

  1. Be on time. On time in music world means 10-15 minutes early because it gives you time to warm up. It’s passive-aggressive to be late and awkward to be more than 15 minutes early.
  2. Never criticize, condemn, or complain. Thank you, Dale Carnegie, for writing this book and spelling it out for us all (not an affiliate link).
  3. Be lavish in your praise. Any time you see an improvement or you see an opportunity to give a compliment, do it. It will open doors to friendships and contacts.
  4. Practice Good Manners. Hold doors open, be kind, avoid taboo topics like politics and religion. If you have further questions, go read Emily Post.
  5. Practice Good Grooming. No one wants to smell you.

Music Etiquette

This list is more music-specific. Almost everything is unsaid, cultural norms.

  1. The Conductor/Leader’s word is law. It’s not up for debate. If your first chair or conductor says jump, you say how high. Be silent while the director speaks and try to keep eye contact when you can while playing.
  2. Do your five-minute warm-up. You arrived 10-15 minutes early (see #1 from the first list), so you have time to do your warm-up before you start running any parts.
  3. Greet Other Players. As other people come, or as you sit down, greet others within your vicinity. Stop your warm-up, look them in the eye, and say hi. If they want to chat, go ahead and chat for a bit. Otherwise, continue your warm-up.
  4. Own your mistakes. If there’s a crash and burn that’s your fault or you can’t hear whether you’re sharp or flat, apologize. It creates a good atmosphere.
  5. It’s better to be sharp than flat. When in doubt, go up. Other people are more likely to identify the flat person than the sharp person.
  6. Ignore the haters. Whenever I join a new ensemble, there’s almost always someone who instantly dislikes me. It’s instant and palpable, and it’s before I even have a chance to greet the other person. Still greet them, but otherwise ignore them and continue to be friendly with everyone else. They’ll either come around or leave. Another option that works occasionally is to ask advice, even if you already know the answer.
  7. NEVER practice someone else’s part. It can seem as though you’re out to get the other person.
  8. Put in your practice time at home. Rehearsal isn’t for practice, unless you’re running fingers or working on something before rehearsal starts.
  9. Clean your instrument. Taking the time to do this after rehearsal says a lot to the others about your musicianship and helps you keep your instrument in top shape. It also gives you a chance to chat with others while you put your instrument away.

Other Stuff

Here are some other things that I like to do that aren’t necessarily music ensemble etiquette, but make life easier.

  1. Talk to the Old-Timers. They will have cool stories and fabulous advice. Try to joke around with them to get them to open up.
  2. Ask Questions. Be a sponge. Others have a different background than you with different ideas that you can learn from.
  3. Try to Create a Relationship with the Leader(s). They’re in that position for a reason – they know more than you. See #2. Also, they might know about other gigs that are available to you.

Conclusion

When we all act with good etiquette, life goes smoother and everyone is more comfortable. When everyone in a musical ensemble is comfortable, they make better music. If you act properly among other musicians, you’re more likely to be asked to come back.

The Silent Practice Technique

The silent practice technique simplifies your practice in some ways by eliminating certain aspects of your playing. This helps you focus on certain aspects of your playing, especially your fingers. It can be done on any instrument.

Silent Practice on the Flute

This is taught to be done in band while the director is working with another section. It’s helpful for when you just can’t get those fingerings down. While sitting, you put the head joint on your left shoulder and rest the foot joint on your right knee. This provides a stable resting place for your flute while you run through just the fingerings.

Silent practice can also be practiced on a pencil. This is very handy for things like sitting in a waiting room or in a car for a road trip. Nice for when you don’t want to disturb others, but need to run through your piece.

Each of the silent practice techniques have their own purpose. The mechanisms take extra time to push down and allow to come back up, while the pencil doesn’t have mechanisms to deal with. Practicing with a pencil helps create faster fingers. Silent practice on a real flute helps your brain to process the extra time it takes to deal with the keys.

If you also want to practice your articulation, go ahead and create an air stream and do your articulations along with the fingerings. It’s still beneficial to not have to worry about your tone.

Etiquette Note: Some people like to run some air through their flute while they do this. Please don’t. It’s rude because sometimes you accidentally make a noise. It also creates embouchure confusion.

Silent Practice on the Piano

One way to do silent practice on the piano is to use an electric piano, turned off, or with the volume all the way down. I used to do this all the time when I was playing organ for church, during the sermon. I turned off the organ and ran through everything for the second half of the service. Sometimes I just ran through the harder stuff.

The greatest part of this is that you’re not worried about sound or dynamics. It’s just your fingers. It simplifies your practice.

Another way to do this is to print out a keyboard. I found one here. Use it on a table top. This is much harder than using an electric piano that’s turned off because the black keys aren’t raised, but it’s still an option. Because it’s harder, it might be more beneficial, especially if you’re using the paper keyboard for mental practice (hearing it in your head while using your fingers to play).

Just as with the flute, each of the silent practice techniques have their own purpose. The keys take extra time to push down and allow to come back up, while the paper version doesn’t have keys to deal with. Therefore, practicing with a paper keyboard helps create faster fingers. Practicing on a turned off electric keyboard helps your brain to process the extra time it takes to deal with the keys.

Conclusion

As of this writing, playing an instrument is the activity that uses the most of your brain function. It’s powerful for your brain, but sometimes you need to simplify it before you can get the notes down. That means taking certain aspects of playing out of the equation so that you can focus on the things that are giving you problems.

Fake Performance Practice Technique

Fake performance can be done in many different ways, and it’s vital for during the last few weeks before an actual performance. It helps you learn how to keep going despite mistakes and it helps get your jitters out before the performance.

Simple Definition of a Fake Performance

The simple definition of a fake performance it to play through a piece without stopping. This is so hard! We want to go back and fix the mistake. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, but try to fight it.

Play your mistake as if you meant to do it by extending the length of the wrong note, rather than changing it right away. For example, if the note is supposed to be a half note, then hold your wrong note for a whole beat before correcting it. If it’s a sixteenth note, hold the incorrect note for the entire time of a sixteenth, then move on to the next note.

If your mistake was an incorrect rhythm, just make sure that the number of beats equal the correct amount for the measure and move on. You get the idea. No one needs to know that there was an actual mistake.

Different Ideas for a Fake Performance

As I said before, there are several ways to do a fake performance. Here are several ideas. Each fake perfomance style increases the nervousness, which helps you get ready for being nervous for the stage.

Toys

I don’t care how old or young you are, perform for a stuffed animal or a doll. It will help you because you’ll see their eyes staring at you out of the corner of your eye. Toys are generally non-judgemental, from what I’ve noticed. 😉

Metronome

I know I didn’t mention it here, but I personally get a little nervous with the metronome. This helps with the gradual increase of nervousness that I try to build up before a performance.

The metronome forces me to not stop. I just own my mistake by playing it for the length of the note that I was supposed to play, then move on to the next note that I’m supposed to play. This is really hard. If you’re having a hard time doing that, try holding your mistake for twice as long as the note you were supposed to play – this gives you time to think.

Record Yourself

Recording yourself creates nervousness. Creating a sound recording makes me less nervous than a video, but you might be different. I’m not saying that you should do anything with the recording unless you want to, I’m just saying that creating a recording helps a lot.

Play for One or Two People

I am a very non-judgemental person, so those are the kind of friends that I have. I have been known to play for a friend and have them pretend to be judgemental, all the way down to the looks on their faces. It really helps me get the jitters out ahead of time.

Play in a (Somewhat) Public Place

Play your wind instrument outside. It’s not necessarily around other people, but someone could come along.

Play with your windows open. People might be walking past your house, they might not. You don’t know.

You can go to any public piano and start playing. No one will stop you (unless there’s a pandemic). No one might be there, but someone could walk by.

Ideas for public pianos? Movie theaters, nursing homes, churches, shopping malls, just keep your eyes open. You’ll see them. As I said before, don’t do this during the social distancing thing.

Conclusion

As you can see, the ideas for fake performance get harder and harder. This is on purpose. The whole purpose for fake performance is to practice performing. This way the real performance goes off without a hitch. Or maybe less hitches.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Merry Easter, Everyone!

I am unapologetically Christian. My normal Easter is singing and playing flute all morning in church, from 7AM till noon, then coming home and crashing for the rest of the day. I love sharing my faith through my music, and I didn’t get that this morning, so I felt the need to share with you.

This is “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” arranged by Rebecca Bonam. I just played the first 2/3 becaust the last third is a cool duet between flute an piano, and my oldest daughter isn’t far enough along to play it.

It’s from this book. I’ve had it since college and it’s really fun to play. The piano part is a little tough, so you might have a hard time finding an accompanist for it.

I’m playing this in my bathroom because that’s the room with the best accoustics, lol. Have a great Easter season!

Practicing with a Metronome

Practicing with a metronome can be frustrating in many ways, but it is necessary. I hear a lot of different reasons why people hate practicing with a metronome, but there are many reasons why it’s good, too.

Frustrating Things about Practicing with a Metronome

There are many frustrating things about practicing with a metronome, so I’ll talk about each frustration.

It Feels Too Mechanical

There are two reasons that playing with a metronome makes the music feel mechanical.

  1. It forces you to use the problem-solving portion of your brain rather than the language center. This one reason why you should use the metronome, anyway, because as you solve the problems in the music, you are able to play it better.
  2. You have a natural rubato that is really hard to turn off. This is a reason to use the metronome, anyway, because rubato is not always encouraged in music, especially if you’re playing in an ensemble or something written before the Romantic period.

It Makes Me Mess Up

The metronome is a treasure hunter for mistakes. If you’re messing up, that means that the metronome is set too high. When you start using the metronome, you’re supposed to go a few (or more) clicks slower than you have been playing. This is because you subconsciously slow down on the tough parts.

Uses for Practicing with a Metronome

Now that we’ve gotten the most common excuses out of the way, here are some things that the metronome really helps.

Finding the Mistakes in your Music

I’ve already mentioned that the metronome is a treasure-hunter for mistakes. It helps you find them because, first of all, it makes you slightly nervous, and second you subconsciously slow down on the tough parts.

Speeding Up the Music

When you start a piece, you start out slower than slow. Largo’s got nothing on you. Once you start feeling comfortable with the music, if you speed it up naturally, then you go really fast on the easy parts and really slow on the hard parts. Than becomes your norm and it’s really hard to come out of it.

Evening Out the Tempo

Let’s say you have a really good natural rubato, but you want to play in an ensemble. Rubato is not a good idea for that. You’ll want to play at least once with the metronome each day.

Conclusion

I used to think that the metronome was evil, but a necessary evil. As I grew as a musician, I was able to embrace the metronome. It saves me precious practice time and makes me a better musician.

A Rushed Practice Session

The rushed practice session is a useful tool. It’s for when you have a limited amount of time to practice on a certain day. It can also be used for when you need to devote more time to your repertoire that day. It shouldn’t be used all the time, but can be used until a crisis is over.

This is the last in the series of the three kinds of practice sessions I do – regular, super fun, and rushed.

How the Rushed Practice Session is Set Up

The rushed practice session is pretty simple. It’s a five-minute warm-up followed by the things that you need to learn.

On the other hand, there are different things you can do based on your situation to help things along

Not Enough Time in the Day

When you have over-scheduled yourself and there’s not enough time in the day, just run through everything once. Don’t stress about it, just run through it. It’s the slow way around, but it works. Usually when you do this, whatever you’re working on usually includes a real warm-up. Therefore, you can skip the 5-minute warm-up.

This article will give you some more ideas on how to find more practice time in your day.

Crisis-Learning Repertoire

When you need to use your normally scheduled practice time to concentrate on repertoire, the rushed practice session is the ticket. This, in addition to the rushed practice sesion, also helps.

Too Much Repertoire

Sometimes you get bogged down with too much on your plate – a ton of gigs, recitals, competitions, etc. If you do a regular pracitice session, you might spend a longer time practicing than you should. What that means is that if you’re used to practicing for an hour and you have an hours’ worth of repertoire to practice, you should do the rushed practice session at least once a week. You don’t want to overwork your muscles and tendons.

Here are some more ideas for how to deal with that problem.

Lack of Motivation

Let’s say you’re forcing yourself to practice. This is one way to get yourself to do it. You promise yourself that it’ll be quick, so you just do a rushed practice session.

Here are some other ideas for how to help with motivation. Towards the end of this article, I talked about how to prevent a lack of motivation.

Conclusion

The rushed practice session is a great tool. It shouldn’t be overused, but it’s an option for when you find yourself in a bind.

Are there other situations where you find yourself needing to use this tool?

The Interleaving Practice Technique

Interleaving is a newer practice technique that I stumbled upon in the past week or two. It’s different than spacing, which I refer to in this post, but they can be used together. It can be hard, but it helps with retention.

What is the Interleaving Practice Technique?

Interleaving is to mix up information within a subject area and study it in different orders, but not studying it all the way through. It’s kind of like using flash cards, but mixing up the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

First Step: Make Sections

You can do this on a macro or a micro scale. If you’re learning a 5-page sonata, it would make sense to make sections that are approximately one page long (macro). If your goal is to learn one page this week, then you might want to divide that page up into phrases (micro).

Second Step: Randomize

Two out of my three sources (this and this) recommended to go through each section three times, so they picked a random order of sections and repeated that random order three times. It could look like this:

2,4,1,5,3 2,4,1,5,3 2,4,1,5,3

If you want to do spacing in addition to the interleaving, you could do other things like scales, long tones and technical exercises in-between each interleaving section, or do non-music related things.

Third Step: Get Out Your Timer!

Two versions of interleaving involved a timer. This version has you switching between subjects every 3 minutes, and this one every 5 or 10 minutes. This way you know that you’re not going to fully practice each section in the amount of time that’s allotted, which is part of the interleaving process.

I don’t know about you, but I feel more productive when I use a timer for anything. It doesn’t matter what it is, I feel like I get more done.

Applications

Obviously, you wouldn’t want to use this practicing technique every single time. You need to play through it from start to finish at least once a week, but I can see how this can really help, especially in the beginning stages of learning a piece.

Memorization

This could help a lot with memorizing your piece. The experts are always saying to divide it into sections and memorize those sections. If science says that this helps you memorize things better, give it a try. Let’s see if it works for you.

Beginning Stages

This would really help with the beginning stages of learning a piece. It forces you to work through parts of the piece rather than gloss over them. It would also help you analyze the piece easier, making choices about dynamics and the feel of the piece.

Middle Stages

You know how it is in the middle stages of learning a piece. You play it through a couple of times and think, “It’ll gradually get better.”

In this practice technique, you could pull out the tough parts and interleave just them for a practice session here and there. I do this all the time with ensemble music, but not usually with solos. Who knew that I was already interleaving?

End Stages

I’m not sure how I’d apply this to the end stages of learning a piece. Those last few weeks are usually just about adding the nuances to make it a great performance.

Conclusion

I love adding to my bag of tricks! Any time I can find a new practice technique, it makes me more efficient. I know this technique is hard, but please give it a try.

How I Am Handling COVID-19 as a Private Music Teacher

Our mayor just announced a ruling by the CDC that there will be no gatherings in Omaha greater than 10 people for the next 8 weeks. This is going to affect a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

Events – Cancelled or Postponed

I was going to play pit orchestra for a musical next weekend. That musical has been postponed. It’s tough because it was going to be a world premiere of a new version of Phantom of the Opera. I was really excited about it, but I understand that the government wants to keep people safe.

We were going to have a spring recital at the end of the month. I have to go with the CDC recommendation and cancel the recital. I feel bad for my students who have worked so hard on their pieces, but I need to keep the safety of the immunocompromised in mind. Edit: Some parents are suggesting some online alternatives that I’m looking into.

I may be disappointed, but I’m glad that I can do my part to keep people safe.

Online Lessons

I did my first Skype lessons this week! They went better than I expected. I really liked that it changed the angle of what I usually see, so I could watch the form from a different angle.

I sincerely hope that this is an avenue that will allow my students to continue their studies through this social distancing event. I haven’t heard back from some of my families as to whether they’re continuing lessons, but most are.

Summer Schedule

This week I’m going to start talking to families about switching to a summer schedule – two or three days per week. That way my time is more blocked and I’m able to spend more time taking my kids to the park.

What I’m Doing Personally

This social distancing mandate may give me some extra time. I hope so. Here’s what I’m planning on doing with my extra time:

  1. Spend time in nature.
  2. Do some composing.
  3. Increase my practice time.
  4. Finish reading Quantz’s Treatise on Playing the Flute. (not an affiliate link)
  5. Spend more time with the family
  6. Make some YouTube videos? (Comment if you want some, and what the videos should be.)
  7. Front Porch Concerts – AKA: Annoy the neighbors. 🙂

Conclusion

I refuse to panic over this virus, but I will make smart choices. Based on what I’ve read and seen, these are the choices that I have made. I may have to make some different choices based on other things that come up, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I’m doing my best to keep others safe while continuing to do the things that I love.