Category: General Practice

Variable Practice – Making Lessons and Performances Easier

Variable Practice helps make your lessons and performances easier. Does your music seem harder for the lesson? I can’t count how many times per week a student says, “I had that perfect yesterday!” I always say that I believe them because it happens to me, too.

This is the science behind why you make more mistakes in your lessons or performances. They also have a way to fix it – Variable Practice!

Here are some additional ideas to do variable practice:
1. Staccato
2. Legato
3. Swing it
4. Arpeggiate the chords (piano only)
5. Do opposite dynamics than what are written
6. Move/Add Breath Marks
7. Practice in a different room (not with a standing instrument like a piano)

I know that I’ve been away from the blog for awhile due to some health issues. They’re wrapping up really soon so I can be more consistent in my writing. I saw this information come across my desk and I just had to share it with you!

Soaking the Pan – A Practice Technique

Soaking the Pan is a clever name that one of my students and I came up with together. It’s a pretty common technique that most people do already without thinking about it, but I’ll describe it, step by step, just in case it’s a process that doesn’t come natural to you.

How Did We Come Up with the Name “Soaking the Pan”?

You know how when you’re doing the dishes and there’s the crusty pan that had the entrée in it? You will probably need to soak the pan, possibly overnight, but you want to get a good crack at it and see if you can get it cleaned up tonight so you have less work later.

So, before you even start cleaning up the dishes, you fill up that crusty, filthy pan with water. Usually by the time you’re done with all of the dishes, that pan cleans up easy as pie. Minimal scrubbing needed.

This is an analogy of what we can do when practicing music. Here’s a step-by-step description.

The Steps

  1. Identify the tough parts. You may have already been doing this by marking parts that you want to work through later, but you can usually identify them with the amount of black or jumps in that area.
  2. Play through the tough parts. You can run some small section practice techniques during this time, but just playing through helps, too.
  3. Play the whole piece. The tough parts aren’t so tough anymore.

Conclusion

I’ve been using the soaking the pan practice technique ever since I can remember. It’s always been very natural to me. I decided to write about it, anyway, because not everyone thinks the way that I do. I hope it helps!

Music Helps with my Chemo Side-Effects

Playing and singing music with others helps with my chemo side-effects. It has helped more than any other musical thing that I’ve tried.

Music Therapy

The week I was diagnosed with cancer, I looked up music therapy. Was there anyone local where I could get treatment? Would it help with cancer or was it more targeted towards other diseases? What exactly does music therapy entail?

Well, I found a list of what a typical therapist does during a music therapy session. I found similar lists all over the internet. Here it is:

  • Create music. You might compose music, write lyrics, or make up music together
  • Sing music. Use your voice to share a piece of music.
  • Listen to music. Enjoy the sound and lyrics.
  • Move to music. It can be as simple as tapping your toes together or as complicated as a coordinated dance.
  • Discuss lyrics. Read or listen to the lyrics of a song and talk about their meaning.
  • Play an instrument. Use an instrument like a piano, guitar, drums, etc. to share music.

I took one look at that list above and said, “I do all of those things a lot because of what I do.”

I asked my oncologist about music therapy and she said that all they do is a drum circle, which is canceled right now due to covid.

Chemo Side-Effects

One of my side-effects from chemo is my heart races. The first time it happened, I didn’t know what to do. After I thought about it for awhile, I remembered a study that came out a few years ago about heartbeats syncing in choirs.

I set out to see if playing or singing music helps with my chemo side-effects.

Experimentation

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional and I’m not a scientist. These are my personal results, they’re not a study. If someone would like to contact me to further these findings, please do.

I made my kids sing with me and it helped! My heartbeat went from 120 down to 100. It stayed down there for a good couple of days.

I had a few friends come over and sing with me. My heartrate went all over the place, but about half an hour after they left, it settled down for a few days. I never checked my heartrate afterwards, but it didn’t bother me so that was good.

Then I decided to experiment. I made my oldest child play flute and clarinet duets with me. She’s in her fifth year and the duets were a little on the easy side for me. My heartbeat went from 115 down to 90.

I had my youngest play flute duets with me. No change, but she’s only in her second year and the duets might be too easy for me.

I played flute and trombone duets for half an hour with a friend. My heartrate went from 110 down to 70. Jackpot!

Piano was more of a hinderance than a help. Another chemo side effect I have is that I’m shaky. My aim is gone. I can’t hit jumps for the life of me and that’s frustrating.

So, what I discovered was that singing OR playing a wind instrument helps with my chemo side effect by calming down a racing heart. The harder the music was, the more effective it was at bringing down my pulse.

How I’ve been Implementing My Findings

In order to keep my pulse in a good place, I’ve been calling on my music friends to play or sing with me. I try to have at least one person over to the studio or the shop every two or three days.

I’m only playing with my musician friends who have volunteered to do this and cycling through my friends so I don’t become a burden to them. I also don’t set up a session with them when I’m going through a lot of fatigue.

Knowing that these sessions are coming up are something for me to look forward to. They’re fun and exciting. We’re basically sight-reading the whole time, which always makes for a ton of curveballs and extra laughs.

I’m so glad that I remembered that study and have been implementing it to the best of my ability. I hope it helps you, too!

More Excuses.

I’m not one to give or accept excuses. When I say I’m going to do something, I do it. That’s why it pains me to say this, but I’m not going to be able to write articles for this blog as regularly as I would like for the year of 2021.

Here’s my excuse. It’s a good one, but it’s still an excuse, which rankles me.

I was recently diagnosed with Stage 3C Aggressive Ductal Breast Cancer.

No, this isn’t an April Fools joke. I just thought my readers deserve to know. Here’s the good news:

  1. I have one of the better cancer teams in Omaha (which also means within a two state radius).
  2. This cancer is very common and there’s tons of new research on it every day.
  3. I’m relatively young and healthy.

All that being said, I’m not worried for myself. It’s just going to be a hard road for the rest of the calendar year. I’m going to have to give myself the grace of having as few deadlines as possible.

Based on what the doctors are telling me, my treatment plan should last until right around December of this year. After I’m done with the plan, I should be cured.

The doctors said that I should still be able to keep my regular lesson schedule. Most people work full time while they’re dealing with this kind of disease. It will be a long, hard road, but I’ll come through it with flying colors, like I always do. Maybe it will give me a different perspective which I can pass on to you.

Record Yourself to Reduce Performance Anxiety

I asked many of my students to casually record themselves during practice to reduce their anxiety. It was something different that I wanted to try for getting ready for the Christmas recital. I’ve noticed a big decrease in stage fright this year and it reduced their anxiety.

Casual Recording vs Regular Recording

Casual recording is different than regular recording. Here’s the difference.

In regular recording, you’re playing through something 200 times trying to get a good take. You’re used to playing it perfectly, but it won’t come out right because that ominous recording light is on. It’s important to get everything perfect because you’re going to share it with others.

In casual recording, you just turn on the recording device, whatever comes out comes out, and you go back to practicing as normal. You don’t plan on sharing the recording, but you might review it to see if there’s something that you can improve. Maybe.

Some Results

First of all, I have to say that I didn’t create a scientific study. I’m dealing with people, not double-blind studies. Here are the patterns I’m seeing from my students and myself in the nervousness factor.

Starting Point: Crash and burn at least once per phrase, insists they can play perfectly at home. I believe them. I assign them to casually record themselves once a day.

1 Week of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with only one or two crash-and-burns.

2 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence, one or two small mistakes.

3 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence and emotion. Maybe a mistake or two because they’re human.

I have a tendency to attract a certain kind of student to my studio. I’m not saying that your results will be the same. Yours might be better or worse. This is just a summary of what I’m seeing in my studio, purely anecdotal.

Casual Recording Helps with Performance Anxiety

So, how does casual recording help? It makes the act of recording a no-big-deal, every day kind of thing. It makes you used to dealing with performance anxiety on a certain level each time you do it. That’s why I’ve been recommending my students to casually record themselves once a day to reduce their anxiety.

A regular recording might actually increase your anxiety because your body is thinking, “Ugh, another three hours to record one piece, and even then it won’t be perfect.” Can you feel the dread?

From my results, I’m going to start assigning casual recording for a month before a performance. I’ve seen how it has helped my students this winter. I know it will help them through the rest of their lives.

Rant: Hymn Arrangements for Solo Instruments

I have a frustration around hymn arrangements for solo instruments and piano. Most of them are written at about a 7th grade level for the instrument. No runs, no fun rhythms, and no ornamentation, just a hymn that is played exactly how we would sing it.

That’s great for 7th graders or someone who is just coming back to their instrument. I have absolutely no problem with young musicians playing in church. In fact, I encourage it. On the other hand, it’s discouraging for anyone at a high school level or above.

When I was in college, I found one book that I absolutely love. The arrangements are beautiful and interesting. The problem is finding a church organist who is able to play it. The piano part is harder than the flute part and it would take the average church organist 3 months to learn it. Not practical.

I’m starting to see more and more hymn arrangements out there that have a harder flute part, which is great to see. I’m glad that the composers are hearing us and filling our needs.

The problem with these arrangements is sometimes people with doctorates in piano have a hard time playing the accompaniment part. I’m not exaggerating. Many of the books try to overcome this by coming with a CD which is nice for at home but a little cheesy for a performance.

I would like to see more hymn arrangements in the school of Donjon’s Offertoire which has half-notes in the accompaniment and 32nd notes in the flute part. Unfortunately Offertoire isn’t hymn-based, but you get the idea. Arpeggios are prettier on the piano than half notes, so maybe do some *easy* arpeggios in one hand with half notes in the other hand.

I know that the answer to all of this would be to just write them all myself, but I have a hard time getting over my fear of sending stuff in to the publisher. Therefore, I have a hard time finishing things. Anyone want to stand over my shoulder and make me do it? (Kinda joking, but really I’m not.)

So, hear me, oh, ye sacred composers! We want church flute music that’s challenging for the soloist but sight readable for a church organist – we’re talking right around early to middle intermediate. Go! Do! Be better than me and actually send stuff into the publisher!

How to Write Your Own Technical Exercises

No one taught me how to write my own technical exercises. It’s something that I figured out on my own by teaching from the technique books that go along with the methods for Faber, Alfred, and Bastien. I know that I’m not the only one who helps their students learn this technique, and I’ve never seen a source that formally teaches how to do it.

Several Philosophies on Technical Exercises

There are lots of different philosophies about how to use technical exercises and whether to use them at all. First let me say that I’m a huge supporter of technical exercises (besides that article, also see here), I’m just presenting some different philosophies around them.

Philosophy #1: You don’t need technical exercises, just repertoire.

The people who feel this way have several reasons for it:

  1. It takes too much practice time away from the repertoire.
  2. It causes pain from repeating a pattern too much with bad form.
  3. The patterns that are taught aren’t necessarily found in music that they play.
  4. They’re boring.

Philosophy #2: Use a technical studies book.

These people know that, while these technical studies might not necessarily come up in the repertoire that they’re currently working on, they’ll eventually come across the patterns that are taught in the book. They religiously practice them daily as part of their warm-ups and excel because of it.

Philosophy #3: Write your own Technical Exercises.

Some of these people agree with the people in Philosophy #1, but have seen the results from the people in philosophy #2. Some of these people were entrenched in philosophy #2 and discovered that they could write their own technical exercises, and started doing that occasionally.

The Steps to Write Your Own Technical Exercises

Step 1: Identify the problem.

You’re playing along, sightreading your new piece, and, BAM! A tough section hits you straight in the eyes.

This is Mozart’s Concerto #1 for flute. The circled section is what we’ll be working with today.

Step 1: Divide the notes by 3 or 5, overlapping.

In this instance, I chose to divide them up by 3. This makes the technical study easier.

If you want to divide it up by 5, there will be less studies. It’ll be a little bit harder, but you’ll learn it faster.

Divide up the notes by 3, overlapping.
This is a division by 3, overlapping. We want it to overlap so we can transition better between ideas.

Step 2: Write out the first study.

Make the first section into repeating 16th notes so that each note gets the chance to be first on the beat.

The section marked 1 goes with the first section in the above picture.

Step 3: Repeat Step 2 for each note division.

Step 4: Play it.

If you run through the whole thing once (with repeats), you might be able to play the excerpt correctly. If not, keep practicing at it. You can even decide to practice a different section per day five times while playing the rest of it once.

You may have to change up the rhythms to get it into your fingers, but you’ve done the lion’s share of the work just by writing it out.

Why Writing Your Own Technical Exercise Works

The important factor in this exercise is that each note gets a chance to be the first on the beat. Your brain automatically gives preference to the first note of the beat and accents it. You’re changing the accent of the pattern, therefore evening things out in your head.

Another factor is that as you write out the notes, your subconscious mind sees patterns that it didn’t see when you first read through the section.

The final factor is that you’re using your creative energy to write something, so your subconscious deems it as important. To your subconscious, writing your own is more relevant to your practice than a technical exercise that some dead guy thought might be helpful a long time ago.

Final Note:

Once you’ve written your own technical exercises a few times, you can start doing it in your head rather than on paper. It won’t be as powerful for the subconscious mind, but it’ll save you 5 minutes.

Adult Beginners on Musical Instruments are Fabulous

Adult beginners take up about 20% of my studio. I absolutely love to teach them how to play a musical instrument for many reasons. Here’s why.

Adult Beginners Are Dedicated

Adult beginners are generally really good at practicing regularly. They have a goal – to play well – and they know there’s only one way to achieve it. Practice.

Adult Beginners Learn Quickly

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Chinese Proverb.

Many adults want to catch up to where they would be if they started learning as a child. Luckily, their brains are fully developed so in the first year they gain about three years’ worth of skill. Children’s brains and muscles are still developing, so they take longer to learn things

Don’t believe me? Check out an adult beginner’s piano book. The last pieces are about the same level as the end of the third book in the children’s series.

I Don’t Have to Dumb Myself Down

When I teach a practice technique to a grade schooler, if they ask why it works, I have to say, “magic,” because I will completely lose them if I explained why.

When I teach a practice technique to an adult, I can go into the psychology of why it works and how we’re going around a wall our subconscious minds built rather than through. This is one of my favorite things.

Emotional Performances

This goes back to having a fully developed brain. It also goes to having more life experiences. If I assign something like the Moonlight Sonata, which should be played with tons of emotion, I can get it instantly from an adult. I usually have to teach someone younger than 8th grade how to fake it.

Adult Beginners Know What They Want

Most adult beginners usually have a clear vision of what they want to get out of their music lessons. While my job is to push them forward, they will show me the direction they want to be pushed.

Most want to use the piano to relax and maybe release some emotions. These are things that are necessary to life as a musician, anyway.

Some absolutely love the classical music and they want to be classically trained. The classical music is what drives them. Some are driven by pop, musicals, and Disney.

Some adults have a different purpose to learning their instrument. They want to learn how to compose or play in a band or church. I keep these things in mind when helping them decide on repertoire.

Ergonomics

Maybe I’m crazy, but I absolutely love helping people with the ergonomics of their instrument. I want them to enjoy the life-building activity of playing their instrument. I don’t want them to have to deal with tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, or some other form of tendonitis.

Because our bodies are not what they used to be, we have to be more careful about injury. Depending on the person, I sometimes start out with various upper-body stretches that target the common issues that flutists or pianists have. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I Get to Watch their Brain Grow

Studies have shown how great learning an instrument is for your brain. Here’s an article with a few different studies about that.

With kids, I don’t notice the difference because their brain is growing, anyway. I can’t always tell that their brain growing faster than it was before because I didn’t necessarily know them before.

With adults, I can really see a difference after the first year of playing an instrument. I’m not sure how to measure it, but they learn faster, remember things better, and are all-around sharper. It’s fun to see.

Conclusion

As you can see, I love working with adult beginners. I think it’s fabulous to see people learn new skills at every stage of life. If you’re not feeling great about starting later, I hope this either helps you strengthen your resolve or decide to start.

Getting Myself to Practice During Coronavirus Lock Down

I have a confession to make: I had a really hard time getting myself to practice during the lock down. I tried all my normal tricks to get myself to practice, besides gigs because…lock down. Nothing happened. I just couldn’t get myself to do it.

I finally did get myself to practice. Here is the information about it.

Aversion to practice was common during lock down – unless you’re a student.

First, let me put this out there: my students practiced more during lockdown than ever before. They were bored and their flutes and pianos were fun. I was very proud of their progress.

I talked to a lot of adults – professionals and semi-pros, and I wasn’t the only one having a hard time practicing during lock down. It was a common problem. Even Two Set referred to it.

Why was I having a hard time getting myself to practice?

For me, I think I had a hard time practicing because all my gigs got cancelled. It completely erased my accountability. I had nothing to practice for except practicing, itself.

In addition to that, my excitement and anticipation were completely gone because 2020 wiped out all my gigs. Normally I have no problem practicing for its’ own sake, but this time everything was such a downer that my subconscious associated practicing with the downer of the virus.

Finally getting myself to practice.

A friend asked me to write an arrangement of a piece, and that got me excited to open up the piano. I love being creative. Once that spark ignited, I started putting my flute together and practicing that, too.

I wasn’t very rusty at all, which was surprising. I made sure that I was either doing the two-stand method or ending with a fun piece. This kept the spark of joy alive from session to session.

What will I do if this ever happens again?

There were three problems that needed solving for this particular situation.

  1. I needed something to work towards.
  2. I needed accountability.
  3. I needed to erase the fallacy that had crept in about practice.

Here are the things that I’ll do if this ever happens again (unlikely, but good to have a plan).

Get Lessons

One easy way to solve all of these problems would be to get lessons. There’s a reason my students weren’t having problems with practicing. They were working towards a goal and I was holding them accountable.

Sightread Fun, Easy Music

I might also buy some fun sightreading music. I bought a Veggie Tales book to sightread and I’ve been having a blast because it’s easy enough for me to sight read and it’s bringing me back to a time when my friends and I loved that cartoon.

Write Music

Writing music worked this time. I’m not sure if that would be reliable for me or not, it depends on the situation or the composition idea. This arrangement that I’m working on is really fun and it pulled me out of the slump.

Conclusion

I’m not pretending to have all the answers. I know what has worked for me in the past. I know, based on the solution, what would have worked for me in this situation. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Maybe this will help you pull out of the Covid practice slump. Maybe you’re reading this five years from now and there’s another slump that’s going on. I just hope this helps you.

The Boss Practice Technique: Slow Down Then Speed Up.

There are a few practice techniques that involve slowing down, especially with a metronome. This article will be talking about the Boss Practice Technique, which has specific steps. This is mostly used for small sections of music at a time.

It’s very reliable – it will get you where you want to go – but it can be frustrating, so use this practice technique as a last resort. I’ve been told it’s called the boss technique because you’re bossing yourself, the music, and your body around.

Step 1

Slow it down to at least half speed, if not slower, with a metronome. I know metronomes are frustrating, but they’re sometimes necessary. I go more into that here.

Step 2

Speed it up with the metronome. Here’s how to tell how much to speed it up:

Easy: up 2 clicks (5-10 beats per minute)
Normal: up 1 click (1-4 beats per minute)
Hard: Stay where you are or go down a click or two.

Step 3

Continue to speed it up until you’re going at least 3 clicks (10-15 beats per minute) faster than your goal.

Step 4

Go your goal speed. It should feel easy, now.

Why Use a Metronome for the Boss Practice Technique?

The metronome is essential to the Boss practice technique because otherwise you’ll go really fast in the easy parts and really slow in the hard parts. It forces you to keep the tempo even. It also forces you to go faster than the goal speed.

The Boss Practice Technique Should be a Last Resort

This practice technique can be very frustrating and should be used as a last resort. It works very reliably, but you should try some of the other small section practice techniques, first, such as practicing backwards, practicing inside-out, or rhythmic changes. Those practice techniques go around the wall that your brain and your body have built around this tough section. The Boss practice technique goes through that wall.

Everybody Does the Boss Practice Technique

Whenever I speak to a different musician, I ask what their favorite practice technique is. The Boss technique is the most common that I hear. That’s because it works every time. It may not be as easy, it may not be fun, and it may take a long time, but it works.

Sometimes you have to have a practice technique that works for when nothing else does because no one has thought of the practice technique that is needed for that situation. Sometimes you can’t go around, under, or over the wall that is this problem. You have to go through the wall. This practice technique takes you through the wall.