Category: General Practice

The “Divide and Conquer” Practice Technique

This is a practice technique that can and should be done from day one of starting a new repertoire piece. It’s simple, it makes you better, and you may realize that you’ve accidentally done it before.

The only time you might not want to do this practice technique is if you’re in the process of learning all your scales. If you have time to do this in addition to learning your scales, go for it.

What You’ll Need:

You’ll need a metronome, a good scale book, and etudes (optional). I can’t make a good recommendation for a piano scale book, but Pares Scales (affiliate link) would be a good place to start on the flute.

If you don’t have a metronome, there are a ton of good, free metronome apps that you can use on a phone or tablet. If you need a real one because you want to reduce screen time, I really like this Matrix one (not an affiliate link). It’s loud enough for me to hear with earplugs and over the piccolo.

Analyze Your Piece

First you have to ask yourself a couple questions:

  1. What key(s) is my piece in?
  2. Does the piece transfer into a different key for awhile using accidentals?
  3. Double-check. Is it Major, minor, both, or modal?

Scales

When warming up, play in the key(s) of your piece all scales, arpeggios, chords, and thirds with a metronome.  Keep increasing the speed of the metronome over the course of the weeks/months that you’re learning the repertoire.

For variety, use the various scale exercises in your scale book. They’re designed to even out your fingers. They’re also designed to practice the common trouble spots that you might encounter in the music.

Etudes (optional)

An optional part of this is to find etudes that are in the same key(s) as your new repertoire piece. Play a new one each week.

Etudes weave into a melody a problem-pattern that is common in your instrument. If you practice etudes that are in the same key as your repertoire piece, the problem-patterns that the etudes bring up are more likely to be the problems you’ll encounter in your repertoire piece.

These are the reasons I can think of that etudes are optional for this practice technique. I’m sure there are more.

  1. You’re going through a lesson book and you need to go through those etudes in the order given (lesson books are etude books).
  2. You have a goal of going through certain etudes. It feels good to say you’ve played all of a certain composer’s etudes, and I’m not one to get in the way of your goals.
  3. It’s hard to find etudes based on key signature, and you don’t have the time or resources to scour etude books for hours on end.

This technique can and should be used in conjunction with all the other practice techniques.  It helps you recognize parts of the song that may look hard at first, but then you realize it’s just a scale.  It also helps you keep your fingers even.

The 5-Minute Warm-up

Ah, the 5-minute warm-up.  If you use it correctly, you will sound like a genius before rehearsal, auditions, or a performance.  It will also make you sound like a million bucks while playing your pieces.

In addition to using it as described above, you use this because you are freaking out because you have to finish learning a piece by next week and you’re not even close.  You don’t have time to go through the regular warm-ups, but you know that warming up will make you play better. I call this the time crunch purpose.

The 5-minute warm-up touches all the points that you do in your normal warm-up – tone, scales, and technique. You only play through them, you don’t work on them.

Here is an example of what you can do for each of the instruments that I teach.

Piano

Find the key signatures that you’re playing in your pieces of music. In those Major or minor keys, play each of these below:

Scales
Chords
Cadences
Arpeggios

If you have time, do all 12 Majors and/or minors.

Do whatever you can to the best of your abilities.  If you only know how to do a root position chord, that’s what you do.  If you’re normally doing 3 octave scales, that’s what you do.

Flute

  1. Long Tones – lower register
  2. A Beautiful Tune – It should be memorized in the middle register, and maybe stretches up to the upper register.
  3. 12 Major or minor Scales and Arpeggios – if you’re really crunched for time, just do the keys that you’re playing later.
  4. Harmonics or Octave Jumps – don’t be a perfectionist about these. If you can’t hit that last harmonic, don’t try to pick it up. Just keep going.

Do this to the best of your abilities.  If you are at the first step of good tone and learning how to get a good B natural, that’s what you do.  If you like to do T&G exercise #1, memorized, for your scales, that’s what you do.

Fear and Awe

A good 5-minute warm-up can strike fear or awe in the hearts of everyone around you.  I once saw Arturo Sandoval (famous trumpet player) do his.  He did long tones, then When You Wish Upon A Star in 3 octaves.  Everyone’s jaw dropped. 

What’s your favorite 5-minute warm-up?

How To Practice Using Rhythmic Changes

I remember when I learned how to do this, it seemed like magic. I could take every tough section of my music and learn each one in minutes. Trevor Wye talks about how to do this in his books, and I learned it from my college band director.

How Do You Do It?

First, you take a tough section of music, like below.

Then you change the rhythms to a dotted eighth/sixteenth pattern. Do not write it out, just make the changes in your head.

Change the rhythm to a sixteenth/dotted eighth pattern.

Change the rhythm to a triplet pattern. When it ends unevenly, just make them into quarter notes at the end. In a case like this, you could start with two quarter notes and do triplets to the end, in addition to how I wrote it below.

Play as written.

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If the tough section is longer than four bars, then take it in four-bar sections, overlapping by a measure.

Why Does It Work?

If you already feel your eyes glazing over, just skip this part and say that it’s magic. 🙂

The first two steps force you to make a quick change between first one half of the notes, then the other half. The root problem is that your fingers are revolting against some of the switches between the notes, and this technique forces your fingers to behave.

The third step, with the triplets, forces you to think about the notes differently. You’re changing the natural accents of the notes, and you’re also doing the math in your head rather quickly. Because you’re paying such close attention to the notes, you learn them faster than normal.

The fourth step is important because it brings everything together. You realize that you really can play that tough section. Afterwards, when you put the tough section back into context, it helps your brain say, “I’ve got this!”

In What Situations Do You Use This?

You use this when there’s a small, fast section of a piece of music that’s really hard to play. You’ve run through it a few times and your fingers just get tangled on themselves and don’t know what to do. This is my go-to technique for small, fast sections because it’s fast and it (usually) works.

How I Learned a Piece of Music on a Time Crunch

I normally would have taken 2-3 months to learn a piece like this. It took me a week.

I texted a friend of mine who directs a local church choir. When he texted me back, he asked if I could accompany for a joint ascension service for three congregations. I took a look at it (here is a link for it) and said to him, “I can learn that in a week.”

I failed to look a the metronome marking.

I could play it easily at 60. 104? I wasn’t sure if I could make it in a week, but I didn’t want to back out. My friend was counting on me. Here’s what I did to get it done.

Tactic #1: Mini-Practices

The first practice of the day I did my normal stuff – scales, technical studies, and etudes – before I started working on the music. Then I practiced the piece one or two times using plans below. Then I took a short nap to get the myelin building up on my new neurons.

After the nap, I did something active for the same reason. I put in my garden, went for a run, cleaned the house, you get the idea. Then I practiced again, just going through the song two or three times.

I did this process 3-5 times per day. It was great because using this process, I was able to practice at least twice as long as normal per day without pain, injury, or tension.

Tactic #2: Metronome

I didn’t play without the metronome. Every time I started feeling comfortable with the piece, I would pop the metronome up a notch, usually once per mini-session, sometimes once every-other session.

There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. Since I was playing with a choir, I didn’t want my natural rubato to start creeping in.
2. The metronome helps you find the parts that you’re messing up on so you can fix them.
3. The metronome makes me a little nervous. I needed that because I was going to be playing this in front of 300-400 people, and I have stage fright. (Aack!)

Tactic #3: Twinkling

If I was having a hard time with transitioning from one chord to another, I would play the two chords over and over, starting slowly and building up speed until it fell apart. Then I’d back up a measure or two and if I hit that chord easily, I would continue through the piece.

Tactic #4: Drilling Measures

Sometimes there would be a whole measure that I couldn’t get. In that case, I would play the measure over and over again, starting slow and working it up to speed and a little past that. To make sure I had it in my fingers, I would back up to the beginning of the phrase and keep on playing if I was able to play it in context.

Tactic #5: Play Tough Chords in Octaves

Sometimes I would have to jump over an octave and hit a block chord. Sometimes this would happen in both hands. If I was having a hard time making that jump, I would play the chord as written, then play it an octave down. I would play another octave down. I would continue to 8vb the chord until I ran out of room on the piano.

Then I went up an octave from the bottom octave of the piano. Then up another octave. I continued to 8va the chord until I reached the top octave of the piano.

Then I went down an octave from the top octave of the piano. I continued to 8vb the chord until I came to the original position of the chord. As usual, I backed up to the beginning of the phrase to make sure I had learned the chord and if I had, I continued on.

Tactic #6: Practicing Backwards

I started out playing the last page. Then the last two pages. Then the last three. So on and so forth until I hit the first page. Sometimes I did this by phrase, which ended up being more like half-pages.

I did this tactic when I was having a hard time adjusting to a new metronome setting. It really worked and I was usually able to bump the metronome up a notch after practicing like this. I only used this tactic once per day and it took up an entire mini-session of practicing.

Tactic #7: Dropping Notes.

THIS TACTIC IS FOR ACCOMPANIMENT ONLY! I had to simplify certain parts in order to play them up to speed. If there was a measure that I just couldn’t get or a chord that I just couldn’t jump to, I would analyze my part against the choir part and cut what I could, keeping the main part of the chord intact.

Here were my judicial cuts
1. I switched to the melody and the lowest bass note for a section that had too many jumps. The choir was singing unison at that point, so as long as I had the melody, it sounded fine.
2. I had to make over-octave leaps in my Left hand in one section, with 4-5 note chords in both hands. It was the same chord all measure in the Left hand (inversions), so I only played the first one in each measure.
3. I had a 16th-note run that was 4ths with the occasional 2nd. Since it wasn’t a normal arpeggio, I couldn’t play it and then play the block chord at the end. I had to choose one or the other. I left the run out and played the initial chord and the chord at the end.
4. There was a section where I was playing something very similar to what the choir was singing, but I had an extra 1-2 notes in each hand. I switched to what the choir was singing, and switched back to my part at a time when my part diverged from the choir part.

This tactic was a last-ditch effort. If I had 2-3 months to work on it, I never would have dropped notes.

Results

In the end, I got the piece up to 104, but it wasn’t a comfortable 104. I told the director that I could play it at 96 and he was fine with that.

The rehearsal was rough because I had all these new sounds coming at me, what with the trumpet and the choir. After the rehearsal, I made my kids sing the melody line while I played the accompaniment a couple times per day. I should have done that for the initial practices, but I didn’t think about it.

The performance went great. My youngest daughter told me she didn’t hear any mistakes. Given her familiarity with the piece and her musical training (4 years on the piano and 6 months on the flute), I would call that a success!

My Normal Practice Routine

Need a new practice routine to up your game? Steal mine. 🙂

This is about my normal practice routine. I have three basic ways to practice. Normal, Extra Fun, and Rushed. The other two ways will come out later, but I think it’s important to talk about the normal day because that’s what increases your level of ability.

Here’s my basic outline.

1. Warm-ups
a. Tone (flute only)
b. Scales/Chords/Cadences/Arpeggios
c. Technique

2. Meat and Potatoes
a. Etudes (lesson books would count here)
b. Sight Reading

3. Repertoire
a. The piece(s) I’m working on
b. One piece I’ve already learned (keeps things fun).

Here’s Why in a Story

Imagine a medieval army. There are kings, knights, dukes, horses, and catapults.

The tone is the swords because they make you fight better.

The scales, etc, are your shields because they make hard music easy.

The technique is the cavalry (horses) because it attacks the hard music at a different angle.

The lesson book/etudes are the people of your army because that is your basic playing level.

The sight reading is your armor because it keeps your army feeling safe, so your army moves forward faster.

The repertoire pieces are your catapults because they knock down the walls in front of you so it’s easier to move faster through your musical journey.

Amount of Time

I just do one or two items per category, so I don’t have a goal for the amount of time that I practice, I have goals of what I want to cover. The farther along you are in your musical journey, the longer you will practice each day.

While these aren’t hard and fast guidelines, here are some things to expect:

  1. First 6 months – 15 minutes per day.
  2. 6 months to Early Intermediate – 30 minutes per day.
  3. Early Intermediate to Late Intermediate – 45 minutes per day.
  4. Late Intermediate to Advanced – an hour or more.
  5. College – 2 hours
  6. Pro – up to 5 hours.

Notice that there is some overlap? Notice that as you progress, the amount of time gets fuzzier and fuzzier? That’s because it depends upon your repertoire choices, any extra things you want to work on, etc. For example, if you play flute and you want to learn vibrato, you would do vibrato exercises in attition to the tone exercises.

Timing Within Practice Sessions

There is a general rule that if you’re practicing more than half an hour, you need to take practicing in 20 minute chunks. Since I usually practice well over that mark, I set the timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, I take a few minutes to stretch, drink some water, and massage my forearms. Then I set the timer again for 20 minutes and continue my practice.

There are two main reasons for the 20-minute mark. The first reason is that when you work on something for longer than 20 minutes, your brain starts working in loops. This keeps your brain working at an optimal level.

The second reason to keep it at 20-minute chunks is to make sure that you’re not overworking your muscles or accidentally creating tension. It helps prevent injury. This is one reason why I stretch between my 20-minutes sessions.

I hope this helps someone who is looking for a new routine or doesn’t have a routine. How about you? What is your practice routine?

Practicing Music Backwards

This is my favorite practice technique. It works like magic, and it’s perfect for your first practice session of learning a new piece.

Practicing Backwards - A practicing technique that will take you from overwhelmed to fabulous, fast.

When I was a Freshman in High School, my band director handed out Mars by Holst, arranged for concert band. This was the hardest piece my young eyes had ever seen. Even the Seniors were flinching.

My band director, Linda Moeller, said, “I am so excited to learn this piece. It’s a little hard for us, but I know we can do it. What do we do when we’re learning something really hard? We practice backwards!”

I was confused, but I was taught to never talk back to a band director. I kept my mouth shut while I listened to her directions.

We played the last chord. She said, “Check your fingers and toes. Are they still there? Great!” Then we played from the last rehearsal mark to the end. We played from the second-to-last rehearsal mark to the end. We kept going like this until we started at the top of the third page. The whole song was getting easier.

What was this magic? Even the new parts were getting easier. We began to start at every other rehearsal mark, then every third. When we got to the beginning of the music, we played the whole thing with only a few mistakes here and there.

I use this technique all the time for myself and for my students. I use it a couple of different ways.

Learning a Whole Piece of Music

Start at the end. If it’s a long piece, I have a goal of playing the last page or two. If your eyes are going crazy just looking at the thing, just play the last chord. Then the last line to the end. Then the last two lines to the end. Keep working forward like this until you get to the beginning of your goal.

Each day, keep going forward, page-by-page, till you get to the beginning of the piece. Each page will get easier and easier as you get used to playing the same theme in different ways.

Learning a Small Section of Music

This is for tough licks in the music that you just can’t seem to get. Play the last 3-4 notes, as slow as you need to play it correctly. Add 3-4 more notes. Keep adding notes until you get to the beginning of the section.

If 3-4 notes is too big of a chunk for you, just add one or two notes at a time.

Each time you add a section, you will naturally go a little faster than last time. When you reach the beginning, you won’t have it up to speed, but you’ll have the notes under your fingers. You’ll be able to speed it up easily from there.

Why Does This Work?

Okay, I’m going to get technical, here. If your brain doesn’t work that way, just call it magic, and don’t read on. I’m very careful who I tell why this works.

Whole Song Technique

Music is written so that it introduces a theme at the beginning, then the composer shows how many different ways the theme can be played throughout the piece. Each time the theme is played, it gets more and more complicated until the end.

Since you’re starting at the end, you’re playing the most complicated part of the music first. It feels easier the farther forward you get in the piece because it is getting easier. This forces you to play the hard part more than anything else.

Small Section Technique

This works for two reasons. First, it puts your brain into puzzle mode, using the math center of your brain. This is the part of your brain that solves problems. When you normally play through something, you’re using too much of the language center of the brain to solve the problem.

The second reason it works is pretty obvious. It forces you to practice the same lick a million times. It becomes cemented into your fingers through muscle memory.

I hope you give this practice technique a try. It really helps. What is your favorite practice technique?

I Don’t Wanna Practice!

How many times have you heard this phrase? How many times have you said this phrase? I know I’m supposed to practice, but I don’t want to. Here are some tactics to get over that hump.

How many times have you heard this phrase? How many times have you said this phrase? I know I’m supposed to practice, but I don’t want to. Here are some tactics to get over that hump.

My big jar of big candy on my piano. The metronome is in the background.

Prevention

First of all, let’s talk about prevention. While everyone gets in a practicing funk sometimes, it’s best to prevent the lack of motivation if at all possible. The way to prevent this is to always end your practice with a song that you know and enjoy. You’re ending your practice on a good note, which sends, “Practicing is fun!” signals to your brain.

The Big Piece of Candy

This is for when you know you will be fine with practicing once you start, it’s just starting that’s the problem. Have some big pieces of candy (jawbreakers, ring pops, etc) next to your practicing area. When you’re done practicing, you get to have a piece of candy.

Little Pieces of Candy

This is for when you are having a hard time getting yourself to practice the right things. You line up M&Ms, Skittles, or whatever you love, and it’s one candy for each item. If you want to practice a certain piece of music twice, you put up two pieces of candy. Eat them as you go.

If you’re playing a wind instrument, make sure to swish your mouth out with water after eating each piece of candy. This method is from Lara Moldenhauer.

Seeing the candy lined up is powerful. If you don’t want to eat while you’re playing, you can put them in a cup and eat them afterwards.

The Two Stand Method

This is for when you’ve lost all the joy of practice. Practice has become a chore. Create two stacks of music – one that you’re supposed to play, and the other that is music that you already know. Alternate between the two stacks of music. It will bring back the joy of playing and remind you of how far you’ve come. This method is from Jennifer Cluff.

The Bossy Friend/Parent

This one is very simple, but it works. It’s for when you’re having a hard time starting, but you know you’ll be fine once you start. Call your bossiest friend or parent and have them order you to practice. They’ll enjoy it and it’ll get you going.

The Alarm

This is for the forgetful people (Guilty!). Set an alarm for a certain time of day to remind yourself to practice. It will become automatic eventually, and this way you’re fitting it into your schedule.

Schedule a Gig

Scheduling a performance will be enough of a motivating factor to get you into the practice room. It will create an intrinsic motivation (motivation from inside of you) because you don’t want to look like a fool for not practicing.

Need ideas for creating a performance?

  1. Ask to play for church.
  2. Sign up for a competition.
  3. Sign up for a performance at a museum at Christmas.
  4. Join a new ensemble.
  5. Find a production for which you need to try out.
  6. Create a recital of your music.

How about you? Are there any tricks that you do to make yourself practice?