Tag: technical exercises

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.

Being Lazy Can Be Productive

Being lazy can be productive. I know that I’m opening up a can of worms with this statement, but bear with me. I consider myself lazy. Not a sluggard, but lazy.

Definition of Lazy vs. Sluggard

I am unapologetically a Christian. I know what Proverbs says about being a sluggard. I can hear my dad quoting, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of your hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a thief…” Proverbs 24:33

As with everything, laziness has a spectrum. A sluggard is an extremely lazy person. Someone who is so lazy that they won’t even try. There are no standards of living. As long as there’s food and shelter, everything’s fine. It’s the very bottom end of the spectrum of lazy. I’m not saying this is good at all.

Laziness, in general, is just having a goal of not doing anything as much as possible. The goal is the couch or the recliner.

How Can Laziness be Productive?

The goal is the couch or the recliner, so if something needs to be done, it will be done as efficiently as possible – the fastest, the easiest, and the same quality of work as if I did it the traditional way.

I will spend an extra 5 minutes planning something out so that I can save one minute of doing the task. That seems counter-productive, but what if I have to do that task again? I already spent the 5 minutes figuring out the fastest and easiest way to do it, so that will pay off in the long-run.

Think about all the inventions people have made over the years to make life easier. That even applies to our instruments. Do I *really* need a C# trill key? Hopefully my next flute has one.

How Does This Relate to Music?

My normal practice routine is centered around my version of laziness. I make sure that I do scales, technical exercises, and etudes because they help me learn the repertoire faster. I go into that information in more detail in the linked articles. I call it dividing and conquering.

Another thing I do to increase efficiency is I analyze my music before I play it. I note all the scales (even the modes), the patterns, the form etc., in my head. I know that it helps some people to write it down in the music, but that gets to be too much information on the page for me.

Last but not least, I use a ton of different practice techniques to help me learn my music faster. Here are a bunch of them. I’m always adding more to my list. Sometimes I make them up and sometimes I learn them from other musicians. They’re a way for me to go around, over, or under a wall, rather than try to go through.

Everyone Needs a Lazy Friend

People who aren’t lazy just do things the way they’ve always done them or were taught to do them. Lazy people spend the extra time to figure out the fastest and easiest way to do everything, all the way down to washing their hands. I’ll be your lazy music friend. My goal with this blog is to help you practice faster and easier than you did before.