It’s December. Our fast-paced world just got a million times faster. What with holiday parties, extra gigs, Advent services at church, and getting ready for Christmas, everyone is walking around in an exhausted stupor. How will you fit in practice?
Here are some ideas.
Get Up Early
Get up earlier than normal. If you do all your normal stuff, quietly, earlier than normal, then you can practice during the time you normally would get ready. It’s late enough that you aren’t disturbing the household, and it checks that item off your list. Woohoo!
Alternate Practice and Something Else
I talk about this a little more extensively in this article. I personally like to use the timer and alternate between housework and practicing. My oldest daughter likes to do this kind of practicing while she’s cooking supper. I endorse this kind of practice to help make homework go faster.
The Time Crunch
Normally you would practice for an hour, but you only have half an hour today. What do you do?
Do a Five Minute Warm Up and run through the toughest pieces that you’re working on. It might be your etude (lesson book) and bits and pieces of your repertoire. Start with the toughest stuff and work from there. That way, if you get to everything, great! If you don’t get to everything, at least you did something.
Mental Practice
This is a good one for during a commute or something like that. Run through the piece in your head, all the way down to what your fingers are doing on each note.
This article explains in better detail how to do it (not an affiliate link, just a fan) and how much it helps.
Practice on a Pencil (Flutes Only)
Sometimes you find yourself waiting or with some dead space in your schedule, but it’s not socially appropriate to whip out your flute in the middle of the Doctor’s Office or the Laundromat. Believe me, I’ve been tempted!
You can still practice your fingerings on a pencil. It’s advisable to also breathe as if you were playing the flute and try to articulate the notes, too.
What’s great about this technique is that it takes out some of the factors that may have been troubling you, like making sure you’re still making a good sound or balancing your flute. In other words, it simplifies things so that when you go back to your flute, you can rock it out.
Listen to your Repertoire
This isn’t practicing per se, but it does help you play things better. It helps your musicianship, your articulations, your dynamics, your phrasings, I could go on and on, but you get it. It helps.
I recommend that my students listen to their repertoire (recital pieces) at least five times per day. Get it stuck in your head. Have the biggest ear worm of all time.
Conclusion
These are all my tricks! If you have a way of fitting in practice that I didn’t think of, feel free to share.