Practice Schedule Questions

[JoshMizruchi]

Hi everyone,

If you guys don’t mind, I have a question about practice schedule. I know Reinhardt said to practice a minimum of 3 hours per day and I totally agree.

But here’s the problem: I typically practice an hour in the late morning, an hour in the afternoon and an hour at night (on days I have no gig/don’t have to teach). This schedule keeps my chops in shape, but it can start to interfere with life. On most days it’s fine, but I think I need other options on days I might not have time to maintain that schedule.

I’ve tried cutting my practice into 2 sessions per-day (1 ½ hours each, 2 hours + 1 hour)…I’ve tried doing the Reinhardt Routines in the morning and musical practice at night. This works great but is tough if I'm working a lot. I’ve also tried Warm Up 57, immediately followed by musical practice, and then taking a break and continuing the musical practice at night. The problem is, sometimes practicing more than an hour at once can be rough on my chops, even though I rest a lot, and don’t usually push too hard. I also do the trio of daily calisthenics every day.

So my question is, how do you guys tackle this issue? What do you do? Have you found any schedules or combinations of drills that work especially well? How about the day after a gig/string of them? I usually prefer not to do the Reinhardt drills the morning after a gig because they’re so strenuous. What do you think Doc would tell me?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Josh
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Josh Mizruchi

http://www.soundcloud.com/joshmizruchi

[Mark Curry]

Josh-

I haven't had the luxury of three hours/day practice for about 35 years now.
I would recommend you just "touch upon" the stuff you need to work on after a solid warm-up.

I use Rich Willey's Focal Point for my opening exercises of the day. I do my parts 1 and 2 early on in the day, then proceed from that point as time allows. But I make darn sure I address my weak points every day. It doesn't take more than a few minutes each for me to address compression, cantabile playing, etc. A few minutes at various points throughout the day also help my chops stay fresh. Leave your horn sitting out and grab it when you have a few spare minutes.

Maybe Rich will chime in- he's a busy working player and Reinhardt disciple. He might be better to recommend your time management issue.

He even has kids
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A mouthpiece never missed a note by itself!

[lakejw]

disclaimer: i have never studied Reinhardt's method. i have, however, gone through many phases of trumpet practice. sometimes 6 hours in a row, with very structured assignments, and other times barely any "technical" practice at all.

i think you would be best served by a practice routine that 1) addresses your specific goals and 2) fits into a practical life schedule, so that you have no excuses for not doing it!

what good is a perfectly planned practice session if time runs short and you can't do it?

so, i wouldn't worry too much about an hour here, two hours there, etc. it's important to try and play all day sometimes, just to push yourself. experiment. most of all, find out what works for YOU to keep the horn on your face more often than it is not!

edit: i do agree that 3 hours is a reasonable "minimum" for regular practice.

[Doug Elliott]

When studying the Pivot System I think it's important to spend a significant amount of time addressing at least the points that you need corrections on, every day. The actual amout of time isn't that important. Any days you don't have as much time available, try to cover everything but do less of each. I'm being vague becase you just have to figure out what's important for your own playing and how to abbreviate in ways that work for you.

[JoshMizruchi]

Thanks for your responses guys, I found them to be extremely helpful. I think I have an idea of some things I can try to improve this situation.

I really appreciate it! Life will be a little easier.

Thanks,

Josh
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Josh Mizruchi

http://www.soundcloud.com/joshmizruchi

[Ed Lee]

Every moment you play as a teacher or gigging should be included in your "practice" time accounting. Alone, my practice sessions are now alternating 30 minutes playing (as I call "lip time") with 15 minutes rest. While I may warm up with routines, mostly I'm now just playing challenging music, or should I say rehearsing such music for seldom do I find my first pass up to performance grade, even if I've played such song many times before. With life priorities, I attempt to have "lip time" each day (except Sundays) of a minimum of 2 hours, but no maximum.

[razeontherock]

My .02:

switching to Reinhardt has meant, for me, mostly making more progress with less face time. In fact I fixed a long-standing embouchure problem during a period of what I would've normally considered terrible practice habits.

But I did it just the way people are saying here, small time increments, throughout the day. Never having had the privilege of studying under Doc I don't know, but it seems like his statement of "stop playing while the lips are still fresh" must have been a major staple?

And then things felt so good I went back to playing for longer durations, and enjoying the music. And noticed the same bad habit crept back into my playing Fortunately that's just been over a few days, so hopefully I';; be able to readily fix that, again ...