How many licks Does it take to get to the center of a tootsi

[Derek Reaban]

There was a recent topic on TPIN that progressed to how much time players spend practicing each day. Some very accomplished professional players commented that they are playing 12 plus hours per day in practice, rehearsal, and concerts. It is no surprise that they are fantastic players!

In response to one of these posts a player cited excerpts from a Philip Farkas master class that she had attended:

[_Don Herman]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Some things just require more time on the horn (endurance comes to mind -- hard to play a 2 hour gig, for me anyway, if I never practice two hours). My experience (such as it is) indicates that I could gain greatly from playing 2 - 3 hours a day, even after years of practicing 1 hour a day. Catch is, as a CP with a demanding day job (and demanding kids and related night jobs), I rarely exceed the 1 hour/day practice time. Now and then I put in more practice (e.g. when I've a tough performance schedule coming up) and it usually forces me to become a better player (have to step up to get the job done). I have to figure out how to deal with playing over the staff for an hour after playing hard the night before, or morning of, for instance.

Which ties into goals, your future post, quite nicely. One of my biggest problems is complacency, or perhaps just not thinking enough about improvement. With so little practice time, I spend too much trying to perfect what I'm playing that week rather than pushing myself harder to improve overall. Everytime I decide to focus on a few areas that I'd really like to improve, I hit a "bad" week and things slip. This will spur me to (once again) put up a goal list and practice to it. I write down a list of things I'd like to improve and clip it to my stand to remind me to spend a little time each session on them.

Interesting - Don
_________________
Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[Derek Reaban]

Don,

I certainly agree about the endurance factor that you bring up, and finding a two-hour job difficult if the most that you ever play is an hour a day. I think that’s missing the point of this post though.

I believe what Farkas was trying to communicate is that EVENTUALLY, the body will figure out the best means for efficient sound production. If you plug away an hour a day (with a well thought out practice routine or NOT), by the time that you are 50, something will finally have clicked, and you will discover that the actual effort of sound production doesn’t have to be that hard. To make these strides earlier in your life, more time on a daily basis will be required.

However, once you have arrived at a certain proficiency level (based on your daily time on the instrument) and ingrained this into your muscle memory, getting back to that point will not take that long after a short break.

I think that approaches like Adam, Caruso, and the BE, can accelerate this process. But, if you are only playing one hour per day (and have never had a stretch of time in your practice life where you could devote any more time to the horn daily), it’s going to take many years to crack the secret to efficient sound production.

As far as goal-oriented practice, I like your lead in! I think you will enjoy my thoughts once I can organize them.
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[_Don Herman]

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the reply!

While I frequently "miss the point" (would that it were only on TH!), in this case I think I "get it". And, I still disagree. I know players who've been part-timers for ages, and they still struggle with various playing difficulties. It'd take a good teacher and some serious practicing (not necessarily long, but focused) to "fix" them. If they even wished to change. As it is, they get by well enough, and thus don't have a lot of incentive (or drive, or need, perhaps) to improve their efficiency. Farkas may well be right for pros, but I'm not sure all the amateur hacks and CPs like me were taken into account. I suspect it'll work for some, but quite a few will simply quit trying after such a long time playing and maintain the level they're at, whatever that may be. And, I further hypothesize that many (if not most) of those who've played many years and decide to seek a breakthrough will do more than just practice more (e.g., try a new method, get a new teacher, etc.) I suppose my bottom line is that I don't think that somebody practicing an hour a day will automatically find that breakthrough no matter how many years have elapsed. To put it into engineer-speak, they're in a local minima and can't get the energy to push over to the next higher level.

It could be I'm missing an implication that such a "long-time" (I've decided in the past few years that I don't really care for "older" ) player really wants to improve and has been trying diligently, but I think quite a few of us fall into the "good enough to get by" trap and cease really trying to improve. I find that a danger myself. And, that's why I'm looking forward to your "goal" posts. I've been noodling around the idea of putting one in the CP forum, a warning to not let yourself stop improving, but haven't quite worked out how and what I want to say yet. Now, you've totally disincentivized me, as I know you'll say it with much more thought behind it than I! Of course, I can always throw my two cents in (like so much else, it's much easier to add than create). I'm thinking a steady feeding of "micro-goals" is a good thing, instead of setting them so bloody high there's just no hope of reaching them...

Take care! - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[Strawdoggy]

Let's find out.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

(Crunch.)

"Three."

[Derek Reaban]

Strawdoggy,

I was hoping someone would quote that owl! I loved that commercial. I hope you caught the symbology of my 3 hours of practice per day to that crunching sound. The whole point of the Farkas idea, at least for me, was that we all have a shell that we have to breakthrough to get to the good stuff. So, for me, in my 30s, 3 hours was the magic number!


Thanks,


_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[ This Message was edited by: Derek Reaban on 2004-03-18 09:22 ]

[thelurker]

Derek,

Obviously more goes into it than just “put in your time” but I believe you have a very good point about the importance of quantity. I also believe that the topic here hits right at the core of what people here define as different “schools” of playing. There seems to be a real propensity for people on this site to focus on trying to learn that efficiency through analytical methods, which do have value, but should not be the only course of action.

I think efficiency on trumpet is a lot like efficiency while running; you can go over how to run and the correct form until you are blue in the face and you can even run short distances and be fine. But until you have ran 10 miles or more at once you really will not master form.

To master something it has to become your natural state.


I like to think about what Farkas stated in the “Art of Horn playing”; anyone that practices 30 minutes at a time is in for a rude awakening when they play their first all Wagner concert


One thing that we can infer from this is that you can play incorrectly and if you have enough muscle built up you can muscle the horn around and sound ok for 30 mins or so or maybe for 2 hours total for a day, but when you start practicing past that your body really begins to address the efficiency aspect. Almost like how a runner has to hit the wall and move past it, mentally and physically it is the same for a brass player. Playing becomes your natural state, just as running is the natural state for a person that does marathons.

In the end it really is a balance between quality and quantity, and in general most of us have low standards and don’t put in the time which makes for over all bad playing.

Hopefully some of these ramblings made sense and added in some way to the points you are trying to address.

[Strawdoggy]

Good points, Lurker.

[Derek Reaban]

Lurker,

Very good points! Of course the intent of practice is for it to be both high in quality AND quantity. A well-conceived practice plan with sufficient rest is vitally important to advancement. With that in place, here is the point that I was trying to make. Also quoting from The Art of Horn Playing (my Sister-in-laws book, and read over the phone, so it may not be exactly word for word):