How Do You Practice? Options

[piano*singing*lover]

How does everyone practice?
Do you have certain routines or techniques?
Do you warm up with scales or exercises?
How long do you practice for?
Just a tad curious to see how everyone else practices LOL (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
PSL x

[lizbun]

Piano (mostly every day)
1. Scales that I need to do. At the moment, it's Scales in 6ths maj and min and Diminished 7ths
2. A 'easy' piece to play though once a day
3. Pieces for working on

If I do it properly, it takes about 40mins -hour


Oboe (every day)
1. Scales and Arps. I do all the normall ones, and than do 1 or 2 Chromatic, Dim/dom 7ths.
3. Long notes
2. Pieces. I just play through them and do the bits that don't sound right

Usualy takes about 40-50mins if I do it properly


Violin (random)
1. Exersize
2. Pieces. same way as the oboe, but less successful

Abot 30mins

[sarah123]

Well, here goes...

Piano:
Play through first few hanon and school of velocity exercises a few times to warm up = 20mins ish
2 groups of scales, so that i get them all right = anything from 15 to 60 mins depending on how badly they go.
bit more hanon = 5mins
Pieces = as long as i have time for
Playing through old music/sight reading new music = 10-20 mins

generally ends up between 2 and 3 hours in total.

Recorder:
scales: 10-15 mins i think, but have never timed it
long notes, etc: 5 mins
pieces: as long as possible

totals at around 2 hours i think


This is what i do on most days, although sometimes i get carried away with one, so have no time for the other.

[anacrusis]

whenever I can grab enough tranquil time...

I've three pieces which are just about ready, and need to be kept ticking over, so will go over just the tricky passages of these every now and again, slowly, and building up so as to get the right fingerings ingrained. That takes only about ten minutes.

Two more pieces are still being learned, one is in the early stages, one later, both very modern and rather avant-garde. I've marked the passages needing attention, so sometimes I'll work on the one I've got half-ready, sometimes on the new piece; which is chosen depends in part on who else is around, because one is a collection of random notes and special effects, not very easy on its audience, and very demanding for me - it needs slow, repetitive and intensive work to get right. The other has more "zing" about it so I'm less shy about pulling it out - though the bit with the very high notes usually gets put off until I can play in an empty house. I try to spend about half to a whole hour on one or other of these pieces in one session, maybe three or four times a week, between coming back from the surgery and the kids getting in from school.

For fun I'll drag out almost any music which catches my eye - at the moment it's lots of Bach, violin partitas, flute partita, cello suites, because I'm also learning Brandenburg 4, and playing other Bach helps to get me into Bach mode. I'll sightread through something, then go back and try to improve on the appallingly played passages, though not necessarily working in the way I would if formally learning the piece.

And then there's playing with my husband, or with friends - it's still practice, and a fun social time too. At peak times that can be as much as four or five times a week, for about an hour, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, for as much as two hours in a stretch. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .

Scales? *shudder*

[ben_walker446]

Going over pieces to remind me what they sound like 10 minutes before my lesson (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[ad_libitum]

Piano - every day

In the morning usually, in between pupils, then in the evening, then later on - but I have to play the digital with headphones then so I don't wake everyone (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I don't look at the time when I'm playing so I honestly couldn't say how long each sitting is! Sometimes half an hour, sometimes 3 hours. It just depends!

The only certainty is that I probably sight read for over an hour a day at least.

I've never really had a "routine" or scheduled practise time. I just can't walk past the piano without playing it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

[Mad Tom]

Piano. Daily. 3 to 4 hours. Often more, rarely less. One day off per fortnight to give my hands a rest. Arranged as 30-45min sessions with regular breaks of 2 or 3 minutes.
Practice instrument. From top quality Steinway Grand to acceptable Yamaha upright (and everything between)

Objectives:
1. Improve from Diploma standard to a good basic professional standard over the next 5 years
2. Obtain the LRSM in 2009 (or failing that 2010)
3. Have fun!


1. Scales (15-30min):
Work on two or three different scales that have similar fingering Sometimes it is useful to work on scales in the keys that occur in the pieces I am currently working on. Aim to cover all 24 keys plus chromatics over a period of 2 to 3 weeks. Practice hands separate for smoothness at a variety of speeds. Then hands together aiming at absolute precision in the togetherness. Then in all the variations: A third apart, a sixth apart, contrary motion, double thirds, octaves. All done both incredibly slowly and at high speed (with not much in-between).

2. Technical Studies (30-45 min):
Studies by Moskowski (Op. 72) and Chopin (Op. 10 and 25). Partly playing over studies I have learned, to maintain technique. Partly working on new ones. After these there are plenty more to go at: Liszt, Scriabin, and Debussy all wrote some that are at least as challenging as Chopin's.

3. Memorization (45min to 1 hour):
Usually 2 or 3 pieces are in progress. I test and correct whatever was memorized from the previous couple of days, then learn as much more as seems reasonable, based on the difficulty of the material. This work is more effective, and less tirng, if I do it in 15 minute chunks with other work between them. As my repertoire grows I expect to spend less time on Memorizing and more on Maintenance (6 below).

4. Piece development (45min to 1 hour):
Work on recently memorized pieces, to get them fluent, and work through the basic technical and musical difficulties. Again, with more repertoire I'd expect to spend less time on this, and more on improving pieces that I can already play reasonably (5 below)

5. Preparation of pieces for performance:(30-45min)
Very detailed, painstaking work on pieces that I already play well. This turns out to be 80% correcting mistakes in basic technique: failure to align the active fingers with the arm, too little variety of touch, tension and rigidity in the hands, arms, and shoulders from a variety of causes, uneven tempo, lack of control in pianissimo, split notes in chords etc. and 20% correcting misreadings of the score, incorrect articulation, poor fingerings, incorrect dynamics. After all that (or to be more precise, integral with it) there is the challenge of understanding and then projecting the story the piece is telling or other musical statement it is making.

6. Repertoire Maintenance(30min)
Playing over a selection of pieces that I know from memory. After each piece check the score for accuracy (or check the score when I get home after practice). At the moment my memorized repertoire is so small that I can rehearse it all in little more than a week.

This is a rough guide. I mix the order and content up so as not to get into too much of a fixed routine. Now and again I will spend a full four hours on 4 or 5 bars of something! Now and again I'll spend the odd 10-15 minutes improvising on a simple tune, or a chord sequence, or a base figure, or perfecting my impersonations of Horowitz, Michelangeli, Richter, Gould, and Lang Lang (the mannerisms are easy - the playing is a bit trickier!). Occasionally a piano-playing friend will join me and we'll do some 4-handed stuff or even two pianos.

A couple of times a week I'll take a stack of scores of music I don't know, or don't know very well, and spend a couple of hours sight reading through it, marking stuff that I really like, or that is technically just beyond my present capabilities.


Cheers
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/piano.gif) Mad Tom

[lottie]

Scales
Studies
Exam pieces
Fun pieces

Scales are to get my fingers warmed into the correct intonation (which is probably the painful bit for anybody walking past the house)

Studies make me focus and ignore the dogs/ironing pile/work on my desk/kettle (tea)/weeds in the garden

Exam pieces, because I have probably played them a thousand times now but can't get all the way through without mistakes (if I had been younger and more petulant (like I was) the book would have been thrown across the room several times by now and probably been more bent than an old pillowcase).

Fun pieces are things like the duets I play with my teacher (mostly sightread), some Scottish tunes, and the odd thing that is way outside my ability but I'm determined to learn one day (like the entire Bach solo repertoire).

I'm really far too old for all this voluntary torture (wheels out her bath chair) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Rosemary7391]

Clarinet/Oboe
Scales/scalic excersizes, long notes occasionally (more often oboe)
Some random Sightreading
Pieces, play through and note 'danger spots' and practise those slowly. Then play through technically secure things putting in dynamics etc.

Piano
Usually limited time, so generally just pieces that I need for accompanying people. Scales and my own work if I'm really lucky and get a decent length of time! I have to practise at school, so it is tough.

[Bards]

How does everyone practice?
Do you have certain routines or techniques?
Do you warm up with scales or exercises?
How long do you practice for?
Just a tad curious to see how everyone else practices LOL (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
PSL x

I set up my stuff. Often I leave the cornet out, and my current music is all on a shelf within arm's reach! So, not too much effort involved there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif) Stuff is arranged neatly around me.

Start off with a few gentle warmups for 5 minutes until the notes come out properly - chromatics, lower range, top range, and an easy scale or two. Then I pick one thing at random which I fancy playing. This varies from day to day, so everything gets its turn. Some days I do nothing, and on big days it's 5 or 6 hours. The long days build up my stamina, but then I need a couple of rest days.

Anyway, everything gets logged on A4 graph paper - each time I start or finish, what I practiced and for how long - eg. 20, 30 or 50 minutes on one thing. One "thing" is a study book, or a complete set of scales, or a piece of music, or one workout, etc etc. I wouldn't say I'm a control freak or anything (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ("close enough" is often my motto) but it's a good way of monitoring progress. I can read back over it and analyse how fast I am progressing, or pat myself on the back when I realise how much I've improved. I also try to break personal records occasionally, and I push myself to practice more if the hours aren't adding up much for the week. I know from adding them up that I averaged 13 hours a week last year! Sometimes I use a metronome ( http://www.metronomeonline.com ) to test myself on studies, scales etc and I write down the speed and how good or bad it was.

But apart from that, it's me sitting on my bed, casually playing anything that takes my fancy. I often hone in on the tricky bits, or the molto expressivo bits, and play them over and over.

My "routine" (not a word that can easily be applied to me) includes a number of "daily" 10-minute exercises, which I've invented to develop certain muscles and written down very neatly. But "daily" in practice, sometimes means "weekly", and "10-minute" sometimes means an hour and a half. Some of these exercises are quite rigorous and hard work. Usually I focus on them intently, or I do them to music while surfing youtube.

Then I leave my stuff out on the bed, or I stuff it back onto the shelf. (Does anyone else monitor their progress in such a geeky way?!)

[BabyBanana]

Piano.

start with the first piece ( the one I'm good at ) ..
then do bit of sight reading on any other things I decide to play
second piece
more sight reading
scales.

usually takes about 1/2 hour - 1 hour.. because I have bad bad concertration span! I can't ever concertrate!

You may notice, I've left the third piece out it's because I hate it so much and it scares me therefore I don't dare to attempt without teacher and supposedly doing this grade in summer..

[Huge]

I try and warm up with a couple of easy pieces, then move onto the more difficult stuff. I hate doing scales and stuff, so I don't do them.

[ffliwt]

Violin:
Scales. I play every scale i need to know for my exam stacatto and slurred, atleast once each.
Pieces. Play through my pieces then go over any tricky bits.
Other stuff. Then i play some other pieces for fun, etudes, technique exercises, make songs up, whatever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Flute:
Tone exercises: Working on my tone and embouchure big time at the moment so i have to start every practise session with tone and embouchure exercises. Long tones, octaves, etc. and a whole lot of experimenting with my embouchure (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
Pieces: i choose one piece that i'm working on at the moment and play it through and go over tricky bits etc.
Other stuff: then i'll just play through anything and everything!
I'll also play through some scales. I actually quite like scales, on flute and violin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) If they're something that's going to help me improve lots then they're definately not something to be avoided (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I used to do like 4-5 hours a day but i don't have that much time lately. So i usually do atleast an hour and a half on flute and violin.

[itchy1]

Oboe:
I start with octaves, and long notes then,
Scales and arpeggios
Study/Bach. Working on the difficult patches then trying to put it all together eventually.
Pieces. I tackle them as I do the study, working on the difficult patches and then when I think I've got them right, putting the whole thing together to see if I can really play it all the way through!

If there's time, wind band music...or if it's near a concert I'll substitute band parts for my pieces but that depends how much practice it needs.

I try to have 45mins at least per day, if I have a bit longer I'll do some sight reading, or spend a bit longer on something else. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[kievins]

The Fundamentals of Piano Practice is a good guide to practising the piano (and a lot of it can help other instruments too), if you actually do it.