Guide to Instrumental Practice
Air is the foundation of a good sound
“Don’t practice until you get it right,
practice until you can’t get it wrong”
Here are 4 Keys to practice perfectly:
-
Imagine your lungs and diaphragm as a compressor; much like filling a tire, the tank needs to be full before it can handle filling the tire! You can't have a good sound without proper breath support
-
Visualize filling your lungs from the bottom up. (Imagine watching a glass of water being poured) filling every space in the glass.
-
Exhaling comes from “compressing the air” into the instrument. Controlling speed of that air is what will affect pitch, register and dynamics. Steady airstream creates a solid dark warm sound
Soft and Slow
-
Read notes first! Take your time match fingerings with correct note on the staff
-
Count through excises first. Understanding the rhythm enhances the music you are playing.
-
Tone quality! Work on creating the best tone on your instrument.
-
Start playing “low and slow”. Long tones are the best practice to build beginning embouchure.
Sectionalize! Don’t try and tackle an entire piece in one day!
This leads to frustration and unhappy playing! If an exercise is 8 lines long, practice the first two on day one, lines 3-4 on day two and 5-6 on day three etc. As you improve on these lines, you can then work on playing more lines at a time.
Articulation is imperative!
Beginning an etude or exercise with proper articulation sets up how you play throughout the entire exercise.Proper articulation for your personal instrument is arguably the most important characteristic to a quality sound. Learn different scale patterns with different articulations to build a fundamental articulation.