[Hammertime]

Just wondering how many hours/day you guys practice. I've recently come to the insight that I shouldn't waste my time with gaming, but practicing, if I wanna get into college. So now I'm trying to practice at least 1,5h/ day, and my maximum (my mouth gets tired by then) is 2 hours non-stop, I just did another 30 minutes practice, but I can't play any MORE. My lip hurts like hell, too...

Grts

 

[ChuBerry47]

Including school, I used to practice/imporvise six hours a day. Until I get My alto fixed up, and a new tenor, I have only been practicing two to three hours a day, includiong school that is. On weekends, I used to practice Six hours, but occasionally, my lips would hurt, and I would go to play my 360, but now I mostly listen to music, (at least until I get both conns decked out, then you won't see me all day, (You'll hear me of course!)).

 

[cincysax]

Something I`ve always wondered , When people say they practice 3 or 5 hours a day , is that all at one time or total for the day?

 

[ChuBerry47]

Sometimes, it is just straight out, usually, it is just the time that is overall spent practiced throughout the whole day.

 

[Hammertime]

I'm trying to play as much as possible, but my mouth won't let me! Oh, well, my embouchure will get trained so I'll get there in a few months I guess

 

[odsum25]

Anyone who wants to be a PLAYER should be practicing 3-4-5 hours a day minimum. And spend twice that amount listening.

 

[hgiles]

I am almost ashamed to respond!

 

[Ruediger Kramer]

2 - 4 hours (i voted 3)

 

[Jonathan C.]

What do you pratice though? I pratice less than 30 minutes a day without band. But I don't know what to pratice to make it last more than 30 minutes? So what do you pratice?

 

[Birdman]

I voted for two hours, I like to practice the Standards in my free time.

 

[tjontheroad]

2 - 4 hours (i voted 3)

Me too. Weekdays, for about 2 hours. Weekends till I'll do 3-4. I need every bit

 

[odsum25]

What do you pratice though? I pratice less than 30 minutes a day without band. But I don't know what to pratice to make it last more than 30 minutes? So what do you pratice?

You should be playing scales and exercises for 30 minutes minimum.

For example, yesterday I spend two hours between Viola and Slominsky.

THen I worked on transcribing this Charlie Mariano album I've been doing for a little bit for about an hour.

Spent another 45 minutes on an altered pentatonic I've been working with.

Started working a new tune for about another 45 minutes, learning the melody, looking at it harmonically, looking for possible substitutions and extensions, etc.

Finished by using the Freebop cd for about 20 minutes, trying to put some of what I practiced to us.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I was self taught from the age of 18 when I started. I got into college at the age of 20, but to do that I built up to practising 8 hours a day. (Half of which was long notes admittedly).

Once I was in college I did 2-3 4 hours practice before and after classes.

Tough, but I don't regret that as I ended up making a good living from playing saxophone and eventually a much better living from composing.

Strange thing is that there was still time to have fun and learn about life...

 

[jeremysaxman]

I usually practice from 2 to 3 hours every weekday, with the occasional day off. That's about all I can do with work and other commitments. Weekends I usually gig or take off.

Lately, this is my basic routine.

-longtones
-overtones
-altissimo
-scales + patterns in 1 key
-learning and reviewing tunes
-transcription

I am amazed by the person who said they run out of things to practice. I barely have enough time to get a decent practice in with 2 hours, much less 30 minutes. I'm barely warmed up in 30 minutes. For jazz players, just learning tunes could keep you busy for years and years.

I have been working hard on evening up my keys. I have switched from playing exercises in all 12 keys to focusing on one key for an extended period of time, like 2 weeks+. This has three main advantages. Firstly, it helps greatly in evening out the keys and bringing more difficult keys like Db up to the level of easy ones like Bb, especially if you work the key for several weeks or more. Secondly, it allows you to run a lot of different scalar exercises on the same key, rather than only a few exercises in different keys. Thirdly, it cuts down on the amount of time that is required to run complete scalar exercises in a single practice session.

When running scales, I always use a metronome, and I try to play the exercise at least 4 times through without mistakes before moving on. This means I play them pretty slow.

Try the single key idea for awhile. You'll be surprised how quickly those bum keys start to feel a lot more fluid and natural.

For covering multiple keys in an exercise, it seems to me that learning and reviewing tunes can generally cover this and has the added advantage that you're expanding your repertoire. You can play patterns like 1357, 1235, etc. over the chords, and this will give some coverage of patterns in different keys.

I am fairly happy with the routine, though I always seem to run out of time to do both transcription and learn tunes. I usually default to learning or reviewing tunes over transcription, as this seems to me a very beneficial way to spend practice time.

Here are some good articles by Tim Price with drills galore.

http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/

That should keep you busy for years. Actually, I would love to have an hour or two just to run Tim Price's drills, or Walt Weiskopf's book, or Patterns for Jazz, etc. There is basically a limitless amount of stuff to shed!

 

[Jonathan C.]

It's not that I ran out of things to pratice, it is just that I don't know what to pratice. Though I will probably start on scales today. I may try transopose from B flat to E flat. Thanks for the help. I will try to work it up to an hour, then put in more time. I will proabably have more time this summer with my work schedule.

Thanks
~Carbs

Sorry about hijacking this thread.

 

[littlemanbighorn]

It's not that I ran out of things to pratice, it is just that I don't know what to pratice.

Sounds like someone needs a teacher.

I practice about an hour on workdays (I work 12 hour days, 3 days a week) and 3 or 4 hours on other days. I used to do 4 to 6 every day but find it hard to get that done with rehearsals, work, life, etc.....

 

[Hammertime]

Still waiting for someone who does 8+ hours!
Jeremy: thanks for the link, I've just printed his list. Now lets try to get at least 1 point checked at the end of this year

 

[Angel]

Anyone who wants to be a PLAYER should be practicing 3-4-5 hours a day minimum. And spend twice that amount listening.

Truer words were never spoken. I believe that practice comes in two equally vitally important forms: face time and ear time.

Back to thread topic, every day I have different stuff going on from teaching to bartending to playing to errands to family stuff, just like everyone else. So practice time varies. There are 2-3 days a week where I can spend max time on the horn, usually 5-6 hrs throughout the day depending on what I have coming up. Other days can be as much as that or as little as 1.5 hrs. I take one day off a week (except listening -- it would be impossible for me to stop listening).

In my own case, less than 1.5 hrs per day and I start to lose ability. I begin my sessions with 1.5 hrs of technical practice. Scales, scales, and scales. Through the scales, I practice every aspect of control that I can think of: dynamics, tone color, attack/release, articulation, stamina, speed, altissimo, etc. I don't go to repertoire until I've had a full technical workout followed by a substantial break.

I could practice repertoire forever. I won't spend more than 30 min per day learning or maintaining any one piece. I concentrate first on all of the evasively tricky spots in my program for an upcoming performance -- this can take an hour to 1.5 each day. Following this, I set about learning new phrases/sections as well as polishing the stuff already learned. This takes up the majority of my practice time.

The tuner and the metronome are always ON.

Angel

 

[Hammertime]

Ah, a true tuner junk!

 

[Face Ache Mike]

Still waiting for someone who does 8+ hours!

10am to 9pm sometimes with a break of 10-15 mins here and there. I`m still crap :lol:

Some days I dont get chance to play (work etc) but my mind is always sax-inclined.