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practice routine

1443 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Tenortones, 
T
A general question about the daily routine of the dedicated:

How much time do you spend a day in key areas of concentration such as:
  • meditation
  • the instrument(technique,etudes,scales)
  • adjusting or testing reeds,etc
  • rudiment ear training
  • transcribing
  • piano/drums
  • lines and variations
  • tunes
  • of course, playing w/another musician of any instrument
  • any other
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Swampcabbage
I've often womdered about this myself. And have found that most people follow it in different ways.

In the past, I have structured my practice with charts and tracking. lately, I have come to just concentrate on a single approach. I will apply this to tunes and practice it very slowly as well (long tones/meditation). Then apply the same approach to improve/ear training and all of this leads to playing with others (a few nights a week).

I spend a small amount of time on piano; not nearly enough.
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Ken
Here's my current routine split between sax, clarinet and flute:
Instrument 1:
Long tones - 10 minutes
Warmups (Klose excerpt in C#, 4ths in various scales) - 15 minutes
Scales, Arpeggios - 15 minutes

Instrument 2:
Warmups - 20 minutes
Technical Exercise or Interpretation - 10 minutes
Learning a tune, Sight Reading, Transcription, or Patterns - 10 minutes

Instrument 3:
Warmups - 20 minutes
Jazz Improv related practice (Patterns, or playing over ii-V-i's or tunes etc) - 30 minutes

I typically can't do all 3 in one day so I just carry on from where I left off the previous time.

I hardly play the piano either. I'm thinking of adding arranging to the above rotation at some time, but that would mean less playing time.

I play with others via jam sessions or rehearsals 2 or 3 times a week.
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C
If I may offer my own. This is my practice routine at it's best, but now that I'm back in school, sometimes this is cut short or split into two smaller practices because of rehearsals or jams.

30 -40 minutes : long tones/overtones
1 hour: scales and scale patterns (lately just bop scale exercises)
1 hour: patterns (ii-V patterns mostly)
and then i've been transcribing songs using the piano, and i've been trying to get one done ever day or two. Then i use time in the practice room with my horn really picking apart the transcription.
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S
OK Here we go.. this is my schedule on a good day

Warm-up 40 minutes
Warm-up consists of 15 minutes of longtones, 15 minutes playing all intervals minus altissimo, 10 minutes of articulation exercises

Scale patterns/cycles - 40 mins

Arpeggio patterns/cycles - 40 mins

Scale Incorporation ( usually halfwhole scale, tritone pentatonics) over a tune of my choice - 40 mins

Rhythm over a tune of my choice - 40 mins

Transcribe - 40 mins

Thats the bare minimum. If i have extra time I'll do more transcriptions, practice tunes i know and learn more new tunes.

By the way I NEVER practice ii - V - I patterns, its just a moral of mine. It doesn't work for me. I don't mean any disrespect to people who practice them, if it works, good for you. If I transcribe a lick I'll analyse it (what scale, rhythm) and try apply that concept to my improvising practice. I find it makes me more spontaneous when I'm jamming/performing.

Sean
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bluesaxgirl
This is when I have time.
My practice:
15 minutes on warm ups (scales, etudes, long tones)
as much time as needed (about 40 minutes) on pieces for memorization, concert festivals, band, etc.
25 minutes on sight reading/improv

I really need to set down more time and effort for practicing. This is on a really good day.

Testing reeds take forever...more than needed.
Whenever I can find someone, I occasionally play duets.
I sometimes pluck around on a piano. (I played for 6 years )
Whenever I have time, I work on an arrangement I am composing.
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H
Long tones

Overtones

Altissimo

Scales, often the scales of a particular tune.

Transcription

Playing along with the tune I'm transcribing.

Switch off from the tenor to the alto and repeat a warm up and go into a transcription for the alto.

Later in the day I'll work at the piano for a couple of hours, usually these days going over patterns and permutations.

As far as meditation, I have done that in the past, but that's a separate discipline away from music and everything else. You need to clear your mind of all distractions while your meditating, only the best mediators can perform an activity while remaining locked in mindfulness.
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T
chops2200 said:
If I may offer my own. This is my practice routine at it's best, but now that I'm back in school, sometimes this is cut short or split into two smaller practices because of rehearsals or jams.

30 -40 minutes : long tones/overtones
1 hour: scales and scale patterns (lately just bop scale exercises)
1 hour: patterns (ii-V patterns mostly)
and then i've been transcribing songs using the piano, and i've been trying to get one done ever day or two. Then i use time in the practice room with my horn really picking apart the transcription.
Click to expand...
Would you explain the last part- "picking apart the transcription". did you mean solo transcription or a tune. I think you meant going over a tune-conceptualizing.
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