The Most Important Part of Practice

[russiantuba]

I mentioned in my warmup/routine thread something I started with, and I think it deserves a separate post.

So, recently I have done some mindset training with Steve Rosse, principal tubist of the Sydney Symphony and a trick he had me do changed everything about my playing, when I remember to do it.

Spend 1-2 minutes with your eyes close, visualizing positivity, self talk, encouraging yourself. It seems so simple, maybe soft, but since I have incorporated it, my sessions go better.

So much of music is beat down. In fact, when we go into a practice session, we normally tear our playing apart to make it better. The consistent tear down removes passion and joy from the instrument. I have fought a ton of that personally, and honestly, still am.

This is something many coaches do before a game, motivation, keeping the spirit alive. When I don't remember to do it, my sessions are not as focused and I don't get as much done.

[bloke]

I'm not as smart as Steve (and - quite likely - not the player he is...LOL nor - certainly not - in his impressive physical condition), but - if anyone has noticed (??) - over-and-over I've emphasized (whether "warmed up", whether having practiced much lately, or having even spent adequate time studying assigned parts prior to rehearsals) the importance of GIVING ONESELF PERMISSION TO PLAY WELL...
... this is basically the same as Steve's message, yes?

[rollo]

YES. I'm so glad to hear someone else advocate for this, I have been a visualization fan for a long time now. I like to apply it consciously to my sound as well, really taking a moment to hear something as I would want it to sound before I play it.

[MartinMan]

Well said.

I definitely need to take this more into account when I play. Too often I get frustrated and allow that to impact my playing. We could all afford to be kinder to ourselves, in music and otherwise.

[russiantuba]

Well said.

I definitely need to take this more into account when I play. Too often I get frustrated and allow that to impact my playing. We could all afford to be kinder to ourselves, in music and otherwise.

In a way, music is even more mentally dangerous than sports. I feel in sports, we are trying to break records and beat teams, but are accepting of losses (unless you are a fan of my college football team, where winning a national championship isn’t enough). We continually beat ourselves up, are never accepting of where we are, always working to do harder repertoire or putting harder expectations on us. We put more pressure on the individual versus team sports. We go to lessons to be told what we are doing wrong, not often what we are doing right.

Arnold Jacobs caught on to this early. One of his longer studying students and a great colleague of mine told me to add to success, not to subtract failure. He’s right, and it’s hard to do. Several people out there, including a flute colleague who was a very talented undergrad flautist during my DMA lives in Los Angeles doing mindset coachings fulltime and can afford to live there.

Music is tough, a hard place. Stuff like my experiences and the psychology side directly influence my teaching. I guess it makes me feel less confident as a teacher when I ask, but I always ask students if they like something or a concept. I normally play it or have them try it a few ways, or always tell them to do it differently and convince me otherwise. Build students up while being tough.

[bloke]

I've accepted that the extremely large B-flat tuba I have now requires more energy to play than any other tuba I've ever owned, and I'm also accepting the fact that I'm not 35 or 40 years old anymore. I also realize that I can play my F tuba and my smaller B flat tuba with ease, so the really large one is the one that I pick up for practice almost all the time. (Taking either of the other two to a rehearsal or performance always feels like running with normally-worn ankle weights removed.)
Thankfully, the huge one is quite easy to play in tune.
When I choose to tackle intentionally selected more challenging Italian bel canto etude after bel canto etude (in challenging keys, requiring a good bit of nimbleness, range, and sometimes four pages of endurance) and make the decision to try to legato/slur nearly everything, I'm already admitting on the front end that it's not going to be easy, so I don't get upset with myself when I don't play through them perfectly. I do feel encouraged when I go back through them for the third time in a row and they sound remarkably better than the first time. I don't stomp my feet nor pound my fist nor throw my mouthpiece through the window glass - much less waste energy scolding myself.
Oh... One thing that I've noticed that has improved on the F tuba (from playing the huge B-flat tuba) is running scales from top to bottom, as the most extremely low pitches on the F instrument (which naturally offers more resistance and have always been easier - but) I believe I can move more smoothly down through the descending scales all the way to those last couple of possible pitches on that instrument that fall off the bottom of the piano keyboard... in other words with more continuity and less halted. More connected and legato, I guess.

[Mary Ann]

Back in my performing days, something Janos Starker said was helpful to me. He said you should be able to perform at 80% of your ability, which implied that what you choose to perform should not tax you beyond that level. That in itself will set you up for doing a better job on stage and more able to focus on the music instead of getting those hard parts right.

[b.williams]

Back in my performing days, something Janos Starker said was helpful to me. He said you should be able to perform at 80% of your ability, which implied that what you choose to perform should not tax you beyond that level. That in itself will set you up for doing a better job on stage and more able to focus on the music instead of getting those hard parts right.

[bloke]

Fifty years ago - when Francis McBeth was conducting a regional high school honor band (Tennessee has always been divided into west, middle, and east, as it's over 500 miles from corner to corner), while we were back in a rehearsal room waiting for the second band to finish their part of the program - before we went on, what do you think he was doing?

Do you think he had us playing scales and tuning the pitches? Do you think he was having us play chorales out of the T.I.P.P.S. book?

Hell no. He was standing on the podium in front of us gurning, and making us laugh.

I don't believe there's a single studio teacher who means to do this, but they put so much emphasis on methods, rituals, and procedures, I suspect that a large percentage of studio-trained (as well as high-school ensemble trained) students end up associating music with anxiety, rather than pleasure. Even worse, I can just imagine a whole bunch of people finger wagging at themselves while practicing. I used to do this, so I have to believe there are many others.

#good_feelings #positive_attitude #no_anxiety #fun

[MiBrassFS]

Hell no. He was standing on the podium in front of us gurning, and making us laugh.
…

I suspect that a large percentage of studio-trained (as well as high-school ensemble trained) students end up associating music with anxiety, rather than pleasure. Even worse, I can just imagine a whole bunch of people finger wagging at themselves while practicing. I used to do this, so I have to believe there are many others.

I was today-years-old when I learned the word “gurn” and “gurning.” Autocorrect won’t even have it. It’s freaking out.

But, more importantly, the last point about music-study induced anxiety is a career (professional and amateur) killer. Seek to improve, not destroy with self-analysis of your playing.

[bloke]

He may have been a decade older (no. not yet retired 50 years ago) than when this picture this picture was taken, but his remaining hair was probably no longer brown...so you can imagine that "him imitating a lizard" (while presenting us with this profile) made for quite a humorous countenance.

NEAR NON SEQUITUR MEMORY...but not completely:

He (having the mindset of an entertainer BOTH in his programming AND in his composition) programmed a pops medley (bucking tradition) in our concert. It was a bunch of Sonny and Cher tunes...(They were at the height of their popularity...Sonny actually had a show on network television that year, and - two years later, for two years - the "Sonny and Cher Show" ran on network television.)

There was an electric bass part, and Dr. McBeth called out to the band ("Who in the band plays electric bass?") At that moment, I attempted to make myself invisible, but (from other band members from a whole bunch of other schools - players who either knew me from the youth symphony, or had seen me at the Memphis State high school jazz band competition, each year...or possibly who dated me, as I preferred to date those who I didn't encounter all-day/every-day at my own school) a whole bunch of people starting shouting out, "bLOKE DOES!!!"
...A (somewhat difficult) search tells me that Bill Holcombe arranged the medley.

...so I ended up dragging my Fender bass and amp with me to the venue, the next day.
At the concert, I SNEAKED offstage (during the applause for the previous number), had my amp just on stage (stage right - over behind the clarinets), and sat on a stool in the WINGS (unseen) while playing that medley on the bass. ...and (yes) hurriedly sneaked back to my chair at the front of the tuba section (via the backs of the curtains available to conceal my movements) during the Sonny and Cher applause...The parents/etc. seemed to like the medley...I suppose - at that time (an 18-year-old) - I was a pretty bad "musical snob", and didn't really want to bring attention (as someone playing electric bass in a so-called "honor band" - during that era - would certainly be noticed) to myself playing "tripe".

OK...subtopic: McBeth compositions:
For those of you who've played (or conducted) his band composition, THE SEVENTH SEAL, we played it (quite recently composed, at that time) - in that concert - off of his somewhat-messy-with-eraser-marks manuscript parts.

[MiBrassFS]

Complete NON SEQUITUR:

Sonny Bono’s uncle was my next door neighbor when I was a little kid. They had a pug dog named “Puggy” that scared the living he!! out of me for absolutely no reason. I think now he just wanted to play. Puggy would come over looking for pre-dinner snacks. We, of course, obliged…