I KNOW YOU PRACTICE. BUT -- ARE YOU PRACTICING THE RIGHT STUFF?

My Sunday sax student had an epiphany -- he told me that he practices at least an hour each day, but he admitted that he wasn't getting where he wanted to go fast enough.

"I'm practicing wrong, aren't I?" he asked.

Yes. He was repeating the same errors over and over in his practice, but not knowing it until he brought it in for lessons.

He was in the same place each week as a sax player, not getting worse, but not getting better.

It's so easy to fall into the habit of playing the same things over and over in practice, and for a variety of reasons. How to escape this trap?

I'll give you three ideas to try out BEFORE you start a practice session.

1. THINK about what it is that you want to work on in the practice session. What are you having difficulty with? How can you break that down into smaller steps that you can work on?

2. Warm up the hands. I've showed each of you how to do those palms-out arm stretches that work the muscles that we use to control the keywork.

3. Finally, get the instrument warmed up with some breathing and some long tones, from soft to loud.

Then, get started.

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