Practice Tips

Practice tips for Beginners

1. Label the note names in your music if you can't read them off the staff yet.

2. Clap through rhythms especially if there is a new rhythm note or a difficult pattern in your music

3. Finger through the notes first before playing (especially difficult passages)

4. Play at a slow yet consistent tempo and then gradually speed up (you should play only as fast as you can play the most difficult part)

5. Isolate or separate out difficult sections and work on those parts first and then play through the whole song

6. Practice in front of a mirror to check for puffy cheeks, correct mouth placement on the mouthpiece, posture, and fingerings

If you have squeaking issues...

1. Check to make sure your reed is nice and wet

2. Make sure you don't have too much mouthpiece in your mouth

3. Make sure your reed is not on too tight or that you're not squeezing your reed as you play

4. Make sure you do not have a crack or chip in your reed

5. Make sure you're covering the wholes all the way (on the clarinet) or pressing down the correct keys

If you have trouble getting a good sound

1. Make sure your corners are nice and tight! No puffy cheeks!

2. Make sure you say too at the beginning of each note with your tongue on the reed when you play (if you play clarinet or saxophone)

3. Take off the mouth piece or head joint and practice getting a good sound on the mouthpiece and then put together your instrument and play again

4. Brass Players- Make sure you're using enough air! Fill up from the bottom and breathe from your mouth! Make sure your lips are moist when you are buzzing.

Advanced Players

1. Warm-up on either long tones, a slow piece of music or an easy piece of music to get your air moving and chops going

2. If you're reading a piece of music for the first time, check the key signature, check for navigational signs (repeat signs, d.s. al coda signs etc), and look at difficult spots first

3. Practice with a metronome and keep your tempo (speed steady). Only play as fast as you can play your difficult spots

4. Isolate difficult areas and work on those separately. If you have trouble with rhythm, clap it out and then play it or play all of the rhythm the same (if it's a pattern of eighth notes, play all eighth notes as quarter notes, and then change them back to eighth notes) or play all notes on the same pitch (like all eighth notes on Bb) and then go back and play it the way it's written in the music.

5. Make sure you fix your mistakes! Don't practice the same sections over and over again incorrectly as it's harder to fix them if you learn it incorrectly!

6. Label notes that you don't know or circle accidentals so you are sure to play them correctly

7. Say and finger the notes before you play

8. Record yourself playing and then go back and listen to fix and spots that were not played correctly