Build a Practice

Just like exercising, practicing an instrument is best achieved with a routine.

Here are Mrs. Brabant's recommendations for establishing a fun, easy, and successful practice routine:

Have a Dedicated Practice Space.

This space should be free of distractions to optimize the time spent practicing. Carve out a corner of a bedroom; if possible, a spare bedroom works best. It should include a music stand, good lighting, and a full-length mirror. Musicians should always practice with a music stand adjusted to their height to promote proper posture. The mirror is meant to be used to continually monitor posture, embouchure, and horn carriage. The importance of a music stand cannot be stressed enough!

30 minutes

Believe it or not, 30 well-spent minutes of practice can work wonders. This should be done at least once a day. That's it - 30 minutes, once a day. For those students that have dreams of making honor bands and auditioning for All-State, they should plan two or three 30-minute practice sessions in a day whenever possible. The key to this is to make it well-spent practice time. Refer to the "How To Practice" tab and read the practice tips for some ideas to maintain quality practice time.

HAve a routine

Again, just like exercising the body, a practice session needs to have three parts:

• warm-up

• work

• cool-down

Warm up with long tones, primarily paying attention to your breathing and tone quality. Then play through a few scales to get the fingers moving. When your ears, breath, and fingers are feeling ready then get to work.

Work on whatever music you are trying to achieve. Spend dedicated time focusing on the details to get it not only right, but consistent. See the "how to practice" tab for ideas on how to troubleshoot problems. Make sure you work on a variety of things - whether that be technique exercises, solos, or lesson book - make sure you have variety and always come back to what you worked on the day before.

Cool-down with something fun and that you're good at playing to treat yourself. Always try to make it the most musical, accurate, fun, whatever that adjective may be, performance you have had. In the end, just have fun and enjoy what you are doing.