If you're still in school you know this scenario: "I'm performing on two friends recitals this week and we have an orchestra concert this weekend and my big audition is coming up and my recital is a week later and now this composer is asking me to premiere her piece but only has half of it written and it's hard! I don't have time to practice!!!!"
If you're not in school perhaps it looks like this: "I open at the coffee shop every day this week and I'm simultaneously trying to prepare for this and next weeks orchestra concerts of Tchaikovsky and Bernstein and I have a quintet performance coming up as well and between work every day and rehearsals every night I just don't have time to practice!"
We ALL have these moments no matter how life is going for us outside of music (aka if you are a full time musician yet or not) and it is a real problem that seems to have no good solution...but fear not! I have a few suggestions that just might help to lessen the stress of "too much music, not enough time" syndrome!
First you need to prioritize and plan out when your practice time will be. Although we would all love to block our practice time so that we can get a majority of it done all at once life brings in obstacles making this virtually impossible on a day to day basis. This means that if you have 20 min, use it! If you have 10 min use it! A lot can get done in a small amount of time and physical face time with the instrument is not the ONLY way to practice. Score studying, listening, going over tricky fingerings are all things that can be done any time any where. If you have to be at work by 9, wake up a bit earlier so that you can get in a nice warm up before you leave in the morning. That way when you come home you can just play a few notes and get straight to the meat of whatever it is you need to really get done that day. By playing first thing you are also making sure that your instrument stays on your brain all day and when you get home you are more likely to pick it back up again no matter how tired you are because you have become consumed with needing to hear its beautiful sounds again. If you can take leisurely time to practice, do so! Enjoy your instrument and feel free to intersperse things you enjoy with things that need to get done. We tend to forget that we don't play or sing only because we have to but also because we LOVE to. I recommend that at least three times a you week play something that brings you pure and unbridled joy or else the spark will start to sputter and your passion will begin to stale. Write out a schedule each week and include a minimum amount of practice time. If you do more great but at least you have a place to start at.
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| My battered "Bach Bible" is always within arms reach while I practice |
List out how you will use your practice time. Break down all the music you have to learn into what is hardest and then order it by what is coming first, second, etc. By keeping in mind what will be most difficult to learn (even if that work is not being performed this week) you will always be ready to start rehearsals on the piece when the time comes. After piling up your music like this on the stand take the time you have set aside for practicing and actually assign how much time you will devote to each individual piece, movement or even measure. This might seem a bit extreme but if you are on a crazy time crunch it is really helpful to break it down this way so you don't spend too much time on a passage or work that could be looked at later or is a bit easier to comprehend/nail down in the fingers. I have also heard that after about 10 minutes of work on one thing the brain starts to cancel out what you're doing in order to better process what you were doing before. Typically I set aside 10/15 min per passage depending on its length.
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| Example of how I break down my music per min. |
Keep a journal! Lets say I'm working on a technical passage. I used to write the tempo I ended at in the margin of the music...until I realized that there were so many numbers there I had no idea which one was the one I should start with! By keeping a journal I can see exactly where I was tempo wise the day before or even the week before and also how much time I spent on it so that I can adjust each if need be. The journal also reminds me that although I sometimes feel I did not get much done I put in the time and the effort and did indeed succeed for that day. An improvement (no matter how small) was made and that makes that days worth or practice worth it. If you miss a day the journal also keeps you organized and on task so you can come right back to the music as if you didn't skip out on your duties. (Perhaps I will do an entire blog on this topic...)
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| My journal is small and easily portable |
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| I date each day and separate hours practiced by short lines while separating each day by a long squiggly line. |
Hopefully you find these tips helpful! I am more than likely going to continue on with these more kind of "advice" blogs now that I have some experience in the "real world" under my belt so if you have any suggestions for future topics that you would like me to touch on please feel free to let me know!
Happy Practicing!!
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