Good regular practice procedure is essential for technique to be mastered and I have a method and schedule that always works for me, especially in the times when I don't think I can fit much practice in. Assuming that you are practicing for 30min a session (or this can be worked out on other amounts such as a 20min practice session or 1 hour session as well), there is a schedule of sorts that can be implemented to ensure that you gain the maximum results from the short time you work.
The first five minutes of a 30min practice session should consist of a good, focused warm-up. Long tones in the low register are good for setting embouchure, warming the instrument (which, in turn, ensures better intonation and prevents bubbles and excess condensation) and most importantly, opening the ears to the issues of good tone and tuning. Think of it as a stretching exercise that a dancer or sportsman would do before taking to their chosen activity. The player is less likely to feel tired early in the practice session if a slow warm up is done effectively. This is also a good time to work on slow scales as they are a good way of warming the entire length of the clarinet tube and opening the player's ears to the variation in intonation between individual notes. If you do two practice sessions in one day, Usually this one warm up would suffice.
The next 20min of your practice session is the bulk of the work that you will do. If you have been set three or more pieces plus technical work to practice, it is better that you focus on one or two of these in one session in a focused manner, rather than try and conquer the lot in the one day which can be pointless and often counterproductive.
Firstly you need to concentrate on the areas that you are not yet comfortable with, ie. playing a passage, a bar, a phrase with which you have technical problems. Rushing over the notes, regardless of the errors, only serves to solidify those areas in your fingers and in your brain. Bad habits are very difficult to remedy once set in and this could lead to future frustrations and inadvertently lapsing back into mistakes in an exam or performance. Instead, you will need to play the area of concern to find the problem area, sometimes it could be a simple note to note movement or perhaps a range or physical issue. Mark where you are having trouble. Now....how to fix it? Slow and repetitious is the key. If you think you've finally got it, do it another 10 times anyway!
1. Fragmentation.
Often a problem in technique could be as simple as a single note leap. Isolating that spot and ONLY playing that particular problem note and perhaps the note preceding and proceeding it will aid in drilling the pattern. When mastered, you can add the next couple on either side of that note and so forth until the passage can be played without the mistake occurring. This kind of drill is reinforcing the correct pattern in your fingers and ensuring the muscle memory.
2. Retrograde
If a run or passage continues to elude you, there are other options such as playing a passage backwards. This reinforces the pattern in your fingers and when you change back to the original direction, it will seem so easy in comparison! Sometimes a psychological approach to your music is nine tenths of the problem!
3. Altering rhythm, metre or articulation
Changing rhythms, time signatures or articulations is particularly good in the case of a run or series of quavers or semiquavers as it shifts the accent of a note to a different one, therefore highlighting a note previously weak. Often in my playing, I have discovered that the note errors I make most often occur on the unaccented parts of the bar (ie, in a 4/4 bar, the note that falls on the 4th quaver of the bar is usually a problem). Shifting the natural accent (by putting a simple quadruple bar into a compound triple) can often shift the focus on to that note (or perhaps by changing the articulation and note groupings to punctuate that particular note) and subsequently highlights its importance in the fingers.
4. Repetition
Of course, repetition works. We know that. But it also works within a run by repeating each note once, twice or sometimes even three times. My old teacher told me this and at first I was sceptical but it works. It reiterates the fingering at a slow tempo - perhaps this is also psychological but if it is successful, who cares!
5. The 10 time rule
I have always said to students, if you have trouble with a particular passage, try playing it 10 times without an error (after, of course, you have done the minute detailed work. If you make a mistake, you go back and start again. This forces you to not just fluff over areas but to make sure you are completely focused at all times.
6. Memorisation
I've found that memorising music can take your focus off 'notes notes notes' and help you to rely more on the fact that you probably know it better than you think you do but you don't trust yourself. Taking yourself away from the intense focus on the page and more on your finger memory and instinct is a valuable tool.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When you think you have mastered the problem areas (or it might be a scale or arpeggio that is the target of concern), play through the entire passage or whole piece. You will soon notice the areas that have improved and the sections that still need attention. Mark them as a focus for your next practice session. Learn to be self-critical and recognise your weak and strong areas and use these to the best of your ability. The more you settle for second best, the more you will be second best.
When your pieces have been worked on thoroughly, you can then move on to the final stage of your practice session. The final 5-10 minutes are very important. Most people who learn a musical instrument do so for enjoyment. Jobs in music are scarce and it is hard work to learn so most musicians do it for the love of it, because it's fun, because it's rewarding. We can lose sight of this in the frustration of learning a scale or a passage we find difficult. You must find something in this last 5-10min that is rewarding for you.
Have fun. Play pieces that you love to play - even ones that you used to play in your first weeks of learning if that's what you want to do. You could sightread some fun, light repertoire, popular tunes. Or you could improvise to the radio or a friend playing piano or a backing cd. If you have friends or family that also play, have a jam session. The possibilities are endless. You need to remind yourself why you have just put in the other 25 minutes of work - to learn to play because it is FUN. It is important to d this AFTER the long winded part because it is like the tasty dessert at the end of a meal your parents made you eat! That nasty mushroom casserole with brussel sprouts was worth eating because of the yummy chocolate pudding at the end. It is a reward. I used to (for the most part) spend 3 hours a day in a practice room when I was studying and I hated every second of it. It was boring. Especially practicing things I hated such as scales or studies. Practice can be a real chore so you need to give yourself something to look forward to at the end of each session. Of course, you deserve it!
Happy practicing!
