The Super Efficient Practice Hour

I feel like I haven't been getting a whole heck of a lot of work done lately. In the midst of a job search for my husband, we are also moving. We don't know where this will take us, but we're forging ahead. Being the administrative whiz of the family, that means I'm doing a lot of the grunt work on the computer. Given we've done this type of thing several times already, roles are established and defined.

Image courtesy of janetlanier.com

With all the stress that looking for a job and moving brings, my constants are running and music. At the present moment, I have about two hours a day to myself. That leaves one hour for running and one for flute. Not wanting to lose the progress made during my week at Summerflute, I have jumped in with my available time. I have no prominent deadlines coming up, so I can simply explore and enjoy.

How much do you think can be done in just an hour a day? In two weeks with a day off here and there due to life, I've managed to learn 80 percent of the 1st movement of the Copland Duo, I'm ready to finish recording the 4th movement of twtrsymphony's Symphony No 2 by Chip Clark, I'm continuing to solidify my interpretation of the Allemande from the Bach Partita and I am rotating through a satisfactory tone and technique practice schedule using Fiona Wilkinson's The Physical Flute, Walfrid Kujala's Vade Mecum and Marcel Moyse's Tone Development through Interpretation.

How do I do it? I've returned to using the Pomodoro Technique for my sessions and using the Focus Booster desktop app to keep track of time. In short, this technique breaks a half hour into 25 minutes spent working on a task with a 5 minute break. I have been using Session 1 for tone and tech and Session 2 for repertoire. My 5 minute breaks are used for constructive rest.

What I have noticed over these past two weeks has been that the focus I devote to this one hour carries itself through the rest of my day. For one, it's hard to work from home which I have been doing since February. All the distractions are sometimes too tempting, but adding a dose of super focus to my day helps me stay on task for the rest of my to do list, especially those I would rather not do.

When I get my super efficient practice hour done, I feel at peace with myself. I know I've broken my work down into manageable tasks, and I accept that the work I've done is worthwhile. It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I am able to accept who I am as a musician, and find a path that suits me (see my Manifesto for more details about this). My practice goal at this moment in time is to give myself time to begin integrating the next wave of changes into my musicianship. 

The super efficient practice hour is the gift I can give to myself everyday in order to preserve my sanity. We each have our own problems to contend with. Even if you play for a living, do you approach your instrument with joy and curiosity or with dread? It's times like these that make me grateful that I have music in my life to give me a release valve when I begin to internalize my daily stress too much. These life experiences also deepen my appreciation of music, and the range of human emotions that music can express.

My simply advice is this: take the time you have and accept it no matter how little time you may have available. Choose one goal to work towards, and base your work on that goal. Whether you have an hour or you have more, deliberately ensure everything you do in your time works towards that goal. You'll thank yourself.

Note: The foundation of my practice goes back to what I call, "Holistic Practice." I'll be presenting a workshop on it at the upcoming convention for the National Flute Association on Friday, August 10, 8 AM in Octavius 21-23 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The type of focus that we need to achieve real results in the practice room applies so well to the rest of our lives, that "holistic" really describes a way of practicing for our whole selves that we can carry through our day. If you're interested in approaching your practicing in a way that maximizes your time and minimizes stress, this is the workshop for you!

Flute Warm Ups

My favorite part of practicing is warming up. I love the routine and security of staying in shape, and having an entire hour to feel like I am "ready." But nowadays, I don't have that hour and more often than not, I have to jump in whether I feel good or not.

With my recent practice project, I realized I needed more time in my warm up to correct tonal deficiencies I was hearing in my sound. So I returned to my old Moyse De la Sonorite routine. I love using the low and high register long tone exercises, in addition to his interval exercises. The end result? A more open, resonant high register and more timbral control.

Fast forward to my current situation which seems to change daily, sometimes hourly. All of us experience times like these, where we may only have 30 minutes or an hour to practice and feel like we're moving ahead on our goals. While it's incredibly difficult to maintain within this time, I believe that with an efficient structure, you can still make progress.

1) Have a plan This is my goal. I'm in the process of devising various warm up plans that I can go to when I'm pressed for time, have a little bit more time, or for those rare days where time is not an issue.

2) Be flexible Some days, you are going to sound like crap. Fix it. You may spend all your time on long tones, but that's OK. Our obligations don't stop just because we're having a bad day with our instrument.

3) Have fun One of my favorite practice strategies is included in Burton Kaplan's book, Practicing for Artistic Success. Always plan out what you're going to practice, for how long, and for what purpose. THEN give yourself 10 percent less. You will surprise yourself with how you structure your practice to fit your time constraints. Interestingly enough, it frees your playing and allows you to relax into your session. Below are some great resources for tone and technique work.

Marcel Moyse De la Sonorite

Marcel Moyse Exercices Journaliers pour la flute (Daily Exercises for the flute)

Taffanel and Gaubert 17 Big Daily Finger Exercises for the Flute

Walfrid Kujala Vade Mecum

Trevor Wye's Practice Books for the Flute (Books 1-5 come in a nice omnibus edition and cover tone, technique, articulation, intonation and vibrato, and breathing and scales)

Peter Lukas-Graf Checkup (the whistle tones exercise in this book is to die for!!)

Robert Dick Tone Development through Extended Techniques (an excellent resource to pair with De la Sonorite or Wye's tone book)

Paula Robison Flute Warmups Book

Shifting the Focus back to Expression and Creativity

I've been having a conversation on Twitter with @MazzaClarinet otherwise known as Marion Harrington, a professional clarinetist and motivational author (http://marionharringtonclarinet.com/). The conversation began as a discussion of the importance of academia on musical interpretation and the positive or negative impact it has on one's natural inclinations and this discussion has transformed into one about the sacrificing of musical expression for technical perfection.

Students that enter college to study music must take an assortment of theory and history lessons in order to develop a framework for them to become better musicians. It's critical to a student's development to have this academic education in order to return to music with a enlightened view of its structure and historical context; however, viewing music in strictly academic terms will render the music void of any expression whatsoever. I discussed this point in an earlier post (http://sensibleflutist.blogspot.com/2010/06/personality-of-musician-deeper-look.html). I would go further than I did in my previous article, and state that having a certain amount of talent paired with a solid musical education will produce a musician with a heightened sensitivity to the music.

From this, the conversation took a turn towards the question of creativity and how so many performances nowadays are technically accurate or "note perfect" but lacking in musical expression. For flutists, the current focus leans toward technical superiority and perfection. My guess is that this focus extends through all woodwinds because of the physically emcompassing requirements of playing a wind instrument. We get so wrapped up in the physical and technical side of playing the instrument that we forget why we committed ourselves to music in the first place. I certainly didn't start playing the flute because I wanted to learn to control my breathing or have fast fingers. I began playing the flute for the expressive powers and potential it holds.

I attended several masterclasses over the summer, and most of the focus was on technical aspects of flute playing. This approach is ingrained in me so much that I find it incredibly difficult to listen to beautiful flute playing without scrutinzing every detail rather than appreciating the beauty; however, by the same token, it's difficult to find recordings that give you a glimpse into the whole package. Encouraging young musicians to attend live performances is one of the most important steps we can take to shift the focus from technical playing to free and creative.

So what other ways can we start changing this focus? We're musicians with a creative urge to find solutions. We are always looking for solutions to improve and do things better. I think that flutists (and any other instrument that falls into this perfection obsessed category) should take the opportunity to listen to vocalists, pianists, and stringed instruments. Attend masterclasses for other instruments than your own - it's eye opening to see how they approach their music. Take the universal musical ideas you learn from them, and apply it within your own playing. Go to solo recitals of other instruments.

Improvisatory exercises are extremely useful when exploring the bounds of your own creative musical expression. When you take away the visual, your heighten your other senses and the music begins to become a natural, non-thinking extension of who you are. I really enjoy attending jazz concerts to see and hear the freedom of these musicians. I strive for the same freedom in my playing. As David Thomas (@DTClarinet) stated on Twitter, playing a piece of music is a "recreative" process, but also takes imagination. I think that pairing the improvisatory freedom of non-thinking with real imagination will increase your control over a piece of music and bring out expressive qualities in your playing that will engage your audience in a real-time narrative.

The beauty of music lies in its ability to engage the entire realm of human emotion, and express happiness, sorrow, anger, tell a narrative or paint a picture. By engaging the self through creative and imaginative self-exploration, we break the mold and become free-thinking, musical individuals.

Intention and Emotional Inhibitions that affect it

So sorry for the 2 week gap in blogging, but my lone computer began acting up and I was blessed to get another one so soon. So now I have a new computer that I can dedicate exclusively to my online musical activities.


I stirred up an interesting debate among several flutists on Twitter the other morning when I tweeted about a statement I'd heard the night before. I jam with a group of amateur musicians that just love music and come together to improv and play a variety of folk tunes. I enjoy it because it's such a different environment from a professional aspect, which I find refreshing. In a former life, I would have refused to join these people but I now see it as a unique opportunity to play just to have fun with no pressure.


This violinist, who is a music major at a university out west was discussing why she must practice to the group and stated that as you get closer to the "ideal," you're able to play with more freedom. I agree with this statement in the sense that if you obtain a technical mastery over the instrument, you have a greater awareness of what the instrument can do for maximum expressiveness. I disagree with the statement in that there is no one "ideal." We are constantly shaping ourselves as musicians and our musical identity is always a work in progress. In this mixed group of amateurs, the reaction was one of, "Well, what's the ideal?" Even without a strong music background, they already sensed that there is no true ideal.


While jamming that night, I was tired and didn't feel emotionally involved. I still got something out of going; however, I noted the heightened emotional state of the others there. I am a very private person that has a hard time showing emotion to anyone other than my husband. There are certain tunes, especially some Appalachian folk tunes (from my SW Virginia upbringing), that can bring me to tears. Patriotic outpourings of support for members of the military of any type make me cry. But why is it that I have such a hard time expressing myself, whether it be on a personal level or a musical one? Why do I sometimes feel disconnected from the music even though I, as a classically trained flutist, can interpret the music and present it in a neat package?


Because of this observation from the night before, I continued to tweet, "I'm jealous of amateurs that love music so much, they can play with no cares." Yes, they may be blissfully ignorant, but they love it and that's what I strive to preserve in my own music making. I think it's hard as a professional musician to maintain that element. It could be why even though I'm classically trained, I am very interested in branching other to other genres of music such as folk music that I can connect with on a deeper emotional level. Branching into other genres means interacting with musicians that may not have the same background or education that I do, but they do it for the love of it and invest a lot of themselves into their art. Their varied experiences can help me along my musical metamorphosis.


The debate then took this turn towards the question of professional versus amateur, and what we as professionals know versus the ignorance of amateurs. I am a very open minded person when it comes to hearing new ideas. I think that a young, budding professional can watch an amateur and examine why they do what they do and perhaps draw from that. How amateurs connect with music on a purely emotional level is a lesson to be learned for those of us that once felt that same way, and have lost a connection with the music.


As far as this "ideal" this young violinist referred to, what is it? I think as musicians and artists, we should be constantly exploring new ideas in our playing and never stop learning. I believe that our musical lives are cyclical, and that is the one thing I love most about music. With the number of fantastic flutists in the world today, we have a huge abundance of ideas that can keep things fresh for us.


With all these new ideas, we must have a strong sense of who we are musically with mastery of our instruments in order to keep those new ideas from throwing us into confusion. I discussed this in an earlier blog post (http://sensibleflutist.blogspot.com/2010/06/personality-of-musician-deeper-look.html). Open mindedness will keep you from boxing yourself in. Don't be afraid to explore new ideas, and see where they lead you. New ideas will only propel you further in your musical journey, and encourage freedom.

Should we incorporate everything we discover? No. Young students should be given a strong foundational musical education so that they are able to make decisions for themselves as they advance in their studies. These young musicians already love music. They wouldn't be devoting themselves to learning an instrument if that wasn't the case. Hopefully, they have teachers that allow them to creatively explore the limits of their instruments and lead them to perform with freedom and expressiveness.

On a professional level, we shouldn't box ourselves in but allow ourselves freedom. I contribute my own struggles with the difficulty I have displaying my emotions for the world to see. That's an issue in my own performances that I am working through, and which is why a lot of my focus is on this topic at the moment. Allow your students freedom and creativity within an intelligent framework to preserve intention. We flute players must allow musicality and freedom to shape us who we are as musicians, and not who can play the fastest.

The Personality of a Musician - A Deeper Look

“Being academically and musically correct, yet having a distinct personality is the goal. Difficult, but possible. Too many lose the personality.”

The other day, one of my former teachers Patricia George with whom I studied with in the summer of 2002 at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and again in 2003 at a masterclass, posted on Facebook the very succinct and accurate statement above. The general consensus from the responses to this statement was one of teaching students to think for themselves, to make their own choices before letting another’s influence them. I interpreted this more deeply: you cannot strike your own way as a musician unless you have personality. You have to have the confidence and courage to make your own way.

Without education, there is no chance of success as a classical musician. There is continuous discussion on whether one has “it” and whether that increases their chances for success. As someone who has worked really hard to become a flute player and a musician, I don’t think I have “it” but those of us less fortunate but still have talent can still find our personality and make smart choices in the music we share.

Personality will make you stand out from the crowd. There are SO many flute players in today’s world with the same dreams that finding a niche is essential. For some, it seems to happen overnight and for others, it takes years. To make that niche-finding process easier, not worrying about what others think and owning the music will help get you there faster.

One of the thoughts I’ve had about regarding my own playing is how I tend to lose myself when attempting to perform under the auspices of a teacher’s interpretation. I’ve studied with wonderful teachers, and their playing inspires me; however, I have to be confident of my abilities in the here and now to play with those influences while adding my own flair. How liberating would the experience be if you injected your own personality into the music and play freely? This is the exact reason we all go to college as music majors. Knowledge is power, and that knowledge frees us to play musically. Musical playing is not often heard among us flute players, and that philosophical point is a topic for another day.

Great teachers prepare their students to find and develop their own personality that will lead to future success. Approach the flute with a good, mindful work ethic and musicality will fall into place. I think Mrs. George’s statement falls into the realm of social commentary. Within the public schools, so much emphasis is placed on standardized testing that today’s young students are not able to think for themselves and explore what interests them in the name of bureaucratic “standards.” Developing a musical personality draws upon what you know and have experienced. Take chances and if you turn out to be wrong, accept your mistake and move on. We are human, we make mistakes, but the successful musician will learn from those mistakes and become successful.

While I’m taking my break between degrees, I’m learning things in my own research and exploration that I wouldn’t have grasped if I had immediately entered grad school. My intent during my undergraduate years was to learn, to become better, and to utilize my knowledge and experience as a budding professional musician. Musicians are a highly educated group of people, but how many have personality? To be musical, you must be personally committed and totally convinced of your skills. Forget the technical aspects, just play and let your personality shine through.