Tag: practice
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Practice Triage: Sorting Out Your Practice
Is it better to focus on practicing simpler or more complex problems in your practice?
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Learning Strategies: Block vs. Interleaved
There are two major learning strategies: block and interleaved. Which one is best?
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Why You Shouldn’t Have (One) Warmup Routine
What do Lay’s chips and warm-up routines have in common? You shouldn’t have just one!
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Most Effective Learning Style Feels the Worst
Active vs. Passive learning: sometimes the best medicine is the most bitter.
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Memorizing =/= Learning
Telling a student to memorize something is not the same as telling them to memorize it. Seth Godin explains.
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Practice Recipe: 3 Parts Focus with 1 Part Distraction
Practicing a musical instrument can be a frustrating experience. Lots of hours focused on just getting one or two small sections perfect, only to be faced with more the next day or week. However, practice isn’t just about focusing on small details and getting individual notes correct. At least part of your practice time needs…
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Trigger Phrases to Improve Performance
Using one or two words to improve your concentration or establish the character of a piece is not a new teaching technique. I know I’ve personally heard about using these kinds of “trigger words” for a couple of decades. These are especially useful to establish the mood or style of an orchestral excerpt. In most…
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Prepare for Fall Band Camp (and Auditions!)
It’s almost September, which means high school and band camps are well underway (or done). One of the hardest shifts that most brass players make is the switch between “summer chops” and “band camp chops”. Most brass players play very little from June-August. Even those that do practice usually don’t practice a lot. Definitely not…
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Calm vs. Nerves vs. Terror: Which is Best?
Although no one likes being nervous, it may actually be the best way to perform.