Some Thoughts on Practising
by Helen Paskins
Freelance clarinettist and teacher
Practising can be great fun. I was delighted to hear from the parent of
one of my students recently that she happily practises of her own accord. So why is this not such a common occurrence?
In my view, the reasons for not practising are normally far
more complex than straightforward laziness. In fact, I am not sure that laziness is ever really the problem and
sussing out what is really stopping practice from happening can be really
helpful.
Firstly, I think students need to be really clear about what
practice is and how to do it. This is
where a good teacher can come in. Setting clear, achievable and measurable goals is vital. As I mentioned in my article on scales it is failing that troubles us, what we like
best is to succeed. This is why so many
people like to practise the things they can do already! The trouble is that in the long run this
isn't going to be hugely useful. It is
also a good idea to develop a structure for your practice. It can be very beneficial to warm up with
technical exercises, long notes, scales and articulation patterns which get the
key essentials for good, even sound production in place before you begin
working on pieces.
It also enables you
to bring your brain from whatever it may have been thinking about previously
into musical focus before you start on the main work of your practice.
I feel that all lessons should be a template for good
practice techniques. If we can take
something we can't do and turn it into something that we can then the practice
feels good and will help us to improve therefore, ironically, inspiring us to
practise more. The reverse is also true
though. Practise something in a rushed,
un-rhythmical way or without paying attention to accurate notes, accidentals, articulations
or good posture and you will wind up feeling frustrated. Internally you will know that you are being
careless. This feels bad. You
leave the session not wanting to do anything further. Added to which these mistakes are likely to
rear their ugly heads again because the option is now in your fingers. For some reason, bad habits can seem to stick
much more stubbornly than good ones which is why it is best, if you can, never
to play things without good quality attention. I teach my students to check in with their emotions when
practising. They are a really good
barometer for how well you are getting on.
Our feelings are really important drivers in other ways
too. Alison Balsom talked a lot about the
inspiration for practice in her wonderful Desert Island Discs interview. She described the importance of the friends
she has made through music and the excitement of discovering different
pieces/performers for herself. The power
of the social connections we can make and voyage of intellectual, emotional and
even geographical discovery that music can take us on really can help to get us
hooked on practising and keep us there. Having friends to chat to who love to explore, enjoy and care about
music too can really help to keep you motivated and focused. I have witnessed again and again how a group
of students playing music together can create a special chemistry which keeps
them all so much more enthused and engaged and how this then feeds into their personal
practice.
However, with the best will in the world there is another
problem. Children (and adults of
course!) these days can be incredibly busy with huge numbers of activities to
try and fit into their days. It feels
like everyone wants a piece of them. This is where being realistic is important. I had one student who used to get up early
and practise before school. For a lot of
teenagers though, their body clocks just can't cope with this. For other people, the problem might be their
next door neighbours. Fine. It must be what works for you. However, if you tie practice to some free
periods when friends are in lessons or do it every day just after or as a break
in the middle of homework or any realistic
and regular slot in the week then it
is much more likely to be feasible and therefore to happen. Deciding to practise 2 hours a day when you
simply do not have that time in your life is only going to make you feel guilty
and very likely not achieve much. Ironically, if you commit to a very small slot, for example 10 minutes a
day, you will probably do more because having started you will get involved and
interested.
This article is in no way meant to be comprehensive. However, I have found that working with these
ideas and a compassionate/realistic approach to what can be achieved can be
really helpful. At the end of the day,
playing an instrument is an incredible experience and fun. It involves solving problems, being honest
and patient with ourselves and being creative. If we are open to the idea that gratification might not always be
immediate, but that working
slowly,
rhythmically (more
vital than many people realise for satisfying practice),
in small chunks,
and with
care, attention, good listening, imagination
and appropriate body use/awareness,
can lead us to solving all sorts of tricky passages,
then it can be an incredibly rich and rewarding experience
even, and perhaps especially, for the smart phone/internet generation.
Being alive now is in fact an incredible opportunity. There are so many resources online to help us
make practice even more productive than perhaps ever before. There are websites like
sightreadingfactory.com to help us with sight-reading so that you can check
what you are doing is actually correct. The ABRSM has aural apps to help with aural. You can have a metronome and tuner on your
phone so they are always with you. On
Youtube or Spotify we have access to an unbelievable quantity and quality of
recordings and videos which can inspire us and help us to learn about the harmony,
accompaniment or different ways of playing/phrasing the same thing. Using Wikipedia we can inform ourselves in
seconds about the background of the pieces and composers. IMSLP will provide you with the orchestra
parts or scores for almost anything out of copyright. Wow.
How lucky we are. Let's get
practising!
(I am grateful to David Warwick and Nicola Summerscales for
their very pertinent input into these thoughts.)
LINKS
Helen's edition of 'Syrinx' by Debussy for bass clarinet is published
by Emerson Edition (E700) and available from June Emerson Wind Music here.
More information about Helen Paskins can be found here
