Tuesdays I co-mentor an Education for Ministry seminar group, so I get home at 10:00 or later in the evening. Since I do not practice after 9:00 p.m. out of respect for my neighbors, Tuesdays have become study nights. I'm still working on my flute and improving as a flutist. I just don't play it Tuesdays.
So what is a study night?
If I'm going to start working on a new piece, I'll take some time to look through it. Where are repeated phrases and themes? Where are breaths that ought to be marked. What are some of the potential trouble spots in terms of my skills--do I need to look up the fingering for the third octave B flat?
When picking up a piece I haven't played in a long time, I go through a similar process. I've learned new skills, so a problem area the last time I played the piece might not be a problem area now. Or perhaps I need to breathe in different places. Maybe there's some ornamentation that could or should be done differently.
And I'll look at things I'm currently practicing. Sometimes I'll need to mark beats in a measure where I'm having trouble with rhythm. In the case of the Margravine's Waltz, I took Zara Lawler's advice and marked left foot and right foot steps on specific beats of each measure.
Sometimes I'll pull out a straw and "play" through a piece to work on articulation. Every little bit helps.
Tuesdays are the only night during the "school year" that I have a regularly scheduled meeting that gets me home too late to practice with my flute. However, there are times when meetings at work run late, or I socialize with friends, and I end up getting home too late to practice. Over the past couple of weeks I've missed a couple of nights each week. At first I worried about missing a day's practice--or two--during a week. I don't want my routine to fall apart. What I realized is that even missing a day here and there, I'm still practicing regularly.
I play the flute because I enjoy it, not to make myself crazy about missing a day's practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment