So How Do You Practice?

I used to hate practicing my trumpet when I was young. I never knew what to do! The band director told us to practice to get better, but I never knew exactly how to do that. I’d play a “C” scale a couple of times, then a piece or two that our band was working on, but we played them over and over and over again at band practice — it wasn’t very interesting playing it again by myself and I never felt that it helped me get any better.

Good reason for this — THAT was NOT practicing!

A good practice session does help you improve — by practicing fundamentals and techniques, by rehearsing current tunes, and by exploring new ones. Here’s how your practice session time might break down:

1/3 time: Practice fundamentals and scales. Scales. Scales. Scales. Did I mention scales? Don’t just play the same C major scale over and over — get a scale book (or locate some through http://www.freesheetmusic.net) and practice major and minor scales in all keys. Explore different scales and modes — Phrygian, Mixolydian, etc. Definately practice Pentatonic scales and blues scales (comes in handy when you start improvising solos). When I was first starting band way, way back, we had a guest conductor one day. He was a fairly popular local trumpet player with a really hot band. He held up a book of scales (that little blue book that everyone has seen) and said “If you can play everything in here, you’ll be one of the best players in the world!” We didn’t believe him, of course. Now that I’m much, much, much older, I can see that he was right! Play scales and learn them by heart. Practice different speeds, slurring, not slurring (I don’t know how to spell tonguing!), etc.  String players too!  Play staccato and legato.  Alternate every other note.

1/3 time: Practice current tunes. These will be tunes your band (or you, if you’re solo) are currently learning or working on. Do this to learn and understand the tunes better, but don’t do it until you’re bored sick!  Think about the tunes — try to detect the chord changes.

1/3 time: Practice new tunes and techniques. This is the fun part of practice. Put the old stuff away and work on new things. Try to sight-read new pieces; try to play pieces by ear. Play different parts. Try improvising a solo to a jazz or blues background. Try playing different genres of music. Experiment! Play! Have fun!

Whether you practice 1/2 hour a day … or 8 hours a day … you’ll find a 1/3-1/3-1/3 practice split will help you improve, keep you interested, and keep you entertained and excited!

Until next time, practice, practice, practice!

Joey