#fluteprotips

[kathsmusic]

How to get back into practicing after a haitus

The three weeks leading up to my graduate recital in May, I practiced between four and five hours each day. Immediately after the recital, I had a couple of gigs and rehearsals, which kept me playing daily, but not nearly at the same volume. I went through a bit of flute/school-withdrawal, as well as “Oh Sh*t what do I do with life now?!” and “I need to find a summer job?” My practicing was sparse, but it still existed. My last gig was on June 13th, and I continued playing a bit here and there, but then June 18th was the last day I truly practiced something. I took a good week and a half completely off. Did I do it on purpose? Not at all. Each day I was not practicing, I was experiencing crazy musician guilt. You know the one! I did lots of other stuff with my time, like work, sewing, exercising, cleaning, socializing (Whaaat?! Yeah!), and actually going to a couple of concerts. Without a firm daily schedule (If you remember from some of my previous posts, I absolutely need a firm daily/weekly/monthly calendar to keep my shit together as a human) each day I would tell myself “tomorrow is the day I get back practicing” but then I wouldn’t. 

I devised some strategies to get myself back into the swing of things, and I want to share them with you now!

-Don’t be afraid of how you might sound. You’ll be wherever you’ll be, and that’s OK

-Watch performances of great works online! I watched a bunch of baroque ensemble performances, listened to Brahms symphonies, all of the Berio sequenzas, and a bunch of flute concerti. Sometimes if your body doesn’t feel ready to practice, listening and getting your brain back in the mode is just as good.

-Find an accountability buddy! Text your friend and have practice solidarity!

-Book a lesson with your teacher, if they’re around, or a different teacher. Or ask a friend to hear you run through something in a few day’s time, or get together with friends and play duets/trios/chamber music

-Take out your instrument. Even if you don’t feel like it. Just take it out. 

-Take a huge breath in, stretch your arms up to the sky, and then exhale and let everything go! You’re ready

-Do long tones. 

-Play very slowwwww scales

-Keep relaxed and remember you’re an amazing musician

-Take a selfie and post it on instagram/tumblr! You did it!

Other things you can do:

-Write out a plan for the next four months. I was eager and made a whole year plan. Write in upcoming performances if you have them, if not, performances that you want to do, or rep that you want to learn and when you want to learn it by. 

-Journal about what you want to practice today.

-Draw a picture of yourself jamming out

-Visualize how you see yourself playing in your practice session. You’re totally focused and doing everything with complete ease, right?

-Think about how much you will accomplish by putting in the practice time this summer! 

-Play outside. It’s summer. Go be outside. 

-Drink lots of water

Anyone have any other strategies?

[kathsmusic]

OH MY GOSH!! Everyone, meet "Robyn". (Casey Granofsky) She gives really bad advice. Or, I hope you can sense the sarcasm hahaha!

I can't stop laughing at her playing! Back story: we did our Artist Diploma's together, and she is actually a VERY VERY VERY good flute player. She has made it to final rounds of major auditions. She studies with Denis Bluteau.

[kathsmusic]

Contradicting Imagery

Hi flute friends! (And musician friends!)

I had a thought today while practicing Peter and the Wolf. I have a problem holding two contradicting images in my mind while playing this excerpt: firstly, I imagine a bird chirping on a branch, jumping around, and then in flight. Secondly, the technique teacher in me tries to remind me to stay grounded and firm in my sound and body to achieve the freedom to create a flowing line (I'm referring to the last string of 16th notes- the G+ arpeggio stuff). 

I made a note to myself after my practice session to "stay grounded even though I'm representing a bird in flight". I feel like I actually only have two options, and I have to choose:

Use expression as my guide, and feel like I'm flying (possibly out of control) but bringing the music to life,

or

Being the technique Queen and rooting myself down, playing the line perfectly but firm. 

Have you ever experienced this?

What are some words or thoughts that you've told yourself to help get these ideas to come to life?

[kathsmusic]

What I want to achieve

As an artist, it is my long-term goal to create the best art possible. As a musician, this means to do the composer justice and give life to music. I believe that I am doing both of these things currently, as I am already an artist and musician, albeit not paid a full living wage to be one. It is my life-long goal to continue to pursue musical excellence in order to create the best art possible within my means. 

My short-term goal, which is possible to attain during my studies in the next few years, is to take orchestral auditions and win a position in an orchestra. I can achieve this goal by implementing the following strategies.

[kathsmusic]

Where I am now

I am now pursuing my Master’s Degree in performance at McGill University, with the goal that I will continue to become the best flute player I can be. Just one term in, I already feel as though I am the strongest flute player I have been yet, and my healthiest  person as well. I want to continue in this upwards trajectory of self-improvement, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to take this course and go through the exercise of writing this paper. 

[kathsmusic]

Intro!

My goal with this plan is to explore performance enhancing research to contextualize strategies to use in my own personal musical practice and growth. I have been incorporating several strategies learned from the research already, and I have been experiencing success. I will be referencing my own personal experience, as this plan is for me to draw upon in the future in order to improve my performance. 

I found Williamon’s Musical Excellence: Strategies and techniques to enhance performance to be a valuable resource. Many chapters in this book immediately changed my perspective about practicing.

[kathsmusic]

Printing one million pages of new music I have to learn for the Bicycle Opera Project! I think I'm going to run out of paper... (I need to learn them from the scores. Playing with opera singers requires A LOT of flexibility :p)