Back to School (and daily flute practicing)!

Well, it’s that time again...back to school!  While many of us (including myself) associate the beginning of a new school year with being deprived of our precious “staying up late and getting up REALLY late” schedule, back to school is a great time to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and set new goals for the year, especially for flute, including getting back on a regular daily practice schedule.

Unlike this unfortunate fellow pictured above, those of you who know me know how strongly I feel about being ORGANIZED!  Start the school year and your “flute year” off right by making sure you have all of your supplies, your instrument is in good working order, and you have an idea of which goals you would like to accomplish for the year, or at least the next few months. 

This week in lessons, we will be setting goals for flute playing over the next few months.  It’s important to take these goals seriously and really use them to motivate you.  Make a list of events you want to play at (school band concerts, ensembles, studio recitals, competitions, auditions) and post them with their deadlines or concert dates next to where you practice.  When you come for your lesson this week, look by my computer monitor and you’ll see a piece of paper on the wall that lists all of my goals for the year.  This is a great motivator because you are constantly reminded of why and what you are practicing for. 

Set deadlines for yourself or have your teacher (me) set deadlines for you.  Having a deadline will motivate you to prepare for a specific date.  Without a deadline, sometimes it is hard to practice diligently because you’re not feeling pressure to improve by a certain time. 

These ideas sound great but they won’t work if you just read them over and over on the computer screen!  Put them into action!  It’s just like practicing...there’s no use in practicing unless you’re practicing correctly! 

Now, for some more reading.  This is Professor David Zerkel (professor of tuba at the University of Georgia and friend)’s yearly encouragement and motivational list of things to do for the upcoming year.  It is intended for music majors in college but I think it applies to all music students, especially the students in our studio.  Pick 1-2 things from this list you want to do this year with flute and tell me your plan on how you’re going to do them next week in lessons.

Some Suggestions on Being an Effective Music Student - 2012 Edition

By David Zerkel

The first day of school always brings the opportunity to share some encouragement to the brass area right out of the chute! Here's the 2012 edition! Have a great year!

 

1. Take your classes seriously. Theory, Ear-training and Music History provide you with the tools to understand the language of music and your mastery of these subjects WILL help you play your instrument better. If you have had a math course beyond algebra, music theory should present no problems, as it is structured in a very systematic way. Ear-training will help you learn what you need to hear, whether you are playing your instrument or standing in front of a band. Music History will equip you with the tools to approach your interpretations from informed perspective and will give you the insight needed to play with style.

 

2. Listen to as much music as you can! Naxos online music library is a great resource, Spotify is fantastic, as is our incredibly complete music library. A hard, but not impossible, goal is to spend the same amount of hours listening that you spend practicing. Listening to music and familiarizing yourself with a broad spectrum of music is where your REAL musical education will take place.

 

3. Learn and know your scales and arpeggios, as they are the building blocks of western music. Realizing that virtually everything that you play is constructed with scales and arpeggios will make mastering your instrument exponentially easier.

 

4. Schedule your practice time as though it were a class and make yourself a tough attendance policy. Success in music, like anything else in life, is dependent upon disciplined and persistent effort. Hard work will trump talent any day of the week. The world is filled with incredibly talented people who never reached their potential because they were lazy.  Each of you has the power to positively affect the climate of music at the School of Music, simply by doing what needs to be done in the practice room. It is really cool to not suck… daily practice will help you to appreciate your potential and your ability to improve.

 

5. Go to concerts! There is no substitution for listening to live music—every performance you hear provides you with the opportunity to learn something about your own performances. Whether you will teach or perform, you will spend the rest of your life evaluating performances and diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses of what you hear. You will develop this skill much more quickly if you are going to concerts.

 

6. Embrace what technology has to offer us in developing as musicians. Rhythm and Pitch are the two empirical truths in music--- either they are right or they are wrong. Don’t look as your metronome and tuner as though they are nagging you that you are not good enough—learn to make chamber music with your Dr. Beat and to look at your tuner as the teller of truth. If you really want to use technology to improve your performance skills, purchase a digital recorder such as a Zoom 2 (or use Quicktime, Audacity or Garage Band on your computer) to record your practice. This will help you to become your own teacher. The greatest period of growth that I have ever had as a developing musician happened when I was recording and evaluating my practice on a daily basis. Also, for $36 you can purchase SmartMusic for your computer and never be alone or unchallenged in the practice room again.

 

7. Be curious! Strive to know the repertoire for your instrument. Practice something everyday that is NOT part of your lesson assignment for the week. Read ahead in an etude book or check out some music from the library. This will help your sight-reading skills immeasurably. I've never met a great musician who was not a greta sight reader! Strive to be a comprehensive musician, not just a jock on your horn!

 

8. Play with your peers! Form a chamber music group or play duets with a peer as much as you can. Chamber music empowers each of us to make musical decisions without the input of a director, which is a critical skill. Playing chamber music will also help grow your ears in a dramatic way.

 

9. Be serious about your pursuit of excellence. Set the bar high and work hard to be the best that you can be. Music is an extraordinarily competitive field—remember that there is always someone somewhere that is working harder than you are and someday you will meet them at the audition or the interview. You owe it to yourself to be the best musician that you can be. You will only be a great band director if you are first a great musician.

 

10. Know that every great musician in the world still considers himself or herself a student of music. Wynton Marsalis is a music student. Joe Alessi is a music student, as is Yo Yo Ma, Simon Rattle and Emmanuel Ax . Make lifelong improvement and lifelong learning your goal. I am not as good as I think I am and neither are you. The older I get, the more I realize that I have only begun to scratch the surface of what there is to know. Use this blessing of an opportunity that you have as a full-time music student to your advantage. Your hard work will pay off in the end!

So...after having this new motivation and positive outlook on starting the new school year, I encourage you to value your music education and flute practicing just as you do your homework and other extra curricular activities.  Use flute as an escape from your homework and as your special time of the day when you can “chillax” and do something especially for yourself. 

Good luck with the first day of school!  I can’t wait to hear everyone's stories!