Picking up your instrument after a break can be the most awfully
depressing thing in the world.
These are my tips for making the first 5 – 7 days of practice after a
break a bit (hopefully a lot!) more bearable:
1) Take an intentional break.
This Christmas, I took my flute with me for a five-day holiday, vaguely
intending to ‘keep my muscles in shape’ with a bit of practice each day. This
was a silly idea. I picked it up once, to play ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer’, and felt that I’d let myself down every day I didn’t play.
Leave the thing at home and have a proper holiday! I say this for two
good reasons:
- It will reduce guilt
- It will increase your anticipation for when you can play again.
We often want what we can’t have, and you might well start
itching to play, which is a great attitude to have when you do pick up your
instrument again.
2) Don’t expect too much, too soon.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Chances
are you won’t sound quite ‘yourself’ for a few days, but you will sound better
MUCH more quickly than you think you will.
Make a deal with yourself that you’ll practise for a
certain amount of time each day (perhaps only half an hour at first), and then be
proud of yourself when you achieve that.
3) Play simple melodies that you enjoy.
I recommend playing easy tunes that help you to create
music when your technique isn’t in tip-top shape.
They’re rewarding, but also a challenge to play well, so they
get you into that all important ‘zone’ or ‘flow’, from which
you can tackle more difficult repertoire.
You can extend the exercise by playing the tunes in different
keys, which is great for:
- mental agility
- aural training
- getting your fingers working, and
- improving tone across the instrumental range.
I recommend this great mini
fake book, packed full of popular tunes to enjoy.
4) Play along and improvise to a backing
track.
I have had so much fun on YouTube lately playing along to jazz standards
and pop songs that I enjoy.
There are many good reasons to do this!
1) It’s FUN, and when we have
fun, we learn better.
2) It’s DIFFERENT – you may never
want to be a jazz musician, or improvise in public, so there’s no
pressure - but doing something out of your comfort zone is
always refreshing.
3) It stops you from
being overly critical. Your brain has to combine so many skills that your self-critical voice doesn't have much time, if any, to
interfere.
4) The backing music connects
you to a structure of rhythm, harmony and layers of sound that you
simply don’t have when playing by yourself.
5) Your instinctive
musicianship will kick in and you will find that your tone, breathing,
and phrasing automatically improve.
Here are some of my favourite clips to play along to:
Happy practising!
No comments:
Post a Comment