The past few weeks I have been reflecting on my practice routine and working on ways to continue to improve and develop effective habits. The last few years have been challenging for me from a personal practice perspective, other commitments, particularly working on further studies has really impacted the time available to work on my musicianship. As that has now started to draw to a close, I have managed to reallocate that time I was using for that purpose towards my practice regime – the routine and structure was in place, so why not keep it going?
I remember watching a video a while ago from a musician who talked about his keeping of a daily practice diary and that this has been an item that has really encouraged growth in their own playing as it caused them to stop and reflect on what they are experiencing at that moment of time, maps the things that are working / growth that is occurring as well as elements still needing more work. It seems like such an obvious thing, after all, as a music teacher we always have practice diaries for our students where we write down what we would like them to work on – why not have something similar for me personally where I record what I am working on and how I need to progress and develop? I made a couple of decisions as I commence this routine, some things that I am going to experiment with to see if it helps my progress and development, both of which will be quite confronting at the same time:
- Keeping a daily diary: I have been keeping a record of my practice and exactly what I am doing each day in a little book, I have include a picture of it below. Every day that I practice I am recording the exercises and repertoire that I am learning and what needs more work.
- Recording myself playing for reflection: At least twice a week I am going to record parts of my practice time. This is a practise that I have used many times before to help me improve, however this time I am wanting to do it a little different. I am hoping to post some videos of me playing to try to show progress and development, particularly looking at the beginning and end of each week. Being honest, this really scare me taking a step like this, but I feel that for my own development and personal growth it could be a good move.
- Keeping a weekly blog / reflection on how the practice and progress is going for each week: I will aim to share a reflection on the things that I have been working on each week on my website. It will probably be in this space that I will include the videos. In time, there are a number of technical exercises that I am planning on working that I will also look at sharing and developing. Again, this will be more for my benefit rather than anyone else’s. I am just looking to grow and develop in my personal music journey, the older I get the more I realise there is a lot that I don’t know and so much more that I can learn.
I am currently sitting at the end of Week 3 of this new regime and I have been really happy with how it is going. The first week saw me commence my practice each day just after 7:00am and I managed to get close to an hour and a half completed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday I missed due to having a band rehearsal at school start at 7:00am making it not possible. I did find the exertion after the long break challenging, my lips copped a hammering as I completed 15 minutes of long notes at 72BPM for 16 beats over the range of the instrument. I like to incorporate aural elements by selecting specific intervals of focus, this included ascending major third, descending minor third; ascending major 2nd, descending minor 2nd, and chromatic ascending. I found that the notes D1 to Bb1 were only held for 12 beats, something that I will need to work on more. Additionally the front E3, F3, F#3 were not as clean as I would like. After completing this, I moved into scale work for the next 30 minutes. I focused on Majors in 12 keys over the range of the instrument. With the metronome on 100BPM completing 16th notes, this was followed by ascending thirds, descending thirds and then a thirds pattern turnaround (1-3-4-2-3-5-6-4 etc.). The keys of E, F and F# proved challenging at the top, needing me to slow down what I was doing to 100BPM as 8th notes and then building back up to the set tempo of 100BPM as 16ths. My sessions finished with working on Lou Donaldson’s Blues Walk, revising the head and solo from memory. By the end of the week I had gotten the entire solo down.
Week 2: My focus for week two shifted due to the upcoming Funk Club 20 year reunion being held a the the Leederville Hotel on the 17th of November. I will be rejoining up with the Funk Club House Band and have needed to shift my repertoire focus to revising the repertoire. The week saw me continue with the 15 minutes of long-tones, slowly improving in the intonation and also tone quality before moving onto the repertoire. Considerable progress was made with a number of the songs helping me prepare for the rehearsal held on the Saturday at the end of the week. One hiccup is that the extra exertion on my lips has caused a few splits and blisters to start appearing, it hasn’t stopped me practicing, just some discomfort as I toughen everything back up after the long break.
Week 3: The rehearsal on the Saturday went remarkably well, after a 10 year break everything felt really good and it was like there hadn’t been any time off. I have continued to practice the same days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday) and managed to feel comfortable with all of the repertoire now. There’s a few small things still needing to be worked on, but feel that over the next week I can polish these up s that all the charts are down from memory. My focus for the next week will now turn towards some additional transcription work of various funk solos. I have few Maceo Parker albums that I have been wanting to work through / spend some time revising – time for woodshedding.
I have found the whole getting back into things really beneficial for my personal wellbeing. The first three weeks I feel that there’s a lot of stuff coming back quickly, there’s a long way to go to back to where I have previously been, but I also feel that I now have a really good system in place to see me not only get back but, more importantly, grow and develop.
This coming Friday (17th of November) I will be playing my first gig for quite a while. I am very excited about this one. If you’re in Perth and want a great night of Funk and Soul I can’t recommend enough how amazing the night will be for the Funk Cub 20 year reunion. I’ll be taking the stage just after midnight with the House Band. Tickets can be purchased via the link, I hope to see you there!
