The Practicing Life
What’s one of the most important parts of my day as a music performance major?
You guessed it, practicing.
Specifically for those of you without backgrounds in music studies, I figured it’d be helpful to outline my time in the practice room. That’s really one of the most important parts of my days—we practice to improve technical skills, learn music, think of new ideas, and ultimately prepare for performances.
How I Structure My Days
This information is somewhat repeated from a post last fall about a day in the life, but as far as practice goes I usually aim for 3 good practice sessions per day…
-30-45 min. on a good warmup, usually around 8:30 or 9am.
-45-60 min. on technical practice/building good habits and working on shorter studies (etudes), usually around 11am.
-45-60 min. mostly on music I’m learning and refining for upcoming auditions, performances, etc. usually around 3 or 4pm.
Then that’s it! I usually have rehearsals, classes, or concerts in the evenings, so it’s always a goal of mine to have the good work done before dinner time. I’ve found I’m most productive in the morning, and once the clock hits 8 or 9pm (call me old) it’s a pretty quick slide downhill for productivity.
How Each Session Works
My warmup is almost the same from day-to-day. Over the course of weeks or months I’ll sometimes make small adjustments to it, if some aspects of my playing aren’t quite working as well as I’d like. This is also really the time to recover from my previous day of playing and set myself up for success in the upcoming day.
The second main practice session will usually have about 30-40 minutes of technical work. I have a checklist covering almost all of the technical aspects of playing that I work on (see below) and I try to work on every item at least once every three days, both for maintenance and improvement. This idea came from a masterclass with Tom Hooten, principal trumpet of the LA Philharmonic. I’ll then spend the remaining 15-20 minutes playing short studies. This forces me to apply what I’m working on in real, longer musical settings. The goal is that my technical work isn’t isolated from my music.
The third main practice session will sometimes start with a little technical practice, but I’ll pretty quickly get into working on music. For example, right now I’m working on two audition lists of music, each with 10-15 minutes worth of solo and orchestral music. I’m also learning a super cool chamber piece by Stravinsky, L’Histoire du Soldat (Soldier’s Tale) which we’re planning to (hopefully) perform in May. Then I’ll add in some sight reading and transposition, which is an essential skill as trumpet players where we put the music in a different key by playing different notes than the ones on the page. I’ll then finish with some easy, low exercises to get the blood flowing and call it a day.
I’m also trying to listen to more music this year, with a goal of listening to a full album of music 6 days/week. These usually relate to school projects, music I’m learning, music I’m curious about, or recommendations from critics I follow. I’d also consider this “practicing” in a way, simply by exposing me to more good, new music. This takes up around an hour/day, but I usually have that amount of time during bus rides, walking to class, buying groceries, etc.
That’s about it for how I structure my practice days. Hopefully this was helpful for those without a musical background to see what type of work we do. We don’t have much traditional book-work, but rather these practice times, which are far too often on our own.
I’ll admit, I’ve probably been paying too much attention to social media/news sources recently with all of the COVID-19 stuff going on. I didn’t want to write much about it, and I’m sure that it’s occupying just about every conversation of yours, but I should at least let you know that I’m safe and doing really well.
As of Monday the country’s on lockdown (not quite as scary as it sounds, but still serious), closing everything that’s non-essential. Basically just grocery stores, pharmacies, and train stations are open now. I’m sure it’s just like this in the US, or will be soon.
Fulbrighters from other countries (such as China, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Spain, and Germany) have been sent back to the US, but those of us in Switzerland haven’t been told explicitly to do so, yet. We’ve been given the offer and the support of both the US and Swiss governments, but there are a few specific reasons for why I (and almost all of the other Swiss students) are staying put right now unless we’re told to do otherwise.
I’ve got a great apartment (complete with kitchen, bathroom, and practice space) to myself. Self-quarantining’s not really going to get much easier than that, and I recognize how fortunate I am to have this situation. (I also have a balcony and have been spending so much time reading/doing homework outside, since it’s finally spring here).
My grant specifically goes through the next academic year, meaning that I can safely stay put here with a stipend and health insurance until Summer 2021. I also live walking-distance from the hospital, should anything happen. I have no need to leave anytime soon.
Traveling right now probably isn’t in the best interests of us or others. Europe has the most concentrated cases of the virus currently (Switzerland is second worldwide in per-capita cases). Even if I’m not carrying it, odds are that others who are traveling around me are. The process of taking a bus and train to the airport, flying, waiting in customs, and being around other travelers in close quarters wouldn’t be too ideal.
Unfortunate as it is, I’m not sure that the US is in much better of a situation than Switzerland, and it seems like many measures implemented here will be implemented soon (if not already) in the US.
Hopefully that all makes sense—I’m doing really well. I’m reading a lot, listening to Met Opera broadcasts, getting fresh air, practicing, reading old International Trumpet Guild journals and just starting to do homework assignments for the classes that are now online.
Of course, anything could happen and I could end up back in the US within the next week, so we’ll just keep waiting to see what happens. I’m great with where I’m at now and hoping that I get to stay.
Lucerne’s still beautiful and noticeably quieter when I go out (which I promise isn’t that often now, just to buy groceries at this point). I’m sure the situation in the US, and most of the world, is basically the same.
Probably the only time I’ll see the Chapel Bridge clear during the day. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not dead all day, but I happened to catch the bridge at a good moment. Now’s probably the only time when we’re able to walk this bridge without seeing groups of tourists.
Next week I’ll have a (long-awaited) rundown of what the bike scene in Switzerland’s like.
As long as I’m still here ;)