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From the archive of the original HTML Horn Notes Blog, dated 10/1/04, this article outlines a general approach to practice. At the time at ASU the ensembles schedule had a number of horn players in rehearsals for band and orchestra back-to-back a couple days a week, so I was, as related below, telling some hornists to literally not practice at all those days. That ensemble rehearsal scheme is no longer used at Arizona State which has reduced the frequency of the conversation described below. At the end are appended a few more recent thoughts.
Yesterday I found myself three times in one day talking to current and former students about practice and the playing day. Many teachers suggest three hours a day of practice. This is a great amount when spread out evenly through a day of playing the horn–perhaps just over an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, and under an hour in the evening–IF (this is a big if) you have no other rehearsals or concerts to perform that day. But, if you have, say, a coaching, a rehearsal, and a concert, three hours of additional practice is way, way over what you should be doing that day. You will bury your chops and will not be able to perform at your peak.
I feel that the playing day is best thought of as having three main playing “sessions” in it. So, if a day has no other rehearsals in it, the three hours of practice spread out over the day is perfect. If you have an orchestra rehearsal, this eliminates one hour of practice; if you have a rehearsal and a concert, this would eliminate two of the practice sessions. If you have three performance related sessions this might eliminate all practice from your day!
This system assumes one other thing, that you warm-up at the beginning of each playing session. For me the warm-up is really attached to a playing session that follows; I don’t do a long routine in the morning and consider my chops then set for the day. I warm up 15-20 minutes every time I play the horn. Every player is different–this is how I play my best.
[Actually, this system assumes a couple more things, the biggest one being that you are serious about getting good on the horn. The comments today mainly relate to students who practice seriously. If you never put in as much time as I am talking about in this note, maybe you need to get in a bit more.]
What I am looking for you to achieve in the playing day is a day made up of three roughly similar but solid playing sessions. Of course, this system may still result in days that are harder and easier on the chops than others. Heavy days come periodically into every playing schedule; they make themselves. As possible, when one is coming make the previous day a lighter day and the following day a lighter day as well. You need to be both rested for the heavy day and you need time to recover afterwards. Marathon runners don’t run Marathons day after day; any athlete has to have recovery days in a schedule, and horn players are no different.
This system may sound somewhat radical but the fact is you will find your chops to be more responsive and supple and they will produce your best playing much more consistently with system similar to what I propose than if you regularly bury yourself in an effort to put three hours of practice into every single playing day.
In short, aim for three solid playing sessions every day. Practice well when those sessions are practice sessions. But don’t bury your chops in an effort to maintain three clock hours of daily practice, especially on days that you have other performance commitments.
It does not matter if you are a student, an amateur, or a pro, it is very possible to practice your way into chop problems that end up being very difficult to resolve. Where I was coming from in the original article was that some students can get so into the big day of playing and into improvement that they actually do harm by practicing too hard some days. How the heavy playing day impacts the chops in the long term also relates to how you manage the warm-up and re-warm-up. I will have more on that side of the topic soon.
