On Breaking the Rules and the 60-Minute Practice Session

To a certain degree we learn methods and rules in order to forget about them later and move on to other things.

In “More on the rules of hornplaying” John Ericson brings up a thought-provoking piece on the IHS site, Frøydis Ree Wekre giving her thoughts on myths and negative rules.

Ms. Wekre’s article brings up a lot of interesting notions, and it got me thinking not just about negative rules, but also about some of the good rules – especially those that worked well in the past, but have morphed into something else over time.

Three, well-spaced hours

For a long time my routine was to practice three hours daily, with each session being about one hour in length. These three sessions were evenly divided throughout the day. Sometimes I might do four hours, but on average three seemed to be enough.

The key element here is the one-hour practice session, a concept that I believe is fairly common.

For myself, this was a habit instilled at an early age. From the beginning stages all the way through college and into my early professional career, it was the ritual that I relied on for good results.

With it came an ethic that was important. Practicing involves task-oriented work, and in order to get everything done and on schedule for weekly lessons, some thought, direction and planning was required. The one-hour session was a regular part of that equation.

The game changes

As life got busier, this habit changed.

Between teaching, playing and making web sites I no longer had consistent, well-spaced one-hour chunks of time to rely on. I found myself catching 30-40 minutes here and there, buzzing my mouthpiece in the car or working on warm-ups with students in order to get practice time in, as examples.

Whether it be for a full-time player in a major orchestra or a part-time player with a day job, a busy lifestyle forces one to adapt the practice regimen accordingly.

Necessity, goes the old saying, is the mother of invention.

This is not to say that the old rules suddenly become invalid, but rather to suggest that pedagogy is something that exists on a continuum. Experienced teachers and players, well-versed in a variety of approaches, know this and are prepared with an arsenal of learning tools to draw from.

Learning rules in order to transcend them

Looking at the big picture, we play this game of rules in order to get to the other side and change the game. Ultimately this is how we grow as musicians and learn as teachers and students.

This takes time of course but in a nutshell, it is how we find ourselves – especially our strengths and weaknesses.

These lessons are things to remember.