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An ongoing topic for many players is staying on top of their playing over the course of a lifetime, and how practice fits in with that goal. I follow a number of blogs, including the blog of bassoonist Barrick Stees of the Cleveland orchestra. In a very recent post he noted that
If you ask someone like me — a musician in mid-career — what they practice you’ll get a lot of different answers.
Some people have schedules that are so busy that they don’t really practice much anymore. That is, they don’t seek out etudes, solo pieces, etc., but just have time to stay on top of the material they’re performing that week and maybe look ahead to see what’s coming up. They have boiled down their warming up and practicing so that they can have what they need for the week ready and nothing more.
I have been in this position and I know how hard it is to try anything new. Those that know me, know that I’m a restless type, always looking for ways to stretch and stay on top of my game.
Some people are able to carve out time for work on an area of technique or prepare a recital, etc.
Hugh Michie, Second Bassoonist of the Cincinnati Symphony, loves working on etudes. He has a very thorough regimen of etudes that keeps him in shape.
Phillip Austin, our recently retired Second Bassoonist, used to put on solo recitals every other year. It was his way of having fun, stretching a bit and playing some solo literature. After all, the second bassoonist rarely gets to play solos in the orchestra.
I have trouble staying in shape by just practicing my orchestra music. My technique becomes stale and even my ability to sight read becomes sluggish.
It is a big topic. The final paragraph quoted above is a cautionary one we all would be well advised to heed.
When I was playing full time in Nashville the normal work plus some practice (with a good warm-up!) kept me in great shape. With teaching full time now I find that rehearsals and performances tend to be bunched together with often quite a bit of down time between. While it helps a lot to get in a good daily warm-up and some practice in the morning, playing in lessons does not keep me in shape. Also, playing little by little all day in lessons is I find hard on my chops. I would much rather play in two or three more concentrated sessions, roughly equivalent to an hour of practice or a 2.5 hour orchestra service.
The tactic I have taken in recent years is to gear my practice around “projects.” Those can be either driven by upcoming performances or recitals, by writing projects, or by other random interests. I have had some weeks this year with some fairly serious natural horn work, as I am working on a publication project. But reading the comments by Stees above has me interested to dive into some new etudes as a project. There are a lot of etudes out there for horn and they are on the whole a great way to build and maintain technique. Plus there are a lot of etudes that I have never worked out. But initially what I have gone back to is the original publication of the etudes better known as the Pottag Preparatory Melodies, focusing on the Schantl etudes that Pottag did not include in his somewhat abridged publication (only 98 of the 120 etudes in the original publication).
As I was working on the draft of this article Stees posted to his blog again and the topic was of a project he is undertaking related to the Bach cello suites. That would be another great project, and it would be very easy to undertake a very similar project on horn. Check out his Bach project here.
To close, a final point I would make is personally I find it hard to practice just for the sake of practicing at this point in my life. I find projects to be something that clarifies and focuses my practice. Projects are a practice plan to consider if you are into midlife as well and want to stay on top of your game.
