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Besides the topic of practice spaces addressed in the previous article (here), there is also the question of what and how to practice with a disrupted practice (and life!) schedule, such as now in our current world situation. I have my own experiences to share that are more extensive than the average pro, hopefully helpful in this challenging time.
First, we drop back to when I was a grad student. I had a summer where I unfortunately got mono right at the beginning of the summer. It was right after playing some big concerts including principal on Tchaik 5 and Beethoven 7 with the IU Philharmonic in France (!), and I was planning to study in Aspen.
Coming back from France I was beginning to wipe out physically, and when I got back to Kansas I was out of commission. With also an additional issue, I was allergic to one of the initial medications prescribed. I had to scrap my summer plans.
As I got better what I had to do was make projects for myself.
Stepping back a second, much of our average horn practice is driven by upcoming performances and lesson materials. When you have essentially no performances or lessons, but are motivated to improve, you need to create some structure. For me at that time excerpts were a big part of it, listening to works, digging in deeper. I believe I made good progress that summer, even though I was practicing on my own (and playing weekly parks concerts in the city band) with no outside direction. It can be done!
This experience is also part of why I am such a believer in three practice sessions spaced out in a day, three total hours. Make this all you do for a few weeks, and your chops will feel great! More on this type of practice plan here:
The second big experience of this in my life was more recent. I have shared previously in this site; my son is handicapped and lives with us (detailed more in a series of articles starts here).
In short, he was doing great until age 19, after that, it became clear that I needed to be home in the evenings due to his anxiety and behavior issues. It is a sacrifice I feel fortunate that I can make, but it has created a long-term practice challenge. One thing that is good, he is routine driven, and part of his daily routine is I practice after his bath. Because of that, I practice every night, but then the challenge is practice what? I do not tend to have many concerts on the books now, so it ends up I create various projects for myself. Right now, I am working on editing some etudes I have composed (an updated and expanded version of my Modern Preparatory Etudes), that is the main project. In recent months I personally I have done things like
- spend a lot of time in Gallay on natural horn
- work on Kling and Mueller etudes I never worked on with any teacher
- explore the Bach cello suites
The result for me these few years, practicing these things, has been interesting, in that I feel I am playing as well or better than I have ever played. My chops are in a good place.
For current horn students your teacher should guide your list, but I think every teacher would say you should do things including
- working on fundamentals such as in a good warmup routine
- listen to and work on solos that are new to you, and
- listen to and work on orchestral works that are essential to our rep
Finally, you will probably find you can cover a lot more music than normal with no ensembles going on. Keep going into new materials and directions — do not limit yourself.
Effective practice is a new challenge in a challenging time. It will take some refocusing, but, if you can create some projects to give you goals to work toward, with practice spaced out in a day, you will certainly make good progress in your playing. Make it your goal to come out of this a better player than before.
