Scheduling practice?

harryd714 · #1 03-14-2011, 11:23 PM

I'm a student at school for music and I spend a lot of my time in the practice rooms. In high school I used to schedule my practice to make sure I'd get to everything I needed to work on at least for a little while, but since I got to school I just go in the direction I feel when I'm practicing. If I feel like sticking with one concept or exercise for longer is productive I'll do it, but I occasionally miss important things to work on. I was wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on what they prefer to do, or anecdotes that would suggest its better to do one or the other.

aaronallen · #2 03-15-2011, 05:07 AM

Check out "Effortless Mastery" by Kenny Werner.

Matt Ides · #3 03-16-2011, 01:10 PM

I always make sure what I didn't cover today is first on the list for tomorrow. Plus, I tackle the most difficult stuff I am working on first. This usually maximizes my practice sessions. Some things I am working on hold over for multiple lessons.

I am a working stiff so I struggle to get 1-2 hours in a day during the work week.

davidAaronCarte · #4 03-16-2011, 01:19 PM

I'm just finishing up a music degree, so I definitely understand where you're coming from
IMO you need both general and OCD practice habits, and most people have trouble incorporating both into a day/practice method
I have an hour of long-term work: 6 simple things I want to continually be refining. Simple exercises and concepts are best here. Each topic gets 8 minutes followed by a 2 minute break. Set a timer, and no matter where you are after the 8 minutes you put the bass down. Day to day there's not a big difference, but over months it's incredibly effective.
That hour also works great for maintenance and frees you up to focus on just one thing in-depth to really get into the nitty-gritty of things over the rest of the day.

harryd714 · #5 03-25-2011, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidAaronCarte

I have an hour of long-term work: 6 simple things I want to continually be refining. Simple exercises and concepts are best here. Each topic gets 8 minutes followed by a 2 minute break. Set a timer, and no matter where you are after the 8 minutes you put the bass down. Day to day there's not a big difference, but over months it's incredibly effective.
That hour also works great for maintenance and frees you up to focus on just one thing in-depth to really get into the nitty-gritty of things over the rest of the day.

This is really useful! It's helped me organize my practice a lot and I feel like I get a lot more done. I'll see if you're right about how effective it is long term but for now I've taken your word for it.

davidAaronCarte · #6 03-29-2011, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryd714

This is really useful! It's helped me organize my practice a lot and I feel like I get a lot more done. I'll see if you're right about how effective it is long term but for now I've taken your word for it.

I think you'll be really happy with it
I started incorporating it last May/June and was really good about it until about a month ago (stuff got hectic and I'm finally getting back into regular practice again) and the results are pretty stark
Credit where credit's due - this got passed down through the lines at my university, as far as I know beginning with the great Canadian drummer Barry Elmes

IdealWay · #7 04-09-2011, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidAaronCarte

I'm just finishing up a music degree, so I definitely understand where you're coming from
IMO you need both general and OCD practice habits, and most people have trouble incorporating both into a day/practice method
I have an hour of long-term work: 6 simple things I want to continually be refining. Simple exercises and concepts are best here. Each topic gets 8 minutes followed by a 2 minute break. Set a timer, and no matter where you are after the 8 minutes you put the bass down. Day to day there's not a big difference, but over months it's incredibly effective.
That hour also works great for maintenance and frees you up to focus on just one thing in-depth to really get into the nitty-gritty of things over the rest of the day.

I've been using a similar practice technique, but at 20 minute intervals for anything I'm working on. When the timer goes off I take a 3-5 minute break and move on to the next area. Whatever I don't get to gets bumped to the next day. It's been working well for me knowing there's that time constraint, and when the timer rings, time to move one. Definitely keeps me productive, and working at small intervals makes things much more easily digestible.

harryd714 · #8 04-10-2011, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IdealWay

I've been using a similar practice technique, but at 20 minute intervals for anything I'm working on. When the timer goes off I take a 3-5 minute break and move on to the next area. Whatever I don't get to gets bumped to the next day. It's been working well for me knowing there's that time constraint, and when the timer rings, time to move one. Definitely keeps me productive, and working at small intervals makes things much more easily digestible.

Thats how I used to schedule my practice before the other suggestion on this forum. I like having the one hour of scheduled work for long term technical exercises and making sure I get to those every day, I think you get the most of this sort of practice through consistent and regimented work. And this frees up the rest of my time to work on things that don't necessarily need to be scheduled so rigidly (like repertoire development or transcription). Anyway, I have yet to the results from this process long term, I think its a personal preference thing ultimately, whatever gets you to feel like you're getting the most out of the time you're spending in the room.

shadow_FIX · #9 04-27-2011, 02:01 PM

I'm in college for music also. My teacher and I decided to have me start a practice log. I know it sounds kinda elementary, but it can be really useful to keep track for a week, then take a look at the bigger picture. It made me realize that I'm practicing a lot less than I want to and need to, and that I should be more full-circle with my practicing. Balancing jazz and classical practice is also difficult for me...working on that

Kitschead · #10 05-13-2011, 10:23 PM

this thread is relevant to my interests so I'm going to resurrect it with a question which might be a bit stupid so I apologise if it is.
I always find it difficult knowing what I actually do need to work on. It would be great if it was obvious but most of the time I'm just not exactly sure.