Confident entrances

ByBret Pimentel

It’s deceptively difficult to make a correct entrance after a rest. Here’s what I recommend for maximum confidence and security:

  • Listen in advance. If recordings are available, listen many times. Get the sound well ingrained in your ear of your collaborative musicians’ parts, and how your part fits in. Be able to sing along with the music that happens during your rests.
  • Count. It’s easy to let this slip away when under pressure or distracted. I sometimes write into my part little reminders to count, or add marks to show visually where the beats are, or even write the counting itself into the part (1 2 3 4 | 2 2 3 4…).
  • Sketch. If your part doesn’t show cues as to what your collaborators are playing, write in their rhythms. Rough out a melodic contour if you like. (Not enough room? Write in the margins with some arrows to show you where to look. Or copy your part, cut it up, and tape it back together with more space for annotations. This is a solvable problem.)

Basically I assume that it will be a less-intelligent version of myself who shows up to rehearsal or performance, and try to give him enough ways of keeping track that he can’t miss. (At my faculty solo recital last August, I missed a major entrance in a piece that I know well, and missed it by a lot. I had it down cold, but dumber performance-mode me botched it. That video didn’t make it to YouTube.)

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  • Getting the most out of practicing your scales

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    When you practice scales (or arpeggios or, really, any other technical material) it’s not really about the scales. Nobody wants to buy tickets to hear you play scales.

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    • Solidify your best practices. Choose the perfect fingering for each and every note (don’t just fall back on what is already comfortable). Program your fingers to move in the most efficient and precise ways. Stabilize your breath support, voicing, and embouchure.
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  • Practicing and the two-minute rule

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    photo, Matthew
    photo, Matthew

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    ByBret Pimentel

    I’ve blogged previously about getting my students to give more than pat answers about how they think their playing sounds:

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    Me: Well, obviously. But how are you going to prac—

    Student [sighing]: Keep practicing until I get it right.

    Me: No, I mean what specific practice tech—

    Student [through clenched teeth]: Use a metronome.

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    Less-experienced students might have a smaller repertoire of practice techniques, and I consider it a lesson-time priority to teach them more of those techniques. Trial and error in the practice room will help them refine these techniques, and determine which ones are most effective for them.

    Productive practicing requires identifying an area to improve, selecting a technique (or series of techniques) to apply to it, evaluating progress, adjusting the practice technique as needed, and noting what does and doesn’t work for future practice sessions.

  • Jazz and classical musicians’ concerns about jazz playing

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    (A case in point: a curved marking like ⌣ over a note, which I hear classical musicians interpret by playing the note at pitch, then bringing it down, then back up. I understand why they think it means that, but it’s an un-jazz-like sound—it should almost always be interpreted as a scoop up to pitch.)

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    ByBret Pimentel

    It can be difficult to keep practice sessions focused and productive. Distractions, burnout, boredom, and bad habits get in the way of progress. Try some or all of these, see what works well for you, and make the most of your practice time.

    Photo, woodleywonderworks. (license)
    Photo, woodleywonderworks. (license)
    1. Prepare yourself mentally. Before you start, take a few minutes for meditation, prayer, introspection, deep breathing, self-awareness, or whatever else helps you set aside the concerns of daily life and get in the zone.
    2. Prepare yourself physically. Stretch, hydrate, dress comfortably. Get enough sleep and exercise and eat a balanced diet. Protect yourself from repetitive-motion injuries and make sure your body can perform at its best.
    3. Embrace routine. Develop some habits around your practice schedule. A carefully-selected routine gets you into practice mode and reduces the chances of falling into procrastination. It also gives you a framework that can be fine-tuned when you have a new idea you would like to incorporate.
    4. Warm up. It doesn’t just mean bringing your instrument up to temperature. Do long tones, scales, articulation studies, or other things that get your instrument-playing muscles working together. Choose ones that demand your very best embouchure, voicing, breath support, finger technique, etc.
    5. Be goal-oriented. Know what you want to accomplish, as specifically as possible. Not “I’m going to practice my scales.” Try “I’m going to get my F-sharp major scale tempo up to sixteenth notes at 60 beats per minute with no wrong notes or hesitations.” Or even better: “I’m going to train my fingers to use that alternate D-sharp fingering in the top octave of the F-sharp major scale at 60 beats per minute with no incorrect or hestitant finger motions.” Goals shouldn’t only be technical; they can be expressive and interpretive, too. Make a list, and start checking things off.
    6. Seek variety. Don’t drive yourself crazy or die of boredom practicing one problem phrase for hours on end. Through experimentation, figure out how long you can really maintain focus and enthusiasm for a single practice task (10 minutes usually works well for me), and move to a new task when it gets less productive to work on the old one. You’ll come back to it later with fresh ears/eyes/fingers/lips.
    7. Take breaks. Take them frequently, but don’t leave them open-ended. Know exactly when you plan to get back to work, and what task you will be tackling next.
    8. Self-evaluate. You probably already have some kind of device you can use to record yourself. Listen back as though it’s somebody else playing. Make notes about what you hear. Pick the biggest-priority items and add them to your goal list.
    9. Escape distractions. You know what pulls you away from the task at hand. Hide it, silence it, power it down. How different would your practicing be if the only people or objects in sight were you, your instrument, and a music stand?
    10. Find inspiration. It’s hard to reach a performance goal if you aren’t sure what that goal sounds like. Don’t be afraid to listen to recordings or watch videos of your heroes—you will still sound like yourself, just a better-informed version of yourself. Listening to singers or players of instruments besides your can really open up your mind and ears, too.

    Have additional tips? Leave a comment!

2 Comments

  1. It’s incredible how easy it is to not count. Sometimes I find myself sitting in an orchestra facing down a whole bunch of rests and thinking, “aw, I’ll just listen, I’m sure it will be fine…” and then I catch myself and think… wait… what the hell ELSE am I doing? I already have to sit here in silence for the next thirty bars, why wouldn’t I at least occupy my brain with counting them??

    Reply

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