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Dr. Schafer'S (Almost) One Page Practice Guide

Dr. Schafer provides guidance for an effective brass practice routine in 7 steps: 1. Warm-up daily with simple exercises to establish good fundamentals and avoid fatigue. 2. Rest between warm-up, exercises, and practice sessions to allow your body to recover. 3. Focus on problem-solving by slowly perfecting sections rather than just playing through. Simplify and gradually increase tempo only when ready.

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123 views

Dr. Schafer'S (Almost) One Page Practice Guide

Dr. Schafer provides guidance for an effective brass practice routine in 7 steps: 1. Warm-up daily with simple exercises to establish good fundamentals and avoid fatigue. 2. Rest between warm-up, exercises, and practice sessions to allow your body to recover. 3. Focus on problem-solving by slowly perfecting sections rather than just playing through. Simplify and gradually increase tempo only when ready.

Uploaded by

Colinkf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DR.

SCHAFERS (almost) ONE PAGE PRACTICE GUIDE


1. Warm-up every day before you practice, rehearse, or perform. Use my daily
warm-up/maintenance routine or develop your own. Your warm-up/maintenance
routine should include simple mouthpiece buzzing exercises, long tones, slow lip
slurs, and articulated scale patterns, covering your entire comfortable range in a
gradual manner. The purpose of this routine should be to establish a relaxed way of
playing and address fundamentals. Warm-up exercises should not be for strength or
range development; they should be within your current abilities and should not
make you tired. You should rest frequently during your warm-up.
2. Rest after your warm-up. When you practice, rest as much as you play, in
between exercises and in between practice sessions.
3. Playing through things is not practicing. Practicing is progress through problem
solving and forming new habits. Simplifying is key. When you begin to practice a
particular exercise or piece of music, play through a section. Ask yourself what
needs to be better. Go to that particular group of notes and play them slowly, so
slowly that you play the section perfectly. Repeat it 3 times perfectly at this tempo.
Then play it a little faster. Spend some time at this new tempo. When you can play
it perfectly at this tempo, repeat it perfectly 3 times. Continue with this process
until you have either reached your goal tempo or you cannot play it perfectly any
faster. In the latter case, move on to another exercise and pick up at the current
tempo tomorrow.
4. Practicing every day results in consistency. Practice anywhere from 30 minutes
to 2 hours a day total, ideally in 20-30 minute sessions. Make sure you have plenty
of lighting and space, a chair that assists with proper posture, and a music stand.
Be thinking about good posture, staying relaxed, and using your air!
5. Spend about 2/3 of your time on technical practice and 1/3 on musical practice.
Practice the following skills during your technical practice:
Sound
Articulation
Tonguing
Attack
Dynamics
Intonation
Range
Etudes
Lip slurs
Lip flexibilities
Finger speed
Rhythm
Flexibility (tonguing)
Intervals
Scales
Transposition
Sightreading
Breathing/air management
Lyrical playing
Endurance
Essential method books:
Complete Conservatory Method, J. B. Arban
Daily Drills and Technical Studies, Max Schlossberg
Technical Studies, H.L. Clarke
A private teacher will help you decide what exercises in these books are best for
you.

While your warm-up/maintenance routine should cover fundamentals, your practice


should too. Collect information from your warm-up about you need to focus on that
day. Your practice should cover as many of the above skills as possible. Prioritize
with ones that are most important for you now and with ones that are your weakest.
Spend more time on your weaknesses, but do not spend a lot of time on any one
skill. Better to cover many skills each day for a little bit than to spend a lot of time
on one or two skills. The ones you do not get to today, you should practice
tomorrow and continue this pattern. This is called a balanced practice routine and
is important. You will also want to balance your practicing against the types of
playing you are doing in school or other ensembles. For example, if your ensemble
music requires a lot of loud playing, you will want your practicing to contain a lot of
soft playing.
6. Your musical practice should involve your ensemble music or a solo you are
working on. Your private teacher can help you pick music that is appropriate for
you.
7. Be kind to yourself and patient with yourself. Real progress takes time. You are
doing great!

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