Saxophone Forum


by Rben20
(35 posts)
20 years ago

Practicing

How long do you guys practice and how do you use your time? Any good players or pros possibly help me out on how to practice correct and get the most out of your practice time? thanks

Reply To Post [Report Abuse]

Report Abuse

Replies

  1. by saxmaniac
    (19 posts)

    20 years ago

    Re: Practicing

    This is a topic of much speculation by all, and there are many booksout there that can help. Here's my advice, though. Spend 10-20 minutes on a good warm up complete with tuning. I set my metronome to about 78 and keep it on the whole time. Do some breathing excersices (in for four, out for four, in for three, out for three, etc.) to start off, then some long tones (whole notes on the metronome). I also use long tones to do vibrato, with the same same metronome setting i do (with lip vibrato) quarter notes, eight notes, all the way to sixteenths. Then you can delegate the remaing warm up to scales, whatever ones you need work on. Speaking of scales, it's always a good idea to learn them to the fullest extent, which means learning them up and down, do thirds, even fourths/fifths, and arpeggios. Then you can do method books, solos, whatever, but takes breaks at least every hour, it's better to take them every 30-45 minutes. Hope this helps.

    Reply To Post


    1. by wesmiller
      (55 posts)

      20 years ago

      Re: Practicing

      Hey Rhben! Regarding your question concerning practice. I guess that to answer your question I need to know more about you as a player: how long have you been playing, what type of instrument and mouthpiece do you use, do you currently have a teacher or have you had a private teacher, what are your goals as a player (do you want to major in music or make this a serious hobbie, or do you even know yet?). There are more questions to ask but this will get the ball rolling. I have students who are extremely serious about playing and are going to major in music. Consequently, their lessons are 1 hour each week. In that time we focus on scales for 20-30 minutes (yeah, I'm brutal), etudes and a major work. This is not set in stone and I mix things up a bit. The point I'm trying to make is a persons' practice schedule and habits are determined by that persons goals. What do you want to do? Define that and the question becomes very easy for us(or at least me ) to answer.

      Reply To Post


  2. by birdwho
    (15 posts)

    20 years ago

    Re: Practicing

    i practice about 2-3 hours a day, which is what you should do to ( or more ). KLOSE!!! work on that with all 7 articulations ( all staccato, all slurred, tounge 2 slur 2, tounge 1 slur 3, tounge 3 slur one, and jazz articulation) do that at halfnote=100. might seem fast but if you want to be good do it. practice your intervals and leave no margin for mistakes! perfect practice makes perfect. after the rudimentary stuff, just play, or else you will end up quitting saxophone and holding hostages at a bank

    Reply To Post


    1. by saxproff
      (1 post)

      19 years ago

      Re: Practicing

      in regards to practice, i been playing for over 10 years and probably more he.he. well a good player should take example like coltrane, and many other great musicians used to do and even the ones from now in days very popular, my friend ed calle, read bio's of each musician, and u'll see that they've practiced on a single day from 8-16 hrs a day and wouldnt notice as time go by because they loved the saxophone and wanted to make it smoke, well am not saying i am a pro or a beginner but i throughout my career, i practice 10hrs a day and more if i got free time, right now my goal is to make my saxophone smoke like my parents told me from early age and be known throughout different regions as the inventor of new theories in jazz improv. I love creating new melodies, improv is my thing and yes as the previous guy had said, knowing your scales helps out a lot, ur minors, majors, blues, knowing what scales to play on a g7 chord etc the mixolidians, u'll learn through time, just learn all ur scales for now and practice on your tone. Goodluck, any questions, let me know ;-)

      Reply To Post


      1. by SaxMan
        (559 posts)

        19 years ago

        Re: Practicing

        You really ahve to practice the right stuff too - I am not very good at practicing - I used to practice about an average of 3 hours a day, so I sort of made up for not practicing very good, but now with all the stuff I have going, I am diminishing - I have maybe and average of 7 hours a week now. I can tell, because when I go back to pieces I ahve palyed in the past, it isnt a breeze, I have to look at it a bit.

        Reply To Post


        1. by saxgrobie
          (86 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Practicing

          Wow, I don't feel so great now! At home I practice for around an hour(at the least, but normally not more than an hour and a half) every day, but that is on top of my two hour marching band practice and a band class. I'm a busy student. And in the IB program, I have just about no free time because I have so much school work, community service, etc. But in my practice time, I normally warm up for ten minutes. Scales and arpeggios are really good to work on, especially for jazz type stuff. I will work on school music alot but I also take breaks to practice stuff that I like. Kelsey

          Reply To Post AIM


        2. by barimachine
          (323 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Practicing

          well i have not been practicing much at all only around 3 hours a day with warm up and warm down i know i feel so dirty altho i hope when cross country season ends to be back towards my regular schedule but i also play anyway from 2-4 hours a day at school ... we have block days that are aroun 1.5 hours for class and i have them back to back plus i play at lunch

          Reply To Post


        3. by mintyfreshjam
          (48 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Practicing

          "Man, just practice for as long as you feel like it when you feel like it." Professional Tenor Saxophonist Edward Peterson told me that. Truth is, if you don't feel like practicing and you force yourself to, you're not going to get anything out of if and you'll probably build up more bad habits than good. Don't set a time limit, just do it. If you want to only practice during commercial breaks, then do it. If you want to lock yourself in a room for five hours, then do it. The idea is to do it when you feel like it so that you get the most out of it. For things to practice, do scales, longtones, whatever pieces your working on, and whatever else you feel like you want to work on.

          Reply To Post