Practice, Practice, Practice
by Bob Baca

Ready, Set, Fall
     Fall marks the end of summer marching season, the beginning of fall marching season, jazz ensemble, beginning band for some, plus a myriad of small ensembles to coach and the beginning of developing that special concert band “sound,” not to mention all of the administrative adventures that go with it. Suffering with tyranny of the urgent yet? All of this preparation work is quadrupled if the students do not have the word “practice” etched in their minds as a daily function. What would it be like to spend most of the rehearsal period working on musical ideas versus rote teaching of notes and rhythms? When the paradigm of your students’ role in band includes daily practice at home, the band director’s ability to produce a creative musical environment becomes a reality. “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” If we can help our students find their love of music by giving them the tools to create it, the search for successful musicianship will be a self-fulfilling journey.
      Working as a clinician in many areas of the United States, I have found that quality band programs are not characterized by location, school population, budget, number of band directors, or even a cooperative administration, but by simply helping students discover the effects of music and instilling the common-sense principles of good old-fashioned hard work and a knowledge of what to work for. Over time these principles become the established perception of what being in band is all about and the efficiency of rehearsal time grows exponentially. Using short and long-term goals, the band director can slowly incorporate practice outside of rehearsal into their students’ daily routine.

Inspiration (Leads to) Imitation
(Imitation = Observation + Action)
     The first step for building a good practice habit is to become inspired. Inspiration is an action, not just a coincidence. We can all remember the concert or experience that lead to a passion for practice (even if short-lived) and that motivated us to imitate excellence. Mine was the first time I had the opportunity to hear Adolf Herseth (principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony) perform. Although I was seated in the second-to-the-last row of the balcony in Orchestra Hall, Mr. Herseth’s sound was so opulent that it was as if he was playing only ten feet away. After the concert, I rushed backstage to congratulate him and ask if he would reveal his secret for this amazing quality. Without hesitation he said, “Sure, it involves three things: Practice, Practice, and Practice!” For the next several days practicing was not a chore. Although we had no orchestra program in our school, the rest of the ensembles seemed to take on a new freshness. All of us are not inspired by listening to one concert, but it is the band director’s goal to find the right setting that will eventually lead each student to self-motivation. As a teacher, a large part of our job is to inspire. Our approach is not to unlock the creative potential of a group of musicians but rather a group of individuals that relate to music in different ways. Therefore, we are facilitators who must get to know our students better than they know themselves to correctly prescribe musical direction for each one. For this reason it is important for the band director to keep his or her creative ability fresh by performing, writing, reading, etc. If the director is living the musician’s life, it is easy to share these experiences in a way that will inspire each student.

Getting Started: Understanding How Our Instrument Works
     The goal for any instrumentalist is to direct relaxed air down the center of the instrument in order to let the instrument design create the most opulent sound. While this is easily achieved in the middle register, many muscles in our face (embouchure) must work symmetrically to keep the air direction constant regardless of the musical challenges. Our embouchure is similar in function to the metal end of a garden hose. If a garden hose did not have the metal tip, the hose would change its shape when more water pressure was added and therefore change the water direction. While our lips must vibrate freely, the other muscles in our face hold everything together to keep the air direction constant under all playing conditions. While the embouchure does the work, the muscles from the neck down need to stay relaxed. When our relaxed air stays in the center of the instrument, our sound is clearer and physical considerations such as endurance, upper register, technique, and flexibility are more easily mastered.

Short Term Goals: Establishing Practice Habits
First Things First
Developing a Good Warm-up
     Rome was not built in a day and neither is a good practice environment. Right from the start, use Standard of Excellence Books 1, 2, and 3. The exercises in these books are excellent for building a clear sound and creating an interest in music history and theory. While performing these exercises, explain the difference between going through the motions of playing an exercise versus listening to one’s sound to create a good musical tone. Special emphasis should be put on the accompaniment CD’s. Most professional players use similar simple exercises to get the sound centered in the middle register before beginning a taxing performance. Warm-ups are not done to see what we can do, but to do what we see on the printed page. A teacher of mine once said, “As a musician matures our interests turn from high, fast, loud to discovering the intricacies of a whole note.”
     If your instrument is not too dusty, play along with your students and describe the difference in tone quality. As soon as they play remotely closer to a clearer sound, let them know they are getting there. Establish a library of CD’s of professional musicians to take the inspiration to the next level. When playing a CD, explain in detail what makes it musically outstanding. CD’s are an excellent way for our students to discover heroes to try on, and live by what their ideal is of them. With practice, musical attributes are more easily accomplished with a clearer sound and therefore should be the end goal of a good warm-up. A weight lifter needs the muscle mass and coordination to lift 90 pounds before lifting 200 pounds, and a musician needs a productive warm-up to handle the greater demands of a lengthy rehearsal or practice session.

Long Term Goals: Establishing a Daily Practice Routine Outside of Rehearsal
     A child learns to walk slowly by inspiration, imitation, and guidance by his or her parents. Developing musicality is achieved in the same way. After the student can hear and play with a good sound on even a few notes, exercises should be given to help him or her strive for this sound in all registers, tempos, and styles. In order to create a good sound, the mechanics of correct breathing, posture, and embouchure must all be in place. Placing too much emphasis on the mechanics of how to play can lead us to forget what the end goal is. Using the student’s newly desired goal as the motivator, explain a routine for daily practice with a good diet of fundamental exercises and musical etudes that will help achieve this goal in the fastest manner.
     After that inspirational evening of hearing my first trumpet hero, multiple hours of practice a day were as easy as breathing. This motivation lasted about four days. After discovering that playing like Adolf Herseth could not be achieved in just a few practice sessions, hopelessness set in. Two things were missing:
     1. Other inspirational experiences to keep the motivation going (some Chicago Symphony CD’s would have helped here).
     2. Not knowing what to practice in the practice room.

Motivators for Daily Practice
Developing a Practice Plan
     There are no short cuts or sunken treasure answers that develop a sense of musicianship—only consistent practice. Students should start with slow exercises in the middle range and expand in both directions, playing the lower register exercises big and full as to be the example for positioning and sound for the upper register. Encourage students to rest as long as they play each exercise. Supplement the exercises from Standard of Excellence Books 1, 2, and 3 with Herbert L. Clarke’s Technical Studies; and don’t forget the brass bible: Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method. Both of these books are available in treble and bass clef. The range and speed the student plays is determined by whether he or she is able to keep a good sound. When the sound turns stuffy, it’s time for a five minute break and then on to the next exercise. Keep CD’s and a portable CD player around for rest periods.
     I practice three sets a day. The first set will include a routine consisting of long tones, Herbert L. Clarke exercises, and Max Scholssberg’s Daily Drills and Technical Studies to help quiet my mind and even out the rough edges of yesterday’s playing. The second set is my musical session filled with etudes. Here I concentrate on imitating what I hear in concerts and on CD’s. The third set is filled with Arban’s exercises, duets, or jazz playing. The set durations can be flexible — from 15 minutes each to two hours each. Sound quality is the determining factor for speed, expansion of range, volume, and the number of exercises to play. The sound must stay free in the higher range, and technical exercises must remain relaxed. Because of performance demands, these factors may change daily and therefore practice must change accordingly.

Practice with Someone Else
     There is no greater motivator to practice than to be held accountable to someone. In college, my trumpet buddies and I practiced together all the time. If one person overslept for a morning session, you can be sure the other person would call to ask where they were. Students should pick people of similar motivation and interest in music to practice with. Suggest that they trade off on similar exercises and learn as much as they can from listening to each other. It is easy to see how egos must be left outside the practice room for this to work properly. Playing like-exercises with the same instrument is optimal but not necessary.

Practice the Same Time Every Day
     The easiest way to insure consistent practice is to treat it like a class. With a little pre-planning it is easy to schedule it in the day.

Get a Good Private Teacher
     Only through time and experience can we develop a deeper musical concept. Exposure to recordings, live concerts, and actual performance situations are important but cannot replace studying with a good teacher. Living in Wisconsin, fishing is a favorite pastime of mine. When I first began learning the sport I bought several books on the subject, discussing weather, lure choice, sonar, lake temperature, water conditions, etc. The books explained how to properly hold the rod, provided casting exercises, and even covered how to sense if there is a fish on the line. While the authors made money from my book purchases, I did not catch fish with any regularity until an experienced angler volunteered to take me fishing. He observed my actions and made suggestions like “Pull fast, but not that fast”; “You may think you have it on the bottom, but you don’t. This is what it feels like to be on the bottom”; and, “Not yet, not yet, not yet; now!” Simply put, there is no substitute for a good teacher.