| Re: practice breaks
Matt,
Hello from Montreal where the winter from hell continues. It's snowing again this morning.
Regarding breaks in your practice routine, taking time off from occasionally is often a good thing. The break might serve to re-vitalize your practice should it be falling into a rut, give your face a chance to come back after a grueling period of work, etc. Listen to your body.
Creating practice time while on the road is a terrible problem -- both in finding the actual time and in finding a space to work. I have a pianist friend who goes to piano showrooms and pretends to be interested in buying a new instrument,and then works for an hour or two that way. At least our instruments are portable.
Grabbing 20 minutes here and there is sometimes all you can hope for or, if you're lucky, a half hour backstage after your show. The secret is identifying what your playing needs for day-to-day maintenence and being efficient in addressing those needs. 3x 20 minutes still adds up to an hour. You simply can't waste any of those precious minutes noodling around. Breath attacks, bends, some of the pedal note exercises in Thibaud's book, etc. Whatever you identify as a need. Maurice Andre, as we've discussed only practiced first attacks. . .
Best and watching here for more on this rather large topic,
EC |