Tarter_trpt8

What up Manny?

Here's the deal:

When I ask teachers how much they practiced in college and some of them say 4 hours a day, or 3 hours, or even 5 to 6 hours a day during grad school, my mind is like, How in the world can someone keep the horn on their face that long and still come back the next day and do it again? If I asked you how much you practiced a day and you said 5 hours, would that be 5 hours of lip time or would it be 5 hours of playing, listening, resting, etc...and if it is a mix of all that, how much lip time would you say there would be in a 5 hour day of practicing?

One more:

I have this Easter gig in a few weeks and there is a piece I'm playing called Voluntary; I don't know who wrote or arranged it because I'm not near the music right now. So anyways, half of the first page and all of the second is double tonguing at 132 beats a minute with patterns such as scales up and down, Do, Mi. Re. Fa, Mi, So, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It is really tough. Now my question is, how do you go about practicing a piece like this without getting tired to quickly from all of the multiple tonguing?

Your buddy Jeremy

Manny Laureano

Jeremy,

The most I ever practiced was when I went on my trip to Chicago for a week to study with Jacobs, Herseth, and Cichowicz. I averaged about 4 to 5 hours a day because that's what I was there to do and I had a specific set of things that I worked on with those gentlemen.

Those sesions combined playing , resting, and serious thinking about what I wanted to accomplish. Total playing time? Who knows but I know I played a lot that week. How the mind uses the time is as important as how long it's up at your face. The seriousness that I approached playing with during that time was the most important aspect of that trip. I wanted something new added to my playing and I got it because of those three great teachers. I threw away none of their knowledge.

The multiple tongue endurance and speed can only be achieved through serious practice that first starts legato then moves to a more blunt approach for clarity's sake. I hate hearing someone play the legato double tongue style when the character of the music clearly calls for for spike on the articulation. I think that's just laziness to do otherwise. If the character is supposed to be legato well, fine, that's how it should be. Otherwise, give it life. The way many people play Ravel's concerto in G drives me nuts. Vacchiano had a spectacular slow double tongue that made many excerpts easier to play (and listen to).

Bottom line: endurance of a technique is only achieved by doing and doing a lot. I recently played a concert where I had to play the Brandenburg and the Neruda concerti twice in one day. It went just fine but I didn't get to the point where I could do that by only practicing it once through every day. I got it so I was able to do it three times in one day. It wasn't easy but I started a month early and gave myself time. It's the only way.

ML