Your Toughest Slog in the Practice Room

[JTeagarden]

This question is “what is the least gratifying/most tedious thing you have ever had to work on in the practice room, how did you go about addressing the weakness, and was your effort rewarded?”

Currently working on double and triple tonguing absolutely everything with clean articulations (at least that’s the goal), after Doug Elliott mentioned this in another thread, and willing to sound really bad for awhile while I do this.

To make sure I’m not crazy for this (and I’m reasonably moderate in my behavior generally), wanted to know - especially from the more advanced among you - when have you had to take two steps back to move forward, and how long did it take you?

[tbdana]

Oh, man. As I think about this, the answer that keeps coming back is "everything." I don't work on things I already do well, just things I can't do. I always sound and feel bad in the practice room.

[BGuttman]

Oh, man. As I think about this, the answer that keeps coming back is "everything." I don't work on things I already do well, just things I can't do. I always sound and feel bad in the practice room.

But that's the whole point! Sound like crap in the practice room so you don't sound like crap in public

[JTeagarden]

Things get out of whack, and certain things come easily …

What things were hard and required you to really shed them?

[Wilktone]

Upper register for me. I was stuck at the same range cap (Db above high Bb, on a good day with a tail wind) from high school up until I was 27. I had great teachers who gave me all sorts of exercises and we all assumed that as long as I practiced my range would develop. It never did.

What I discovered at 27 was that I was playing with an incorrect embouchure type for my anatomy. Doug Elliott straightened me out in a lesson and if I recall correctly it only took about 30 minutes for me to break past that range cap.

Dave

[JTeagarden]

Upper register for me. I was stuck at the same range cap (Db above high Bb, on a good day with a tail wind) from high school up until I was 27. I had great teachers who gave me all sorts of exercises and we all assumed that as long as I practiced my range would develop. It never did.

What I discovered at 27 was that I was playing with an incorrect embouchure type for my anatomy. Doug Elliott straightened me out in a lesson and if I recall correctly it only took about 30 minutes for me to break past that range cap.

Dave

Awesome! We are slaves to our habits…

[slidesix]

For me the toughest was learning to play along with a student piano accompanist during a solo. I'd tend to rush some sections and play others too slowly or not properly count rests. A pro accompanist with some life experience could funble along and follow me or a lead me. But a student? I never made it easy for them. But eventually we figured it out.

A lot of the other mechanics--playing really high or really low or double or triple tonguing--for me weren't so bad historically as I could just put in the time just figure it out.