Practice burnout

[hyperbolica]

I have enough ensemble rehearsals and gigs going that I can almost get enough playing without doing real practice. I'm kind of struggling through a time where its difficult to actually practice. Ensemble playing is much more fulfilling and I can see my playing slide a bit because I'm not getting enough time on technique or range, etc. How do you all deal with a bit of practice burnout?

[ScaryTerry]

When I get burnt out I’ve found it best to do one/or all of these things-
1. Take a break until you feel the desire to continue

2. Find a new environment or situation.

3. Remind yourself why you started this musical journey and what you enjoy about it.

That’s very open ended, and meant for you to find your own meaning in it. For me, it usually looks like an extended practice break, or a different type of practicing (working on jazz more, composing/arranging, something outside of the box etc). It’s important to keep practicing and improving, sure, but it’s also important to do so sustainably. You can’t burn the candle from both ends every day.

[VJOFan]

I sometime cast mental shade on the routine I used to do every day and sometimes two or three times a day. It was about 50 minutes of stuff that kept me in touch with articulations, sound, range and some basic technique. It seemed like a lot of time not focussed toward improvement. However, even on days where hitting etudes or repertoire or chipping away at weaknesses was not possible, I still “practiced”. A good routine will prevent deterioration.

There is also the mindset to use rehearsals as practice by focussing on specific things to improve during that time.

I guess fortunately for me, I have never found rehearsing to be the greatest time I could have with my instrument. If I’m going to be frustrated or bored, it will be in a rehearsal when I don’t have control of what I’m doing.

[Doug Elliott]

Find ways to make the rehearsals and gigs into "practice time." I have the advantage of writing my own charts for most of my gigs, and I make all the horn parts interesting and challenging, in range both directions, endurance, and technique.

[JTeagarden]

Try changing the order of things, and if you have certain exercises you do that otherwise work, make up other exercises that acheve the same effect (e.g., if you do scales movig up by thirds, move up by fourths, or by 6ths, etc., train your ears to do and hear something else).

[JTeagarden]

spend 30 minutes on air attacks, pianissimos, play etudes in different keys.

[musicofnote]

Stop playing exercises, scales, arpeggios - they're all in the rehearsal pieces you're playing anyway. Ask yourself what you'd REALLY enjoy playing if you didn't have that gig and ONLY play that until your desire to play returns.

And until it returns, while you're only playing the stuff you LOVE to play, honestly analyse your playing as to what you -would- actually practice and why, and what of your practice routine you -could- leave off for a longer period of time or perhaps only very sporadically drag out.

Being that I've retired (physical reasons) from public performance, but still play for my own enjoyment, I've seen by the literature if and when I -need- any technical "work" and what exactly that could be. And I can, if absolutely necessary, can slide a couple minutes tops of that aspect into my daily playing. See, I dont' even call it practice - I call it playing.

[hyperbolica]

One thing I do that makes me smile is playing all the 1st parts to the quartets in our library the way I think they should be played instead of the way the guys in the group do it. This usually includes playing the parts on smaller bore instruments. Sometimes I can, and sometimes I can't. I usually play the bass part in the group out of necessity (no one else would or could do it).

I still feel like I need to practice at focused aspects of technical playing because that's what has been suffering. Flexibility, accuracy, articulation, consistency, upper range. Playing bass most of the time doesn't do much for your sound or accuracy on small bore.

[bassboy]

Have more fun! I really like ear-training exercises like playing along to movie music and tv-shows, and rewinding to the beginning of a tune to see if I can learn it. Sometimes even just improvising nonsense to whatever music is running in the background can be a lot of fun and still gets me time with the horn on my face.

Additionally, if I'm really in a rut, temporarily switching up my equipment (mouthpieces or leadpipes in my stable) can take me out of my head and change things up just enough to shake the dust off. FWIW, I usually switch back to my normal setup at the end of the session.