Some Basic Advice on Practice

In order to fully enjoy the experience of playing an instrument and having regular lessons with a tutor, each student must at some stage feel that progress is being made. I am often asked the question, by parents and students themselves, how much they have to practise before I see them next week. I strongly believe it is less important "how many" hours of practice you do and more important HOW you practice that determines how much you will achieve and, ultimately, improve.

When I was at younger I practiced at least 15/20 minutes a day before I left for school in the morning. I got into the habit of doing a couple of scales to warm up that took 5 minutes or less, since I was short of time. Whenever I started these scales, all I thought about was the sound and tone quality - trying to match it to the sound I had in my head. I would play until I felt that I could comfortably play any note with the best sound I could make - until I felt "warmed up"!

The rest of my practice was based around whatever piece/study I was learning at the time. I would play through the piece and if I came across a difficult section I would stop and work out ways to improve the performance of it. For example - slowing it down, working out fingering, repetitive work on an awkward passage, exercises from other books/methods that would help in the execution of the difficult passage (i.e. some double-tonguing exercises from the Arban starting slow and gradually speeding up would help the allegro sections in the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto).

What I definately did not do was play through passages that I couldn't play and carry on regardless, playing as much of the piece as I could until I got tired and couldn't play anymore! As long as the student avoids this method of "practice", he/she should be fine. Another piece of advice I always give whenever a student plays is to take a deep breath and always concentrate on the sound you are making on the instrument rather than getting bogged down in the technical details.