J. Corey Francis

We’re talking about practice. We ain’t talking about the game. We’re talking about practice. – Allen Iverson, May 7, 2002.

Twenty-two times. That is how many times NBA Legend Allen Iverson said the work “practice” in his iconic rant. This rant was ignited by a reporter questioning Iverson’s dedication to practice. Mind you, he was an NBA scoring champion, MVP, and literally willed his team to the NBA Championship series just a year prior to the rant.

He, like this rant, is a Hall of Famer.

Today, we are talking about practice. Our dedication to practice matters more than anything else in our playing. How we practice leads to how we play. If you practice with purpose, your performances will be (more than likely) enjoyable.

The problem is, we don’t enjoy practicing. It can be boring, drab, and monotonous. But it matters. So, let make it the best possible.

Prepare to start your engines.

The way we start sets the way we play during practice. However, we see this time as turning the key to our engine and getting us going. It’s not. This is maintainance. It is the oil change, coolant flush, changing the brake pads, and adding fuel part of our performance. It takes time, and needs to be done with great intent.

Here is the breakdown on my start to practice.

Long-tones, scales, overtones or harmonics. All of these things require our time. Specific, diligent work on the basics will help notes fall into place as we work on etudes and repertiore.

• 5 minutes on long tones without a sounding source. Just want to get my embochure warmed up.
• 5 minutes on low B-flat long tone, slurring up to each note of the scale, and back to B-flat. This is called Exercise Zero.
• 10 minutes on overtones. Lots of trial and error here at times. Sometimes I can get them to speak easily, other days it is a struggle. IT IS OKAY TO STRUGGLE!
• 10 minutes on scales. Some days it is all majors, some days minors. But always full range up and down, and in thirds or fourths. All of this is with a sounding source.

E-tti-tudes

Etudes are something we miss doing on a regular basis, yet are another important part to our routine. If the warm-up is the maintenance, etudes are the starter and spark plugs. The term literally mean “studies,” and they help use coordinate our tone, articulation, and technique. While they are not always performed for an audience, regularlly working through these studies will ignite our repertiore work to supercar levels. Well, at least a luxury car. Without them, we are just a basic as a Ford Taurus.

My etude routine is straight forward. Currently, I am reworking the Ferling 48 Etudes, doing one new page every two weeks. Additionally, I am playing through one new orchestral etude for saxophone (Yes, this is a thing, TWO volumes of them!) each week. Combined, this is about 30 minutes of time.

Reps on Rep

The largest individual chunk of my practice is on repertiore. I try to segment time based on what is needed, without spending more than 20 minutes of time on any individual piece.

Where we get repertoire wrong – whether it is solo rep or ensemble pieces – is bt simply running things top to bottom. I can’t tell you how many times I tell my high school students to not just play the entire piece. We must be diligent and purposeful in our repetoire work. Find the two measures in your solo that needs the most work, break it down, and work on the pieces of the measures before doing all of it. Then add the start of the phrase to it and play it a few times. Play the entire phrase after that.

Tortoise beats the Hare

Here is the most important part to all of this: PLAY IT SLOW! Like 60 beats per minute slow. We can’t play things fast if we can’t do it slow. Keep playing it slow. Play it slow everyday, speed it up bit by bit, but always come back to slow.

I get it. It is more fun to play faster. But, clean and steady makes the music go, like a good set of tires. The muscle memory built and the understanding of the phrase truly show through after slow, steady work.

The End is the Beginning.

Remember in the first section of my routine where I play Exercise Zero? Yep, I end my practice that way as well. Playing low B-flat makes me relax my embochure. It is a great way to cool down after a solid practice. Cooling down helps release tension in our oral cavity and focus on air. It is an important aspect in our ability to play the next day.

So, there you have it. A blog about practice. We talked about practice. Not the performance. Practice.

Now, go practice.