Comments on: The Practice Notebook, Part 2 http://thepracticenotebook.com/the-practice-notebook-part-2/ flutist Zara Lawler shares tips on learning music Fri, 25 Oct 2013 18:46:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: admin http://thepracticenotebook.com/the-practice-notebook-part-2/#comment-22 admin Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:35:15 +0000 http://www.zaralawler.com/blog/?p=20#comment-22 Thanks for your great ideas. I love the 'salt mines,' and having a place to collect ideas and wisdom. Thanks for your great ideas. I love the ‘salt mines,’ and having a place to collect ideas and wisdom.

]]> By: Steve Haaser http://thepracticenotebook.com/the-practice-notebook-part-2/#comment-21 Steve Haaser Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:31:50 +0000 http://www.zaralawler.com/blog/?p=20#comment-21 I’ve just wandered over to look at your new blog, especially reading about the practice notebooks. In a previous life as a chemist I was of course trained to take meticulous notes about all my experiments and research, general reading, etc. I title my practice notebooks “Music Log” since in addition to capturing my practice sessions, it chronicles the gigs, shows, and rehearsals I play. The log is great for my daily work, since I capture what tempi and articulation(s) I used for T&G #4, or perhaps Moyse Daily Exercises “B” minor scales. All the details I think useful in what I practice. I’m not always working on going faster, at times I want a goal of seeing how much slower I can go before I notice the tiny inexactness creeping into the playing. I’m sure it is there faster, but it’s not noticeable in the faster tempo. I chronicle what I do day by day on right-hand pages only. On the left-hand pages I write the really important stuff I learn: insights I had forgotten, goals I need to accomplish, things like that. There aren’t all that many items on the left pages and they are easier to find. In the back of the current book I have my section I think of as the salt mines or gulag. All the nasty little note patterns or passages that I can’t play cleanly at some stated tempo, slurs that are awkward, whatever is annoying the heck out of me. Every practice session I’ll look back there and pick at something once I’m warmed up and feeling good. I don’t go too long so that I won’t become frustrated. But it is so cool to be able honestly to note next to an item when I’ve killed that problem. I don’t erase it or line it out. I want to be able to read it because periodically I go back through the many log books looking for items done that may have become undone. The left-hand pages opposite the salt mines have the best ideas and wisdom I’ve collected. So while I’m looking for trouble in the salt mines I also read the reminders of “do this” and “don’t do that” kind of things. When I started seriously doubling and making much more money playing for shows with or without a flute, the log books became essential to balance having lots of instruments that need their practice time. Helps keep track of what musical numbers in Guys and Dolls (I’ve played that show for many different productions, usually reed 1 or 3), but now what parts on bari sax are challenging. That’s going on with Brahms 4th symphony, a contemporary double concerto for marimba and piano, the steady shows of Beauty and the Beast and Sweeney Todd. A sort of (almost) prioritized To Do List. Keeps me from forgetting next Thursday I have to have some particular music performance ready. I look forward to reading all your blog entries. You’ve given the FLUTE community a great resource. Keep writing and playing. Cheers, Steve Haaser I’ve just wandered over to look at your new blog, especially reading about the practice notebooks. In a previous life as a chemist I was of course trained to take meticulous notes about all my experiments and research, general reading, etc.

I title my practice notebooks “Music Log” since in addition to capturing my practice sessions, it chronicles the gigs, shows, and rehearsals I play.

The log is great for my daily work, since I capture what tempi and articulation(s) I used for T&G #4, or perhaps Moyse Daily Exercises “B” minor scales. All the details I think useful in what I practice. I’m not always working on going faster, at times I want a goal of seeing how much slower I can go before I notice the tiny inexactness creeping into the playing. I’m sure it is there faster, but it’s not noticeable in the faster tempo.

I chronicle what I do day by day on right-hand pages only. On the left-hand pages I write the really important stuff I learn: insights I had forgotten, goals I need to accomplish, things like that. There aren’t all that many items on the left pages and they are easier to find.

In the back of the current book I have my section I think of as the salt mines or gulag. All the nasty little note patterns or passages that I can’t play cleanly at some stated tempo, slurs that are awkward, whatever is annoying the heck out of me. Every practice session I’ll look back there and pick at something once I’m warmed up and feeling good. I don’t go too long so that I won’t become frustrated. But it is so cool to be able honestly to note next to an item when I’ve killed that problem. I don’t erase it or line it out. I want to be able to read it because periodically I go back through the many log books looking for items done that may have become undone.

The left-hand pages opposite the salt mines have the best ideas and wisdom I’ve collected. So while I’m looking for trouble in the salt mines I also read the reminders of “do this” and “don’t do that” kind of things.

When I started seriously doubling and making much more money playing for shows with or without a flute, the log books became essential to balance having lots of instruments that need their practice time. Helps keep track of what musical numbers in Guys and Dolls (I’ve played that show for many different productions, usually reed 1 or 3), but now what parts on bari sax are challenging. That’s going on with Brahms 4th symphony, a contemporary double concerto for marimba and piano, the steady shows of Beauty and the Beast and Sweeney Todd. A sort of (almost) prioritized To Do List. Keeps me from forgetting next Thursday I have to have some particular music performance ready.

I look forward to reading all your blog entries. You’ve given the FLUTE community a great resource. Keep writing and playing.

Cheers,
Steve Haaser

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