“Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan, in must we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act.  There is no other route to success.”  -Pablo Picasso

Practice does not have to be boring but, like all skill building exercises, must be organized.  Having a plan for your daily practice routine not only helps you prioritize while cultivating basic skills, but also encourages a sense of metacognition.   As Nancy H Barry and Susan Hallam explain in Chapter 10 of the book, The Science and Psychology of Music Performance:

Metacognition refers to the learner’s knowledge about learning itself (i.e. thinking about thinking).  This is central to practice. Metacognitive skills are concerned with the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of learning including knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses, available strategies (task-oriented and person-oriented), and domain knowledge to assess the nature of the task and evaluate progress toward the goal. (Barry, 2001)

How do we create a practice plan?  I was given a pamphlet when I was young written by flutist Richard Hahn suggesting the following series of exercises which systematically move from the most basic of skills to etudes and finally to larger repertoire.  I have used this system for several years and encourage all of my students to follow the same system to organize their daily routines.

1.  Long Tones (Suggestion: Trevor Wye’s Practice Book on Tone);

2.  Harmonics (Suggestion: Trevor Wye’s Practice Book on Tone);

3.  Scales and Articulation Exercises (Suggestion: Taffanel and Gaubert’s 17 daily exercises, specifically exercise nos. 4, 1 and 2, Reichert’s Seven Daily Exercises using different articulation patterns);

4.  Etudes (Suggestion: Karg-Elert etudes, Jean-Jean etudes or, for beginners, the Rubank series)

5.  Orchestra Excerpts (Suggestion: hold mock auditions for yourself using a digital recorder or your webcam);

6.  Band or Orchestral Music (Suggestion: isolate problematic passages and use your time here to think creatively about how to improve tricky technical problems or create logical color changes);

7.  Repertoire (Solos, Duets, Chamber Music);

…and at the end add a bit of Zen to your practice

8.  Improvisation and/or Sight Reading

.but the title of this blog is structured and UNstructured practice.  Sometimes you need to switch up your routine therefore maybe 1 or 2 days per week flip this plan in reverse:

1.  Improvise

2.  Solos/Repertoire

3.  Orchestral/Band Music

4.  Orchestral Excerpts

5.  Etudes

6.  Scales/Articulation Exercises

7.  Harmonics

8.  Long Tones

And one day per week, throw all structure out the door and practice what your heart and mind tell you to practice.  It may be unstructured but allowing for a moment of creative outburst is a part of the larger practice plan.

The key is to always have a plan.  By relating smaller parts of our daily practice routine to the bigger picture, we create intrinsic meaning for the music we play by focusing on how we learn, how we improve and how we measure success.

What does your practice routine look like?  Do you have a practice structure similar to this?  Do you have a plan that is vastly different?  Please comment below!

 

Orchestra lockouts. Job scarcity. Diminishing numbers of students seeking private music instruction. The present state of the classical music industry may lead many newcomers to ask the question, “what is the point?” and many veterans to wonder if all of the time, effort, energy and stamina invested in this career is worth the trouble. Many of the traits required to be a talented musician, however, are the same as those that make one highly susceptible to professional burnout.

Professional burnout has numerous signs and symptoms, some easily recognizable and some reliant on individual perceptions and feelings. The following chart summaries many of the symptoms identified over the past 30+ years of burnout research and contain both psychological and physical identifiers:

SYMPTOM	TYPE
Imbalance between job resources and client demand	Physical/Mental
Anxiety	Mental
Tension	Physical
Fatigue	Physical
Exhaustion	Physical
Tendency to treat clients/co-workers in a detached, mechanical fashion (distant)	Mental
Preoccupation with gratification of one’s own needs	Mental
Increasing expectation to fail, give up quickly	Mental
Lose interest in work	Mental
Blame others for lack of success	Mental
Inability to predict important events or inability to control one’s professional environment	Physical/Mental
High job role conflict and ambiguity (not knowing exactly what is expected of you professionally)	Mental
Low level of autonomy and variety of tasks	Mental
Becoming very upset when others do not treat them as competent	Mental/Emotional
Enjoy job less, focus is primarily on controlling stress level	Mental/Emotional
Loneliness and isolation/withdrawl	Mental/Emotional
Frustration/Anger	Mental/Emotional
Feeling of hopelessness	Mental/Emotional
Loss of caring for clients’ needs	Mental
High Blood Pressure	Physical
Feeling “trapped” in a job where one is overqualified and have little opportunity for advancement	Mental
Excess of responsibility/workload	Mental
Perceiving oneself as unqualified	Mental
Lack of input in decision making	Mental
Becoming impatient and/or cynical	Mental
Significant weight loss or weight gain	Physical
Unable to concentrate	Mental
Lack of reward system in profession	Mental
Decreased authority and status (low salaries)	Mental
Reduced Self Esteem	Mental
Deteriorating Social Relationships/Lack of social support	Social
Failure to get what one wants out of job (goal impediment)	Mental
Feeling inadequately prepared for work tasks	Mental
Frequent misunderstandings with co-workers	Mental/Social
Lack of creativity	Mental
Reduced personal accomplishment	Mental
Having the idea that what one is doing is “meaningless”	Mental
Receiving little praise or recognition from supervisors	Mental
Poor relationships with co-workers	Mental/Social
Frequent crying, yelling or screaming	Mental
Boredom	Mental
Increased drug or alcohol use	Mental/Physical
Chronic illness	Physical
Sleepless night	Physical
Migraine Headaches	Physical
Not enough work to do (work underload)	Mental
Inability to regulate schedule	Mental

Although an individual may not have all of these symptoms at the same time, a combination of several of the above ailments may indicate that one has reached a state of professional burnout. For musicians, many of the symptoms listed above may be present as successful requirements of the industry and, again, younger musicians or even older musicians who ask themselves “what is the point?” may fall victim to professional burnout.   An orchestral musician, for example, may develop a low sense of autonomy for the music they make if always under the interpretation of the all-seeing conductor and may look at their meager paycheck as little reward for a job well done. Loss of interest in practicing may also be a large indicator of burnout. Competition and blaming others, whether that be colleagues, conductors or parents, for one’s lack of musical advancement may also be another significant predictor of burnout. This list of symptoms therefore becomes a handy check for many musicians that may be asking themselves, “Why am I doing this?”

Cary Cherniss suggests 4 essential methods to eliminating burnout. These include 1) Reduce or eliminate external job demands, 2) Change personal goals, preferences and expectations, 3) Increase resources for meeting job demands and 4) Provide coping substitutes for the withdrawal characteristic of burnont. The first step is to change the job. Increase skill and ability to work by seeking outside opportunities to learn new skills from qualified experts in your field and set realistic and attainable daily goals. Also take inventory of how your time is spent each day.  Are you devoting too much time to a particular facet of your music making career? Is your time consumed by the practice room at the expense of the stage or vice versa? Does teaching distract you from performing? Do you find yourself trying to de-stress by avoiding opportunities to perform and network with other musicians. When one achieves a work-life balance, the stress of one area of life, such as career, melts away in light of the joy and stimulation found in another. A deliberate change in work responsibilities will require letting go of unnecessary attachments to professional activities, objects and titles that are not essential to the proper functioning of the worker. Are your goals significant and challenging enough to push you to a new position in your career? Dot sell yourself short! Secondly, it is important to know thyself. How are you reacting to your job, or lack thereof? Perhaps you would benefit from a vacation. Journaling will also allow you to uncover and identify the source of your stress and help you to explore creative way to change the situation. Realize that nobody is perfect and that all-or-nothing thinking limits professional growth. Networking is also a great way to explore new ideas and make connections that may either open doors to new professional opportunities or inspire fresh, new creative approaches to job aspects formerly perceived as tired and dull. This may also uncover outlets to discuss burnout and methods to correct the situation. Finally, relaxation and stress management are key. Exercise is imperative. Not only does exercise improve your health, it also offers regular moments to escape the frustrations of work or the helplessness of no work. Finally, support systems and activities outside of your job will provide alternative sources of joy.

Musicians are facing an economic crisis today that leads even the strongest, most experienced artist to question their inner motivations. The pay and benefits often do not reflect the endless work and dedication necessary to achieve even the slightest passing spotlight of the stage. It is quite natural for newcomers and veterans alike to feel a sense of being “stuck” at best or “burned out” at worse. It is therefore important to recognize the symptoms of burnout before career disillusionment destroys dreams and silences ambitions. Change is necessary and available to all who seek new ways to experience what they love.

Sometimes it is important to stop focusing on the “right” and “wrong” of music and create music simply for the enjoyment and creativity of the art. In the below video my student, Sunyu, and I demonstrate a short improvisation exercise that can be practiced at the end of a lesson or with other flutists. I apologize for the distortion and the extreme top and bottom of the range and if any of you know anything about video editing I would love to hear from you!

Practicing Improvisation

Thank you Sunyu!