What is practicing?

So, I kind of view this blog as "thoughts from the mind of Liz." Much of my mind is taken up with music stuff. Since most of the people I hang out with now are not musicians, I sort of see this as a place where I can explain the inner workings of a musician. Interesting? I think so. You may not. That's cool - go read someone else's blog. :)

Practicing. If you have not played an instrument, you may not be familiar with this very unique task of musicians. Practicing involves locking yourself in a room and staying there, for an extended period of time. While in that room, you work on things on your instrument (or voice, I'm not being exclusive here) that need to be fixed. You may play two or three measures (aka short bits) of music over and over with this awesome tool called a metronome, which taps out a speed for you. Slowly you speed up the passage until you can execute it with ease and confidence. You may work on scales or patterns to familiarize yourself with a particular key, like C# major. You may aurally (using your ears) transcribe a solo from a famous jazz piece to your own instrument. You may pound the piano and test yourself on intervals (see earlier post in June). But the point is, you're locked in a room, by yourself. For a long time.

During college, I ranged in practice time from 1 hour to 4 hours. (Yes, I really did have a term when I practiced for four hours a day. I was AMAZING!) The practice rooms were located in the basement of Schoenberg Music Building, all really close to each other. This allowed for some social interaction to happen. People were always going into each other's practice rooms bothering each other. Many a good conversation was had over a piano, while your instrument gathered dust in the corner. So, we made it social, even though it wasn't, really.

One of my favorite things about practicing at UCLA (and at any music school in general, really) is walking around the halls of the rooms. You can hear all sorts of music going on all around you. For example, this morning after I practiced my violin, I heard a VERY loud baritone singer practicing intervals with fairly good accuracy. I also heard someone playing one of my favorite Bach Inventions on a piano. At UCLA there was a period where EVERY piano player was learning "Rhapsody in Blue." That was neat - it's a great piece anyways, so to be surrounded by it was really fun. Other people had practice routines that never varied. One guy named Axel Schmidt (from Europe) had this same routine he did every day. For some reason we were always next to each other in rooms. So I was very used to him - and he probably got used to my long tones with crescendos and decrescendos.

Okay, I'm done! Thought I would write about it. It may be useful to you, or not. Whatever. I am going to the gym now. Have a great day!

Love you all!

Liz