practice

A Fresh Start to Daily Practice

As I was engaging in the morning routine of fixing breakfast and brewing coffee, I began to contemplate the idea of revising and reconstructing my daily practice routine. Each new year brings with it the possibility for a fresh start, and I felt inspired to consider what areas of my playing I need to address and improve upon.

Lately, I have noticed that while I have been focusing on the quality of my sound, I have not been giving as much attention to intonation and vibrato. Consequently, I have decided to include these elements in my daily scales and arpeggios routine. Additionally, I have come to realize that I have been neglecting the importance of long tone practice, prioritizing articulation and finger techniques instead. However, I now plan to increase the amount of time I spend on long tone exercises, with a specific focus on intonation and vibrato, in order to cultivate a greater understanding of these technical aspects.

Furthermore, I plan to incorporate excerpts and repertoire into my daily routine. Rather than dedicating an extra hour to articulation work, I have been contemplating the idea of practicing passages from my repertoire at a much slower tempo. By doing so, I can focus on the small details of the music and work towards eliminating any mistakes I may be making. My goal is to make my playing as musical as possible, and I believe that if I can execute a passage in the way I desire at a slower tempo, I will be able to do the same at the original tempo with ease.

Lastly, I have recognized the significance of incorporating meditation into my practice and daily routine. It can be challenging to maintain a sense of calm during performances, interactions with audiences, and playing with inspiring colleagues, so I have resolved to include a meditation routine to assist with this. While guided meditation is always helpful, I also plan to focus on my breathing habits as a means of staying calm and centered.

Losing Wisdom, Losing Patience

Completed on Jul. 13

1.1: It had to happen. There was no pain from having all four of my wisdom teeth, but I got two of them removed to prevent them from future troubles. One from the right side, and another from the left side—both the lower ones. 

1.2: I got the right one removed first. Both lower teeth were laying horizontally, so it wasn’t an easy job. A week later, I got the left one removed. The right one only gave me some minor pain for a couple of days. The left one, however, is still giving me a great deal of pain. 

2.1: After not practicing the flute for about a month, I decided to start practicing it again. First I got my flutes repaired. Shortly after the second tooth removal, I went to the repairshop to pick up my flutes. I tried them out. I felt some teeth missing. 

2.2: The pain did not go away, only multiplied especially after I played. Playing the flute was upsetting the wounds. 

3.1: The pain is definitely something I want to get rid of. However, it was one of the very first times that I understood how the inner-mouth position works while playing the flute. The amount of pain tells me how much I am moving my jaw, and how much tension I am adding. 

3.2: Not just the pain itself, I am practicing everything slowly from the beginning in order to retrieve where I left off. So in a way I am re-learning everything in both physically and emotionally painful ways. 

4.1: Because of the pain, I can’t really practice all day. It only has to be a couple of hours ... no more than three ... Cramming everything into that little amount of hours makes me impatient throughout the practice session. Plus, retrieving takes more time than I expected. 

4.2: Patience is virtue. Patience is genius. Here’s what I have been practicing:

  • Long tone excercise with a metronome and a tuner

  • Scales with different articulations (diaphram, single/double/tripple tongue, reverse)

  • Arpeggios with different articulations

  • Moto perpetual by Paganini with diaphram