top of page
Search
Writer's pictureAna and Amanda

How I shortened my practice time from 6 hours to ONE!

Amanda here! So, back when I first started grad school at Peabody I hit a total plateau.


Like… no matter how much I practiced, I couldn’t improve. I practiced my music for my lesson, my music for orchestra, for as many hours as I could possibly squeeze in, and I was still feeling frustrated that I couldn’t get better. My confidence was really low and I never felt like I would be good enough.

Getting my fingers to move fast, perfecting my intonation, playing high notes… it was all so difficult and I couldn’t seem to find a solution to improve.

The other flute players in my studio were playing circles around me and I was frustrated!

Then…I walk into my lesson one day and my teacher says, “How are your warm-ups going?” 👀

🤷‍♀️

I told her I never do warm ups and the last time I even did them at all was 5 years ago. 🙈

Her jaw literally dropped as she said she couldn’t believe I had gotten this far in school without doing warm-ups. And then she gave me a routine that would CHANGE MY LIFE!!!

This ✨magical fix included:

🎬 Long tones

🎬 Scale exercises

🎬 Tonguing exercises

After doing these for a while, wouldn’t you know it…my tone developed like it never had before. I was able to tongue super fast. My scales became so easy and my fingers moved fast!

I was blown away by this, and actually barely had to practice my lesson and orchestra music anymore. Because the music simply became so much easier.

Making this change in my practice routine had a few major benefits:

🎉 I was no longer stuck. I knew how to get my fingers moving fast, how to improve my sound, and tonguing became very easy (I was literally double tonguing faster than I thought was humanly possible lol). 

🎉 I didn’t have to practice as much! What was once a very frustrating 3 hours of drilling through my orchestra music, trying to get it better, had turned into 1 hour where I only needed to play my orchestra music for 15 mins of that hour.

🎉 Playing became SO MUCH MORE FUN!! My confidence got a huge boost and I didn’t feel like I was falling behind anymore. (honestly, I probably wouldn’t have graduated if I didn’t make that change LOL).

So bottom line, if you’re feeling stuck or frustrated with your playing, or like practicing your band music just isn’t helping you improve, I totally get it. Ana and I have actually both been there.💕

So, if you're ready to start making huge improvements in your playing while NOT practicing more, you can get started today by downloading your free personalized practice checklist! Let us know if it helps guide your practice session to be more productive!

4 views0 comments

留言


bottom of page