Balancing practicing, teaching, and performance

[rstrauch]

For those among us who balance a full-time teaching position with regular performance demands: what are your strategies for balancing personal practice with everything else? (My university teaching load includes conducting a large ensemble and teaching conducting and music history, but not the studio; I also play in a regional orchestra with a 125-service guarantee. I have my own strategies, but I am curious to hear how others approach it.)

[WilliamLang]

for me practicing has to be like eating, breathing, sleeping. it's simply a thing that occurs during the day.

[OneTon]

I am not in the teaching or conducting field. At one time I was holding down a full time job with some overtime, taking graduate mathematics courses, and playing trombone 3 nights a week and one Sunday morning. After I retired, I had to cut back.

My wife had a masters in marriage and family therapy, and specialized in helping kids with child play therapy. She was trying to use me as her support group. For reasons we’re not going to go into here, I told her to find a fellow colleague to decompress with. Every Sunday she trotted out to brunch with her friend and colleague. Her colleague did a wonderful eulogy at my wife’s funeral.

A support network is advantageous. In an undergraduate humanities class, we were taught that Charles Ives attempted to work a full time insurance position and write at night. He went nuts. If things become too much, we have to find a smaller mountain, whatever that is, and live within that means.

[VJOFan]

Write out a weekly schedule. Include practice, meals, exercise and sleep and whatever else is important or routine.

Coordinate that with a calendar with dates of all obligations.

Check those things each morning and evening so you don't show up an hour late to a rehearsal you swore was at 2:30 and not 1:30. Not that that happened (JUST ONCE!!) to me.

[Wilktone]

Practice? What's that?

Music practice is like exercise for me. I have to find something that I enjoy doing so that I look forward to it and do it consistently. If you're not enjoying your practice, you're doing it wrong.

[heldenbone]

If I don't get in my private preparation time ("practice" for short) all manner of little problems seem to creep into my physical execution, and then preoccupation with those distracts from making music - "operating" the device vs. making music transparently through it. So, practice for me has to happen first playing of the day, even if time and endurance only allow a carefully observant warmup.

[LeTromboniste]

Practice? What's that?

Music practice is like exercise for me. I have to find something that I enjoy doing so that I look forward to it and do it consistently. If you're not enjoying your practice, you're doing it wrong.

This.

Also, knowing what you need from your practice, being purposeful about it and knowing how to be efficient with your time. I'm constantly surprised by just how many people I hear, even working professionals, just going through the motion, wasting time doing things that not only are not bringing anything good to their playing but even in some cases are contributing to the limits they have (either because of the exercices themselves or the way they go about them). Better practice is more important than more practice.

[tbdana]

I've run 21 marathons in my life, and let me tell you that doing that takes tremendous regularity and discipline in training. It informed my music practice, as well. I learned to do it first thing in the morning, and to never skip a day but do it religiously no matter how I felt or what excuses I had. What I found was that after some time of doing that and getting into the routine of it, I started to feel really weird whenever I had to miss a day. And running/practicing simply became like brushing my teeth or showering: something that was just a regular part of my life no matter how busy or stressed I was or what my day was like. It became a comfort. It became an escape from the stress of the day.

It's the way I approach practicing trombone now. Today, while I was in the middle of practicing, I learned that one of my oldest and closest friends died, likely by suicide. I took an hour to commiserate with people over it, but then went right back to practicing and finished my practice, even though I was filled with emotions and couldn't concentrate well. But practicing helped.

If you can summon the discipline to practice first thing every day for, say, three months, it will become routine, you will have carved out time for it, and it will become your escape from the world. But you have to make it your top priority during that time.

It's just those first three months that are hard.

The cool thing is that you will be absolutely amazed how much you improve in three months by practicing every day. And you'll be bristling with confidence. The reward is definitely worth the effort. You can do it. For real. You got this.