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a new way to practice

One of my goals these next few weeks/months is to take a new approach to practice, basically practice a different kind of practicing…. what I need to do is learn to be more productive in shorter time spans, and to be able to ‘get into the zone’ more quickly. I know that when the fall semester starts, I will not be able to regularly practice for even 2 hour blocks during the weekdays. Being able to utilize 30-45 minute breaks between classes to practice will definitely help my overall practice productivity. And, basically, I need to just ALWAYS be living in the mental space where practice is on my mind. (I have a tendency to allow teaching – and all the committee work that goes along with university teaching – to infiltrate and take over ALL of my mental spaces. It has become evident to me over that past few years that that approach does not work for me. My humanity, my existence, my person is more whole, more alive and more creative when practicing my art is at the forefront of my daily life.)

So, what you see below is the composite result of numerous 30-45 minute practice sessions through out the day.

Rip Tide

Warmup – started practice with stiff leg deadlifts (they seem to get my legs in the right mind to balance evenly on all parts of feet); chromatic and diatonic exercises

Improv – improvised around in blues scales, working on reaching to the farthest ranges of the instrument while maintaining focus on shoulder positioning and overall posture.

Mm. 119-end – determining max tempos; mm. 119-end in sections, and as a whole at 100bpm. All passages are getting physically and mentally easier/faster each time!

Surface Drifts

Warmup – DV, SA, SI exercises

Mm. 93-end – worked through with DV block chords and DV (alternating) rolls.

Mm. 56-61 (5s) – hands separate and together (from memory)

Mm. 40-93 – read through several times

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