practice art

This week i heard a broadcast of "performance today" on the classical mpr station. and behold, a sign from above--just as i tune in to the program, the announcer says, "and, anthony mcgill, how do YOU practice?" as part of their "the art of practicing" segment on the show. some notes on the program:

anthony mcgill (clarinetist in the Met Opera Orchestra,) was recorded practicing in

his apt in nyc. the mozart concerto, in fact! he said, of course he does "a lot of repetition to try to get the phrases to sound more beautiful--to try to learn it more than i already know it."

mcgill was referring to a tricky run--a few lines long--in the 3rd mov't. "it seems very easy--it's all in an easy key, but it's kind of like acrobatics! you're going up, down, around, back down, and back up, ok?? so that's a part that i spend many hours practicing." <-----yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, mortals do that, too. BUT, i looooove hearing about professional musicians still having to practice Mozart, or other works less challenging than say, the Aho concerto!

the host then says, "to me it sounds very good, but what do you hear with your critical ear?"

YEAH, YOU GUYS, what do you hear with your CRITICAL EAR?? (Don't get you started--right???)

mcgill says: "more of a dynamic range and try to get the fingers as smooth as possible. to do that i would practice a lot slower to try to get the air more even, the fingers soft."

my favorite part of this interview, even more than how he was practicing mozart, was that he then started talking about his loooooong days and how he gets home and STILL needs to practice. so he just practice while watching tv. he said, 'well i'm not actually watching.' whaaa? he explained he was more or less psyching himself out that he was doing something "normal" except...really he was still practicing.

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next practice wisdom was from gil shaham!

he said he practices in his music room at his house--with an electric piano, cabinet of music and... tchotchkes!

he says:

"i am the worst person

to talk about this. i have no discipline. i have no routine. and i should! just talking about it makes me feel guilty. actually i'd love to talk about it, but i should be practicing!"

looooove it!

he demonstrated a "childhood exercise to get the muscles moving."

"it's 90% confidence" <---about playing. if he didn't do this exercise he would feel worried. "my mind starts to wander, i will play music i am not supposed to play..."

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Daniel Matsukawa, bassoonist in the philadelphia orchestra and curtis teacher plays through the hummel concerto a lot. he loves that piece. it seems like IT is his warm up. he says:

"it wasn't perfect, i was always whipping through it," but... "i'm okay with that, it makes me feel...great. it's like comfort food."

while learning something else really hard, he'd take hummel out "to escape."

"when i first got to the philadelphia orchestra i wasin awe of all the people around me..."

"i was amazed to hear them warming up by playing slow 3rds--they were going over the basics, instead of wailing away on one famous excerpt after another. they were just taking care of business--just keeping fundamentals in tact. and i thought that was great."

he said he knew a flute player that would say: "i need to do my 45 minute routine, otherwise i will have a bad day."

But Matsukawa says he doesn't want to jeopardize/rely on that.

"i do encourage my students to go over the fundamentals--scales, arpeggios, 3rds, 4ths, and at the same time, i tell them, whatever happens--play a melody a day. that reminds us of why we do what we do. it keeps our interest alive and it keeps us going and it reminds us that we have that ability to make music and it isn't just about moving our fingers."

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