author: Peter Kaiser
With summer band camps fast approaching, I thought it appropriate to give everyone a list of
reliable practice techniques to help you with several aspects of learning music that give just
about everyone some trouble from time to time. Some of these are rather obvious to most of us,
but all the same, it's a good idea to have everything together, because even the best of us
forget a thing or two every now and then.
Pre-Practice Routine
One of the most helpful things you can do for yourself, before you even practice the music
for the first time, is to set up a short procedure to help you work your way through the piece.
Look at the initial key signature, time signature, and tempo; take note (mental or physical) of
any changes in either of these - if, for example, the time signature changes several times, look for a pattern.
Take note (mental or physical) of particularly interesting dynamic contrasts, climax and relaxation
points, rallentandi, accelerandi, soli or solo passages, etc.
Hopefully you have access to a metronome - use it! Look at the tempo of the section you're about
to practice and (especially if you're about to work on a faster section of music) choose a
reasonably slow tempo to practice at.
Strategies
Once you've established a pre-practice routine and warmed yourself up a bit, try these strategies
to help you through a tough lick or a tricky time signature change.
If you come across a run that never sounds right, look it over as a unit as well as note by note.
Is it major, minor, diminished (half-step/whole-step or whole-step/half-step), chromatic, or almost
chromatic? Once you figure out what the run is made up of, it will be easier for you to apply the
technique you already know to it and conquer it.
If a run has a lot of leaps between notes, look for a pattern. Does it jump up a fourth and
down a third? Is there a bottom note that stays constant while the other notes leap away from it?
Are there chromatic notes or accidentals throwing you off?
Poorly diagrammed time signature changes can be very confusing. Be sure you are aware of
what note gets the beat on each side of the time signature change, and look for any relationships
or changes between sections. Be particularly mindful of subdivision changes as well. If you're
changing from 4/4 to 6/8, the dotted quarter will most likely get the beat - subdivide triplets
the last bar of the 4/4 if you can or get a swing feel into your head. If you're going from 3/4
to 6/8, the eighth-note value could stay the same, or the beat value could change from quarter
to dotted quarter. Know what you're subdividing before the music happens!
Concepts
All right! You can play all the notes flawlessly and at the right tempo now! No? Well,
you should at least be on your way (everybody messes up once in a while). The important
thing with mistakes in performance is to note them but not to get stuck on them; when you're
performing, don't dwell on a mistake any more than to make a quick mental note while you
continue playing and marching. As they say, "The show must go on," whether you miss a flat or not.
Once you're pretty comfortable with the notes, rhythms, time signatures, key signatures, dynamics,
and tempo (or possibly before!), you'll have to memorize your music since it's not allowed at
competitions. Two main concepts will help you most in memorizing your music.
"Chunking" can be your best friend. Find a compact, coherent musical idea - say, four measures
long. Play it until you know it thoroughly. Try it without the music, then with it again. Once
you've played it without the music and know it sounds right, add the next musical idea. Repeat
the strategy and string them together as you go. Make it a game if you're practicing with a friend.
While you're doing this "chunking", it may be helpful to make use of the "three-times" rule.
If you can play a segment from memory three times in a row with no mistakes, you know you're ready
to move on to the next one.
Once you've gotten a fairly large section of music committed to memory, try playing the entire
section a few times, and check back with your music to see if there's anything you're consistently
doing wrong (or something you're consistently not doing that's wrong).
Now comes the entire point of marching band as an art - putting everything together. Granted,
this isn't quite as helpful as being in full band rehearsal to check forms and everything else,
but try this for yourself if you've already taken care of everything else:
Keeping all your rests in mind
Try to play the section of music while marking time to your drill chart directions.
If you step in a new direction with your left foot, step that direction (one step only) and
bring it back to a mark time on count three of the move.
Remember any holds, spreads, horn pops, etc., and memorize these as they fit with the music. The
maneuvers will make more sense if you learn them with the music instead of as just marching to a bunch
of spots on the field.
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Peter Kaiser is a Music Education major (Saxophone) at Indiana University
and has become somewhat of a regular columnist for our site. We appreciate
his willingness to contribute and share his experience with our followers.
If you're interested in contributing an article for the site, please let us
know by dropping us an email at
info@simplyinstrumental.com.
We'd love to hear from you!
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