During vacations from school and work, it can be tempting to just chill out and let each day run its course, letting whatever happens, happen. Unfortunately for us musicians, practice often doesn’t just happen. It can be easy to let the whole day slip away without even thinking of our instruments, and when a few no-practice days add up, our sound begins to suffer.

Fortunately, a little planning can help remind us to practice and motivate us to make progress with our instruments. Here are some easy ways to plan productive practice into your schedule.

1. Make an appointment with your instrument. When you consciously schedule time into your day to practice, it tends to be harder to wriggle out of the commitment. Write your practice time on your calendar, and tell friends and family you have a commitment at that time. Even if you only schedule a few minutes to practice, it’s much better than doing nothing!

2. Brainstorm good times to practice. When you’re scheduling your practice, try to do it at a time of day where you’re feeling your best. If you’re a morning person, make a plan to play right after breakfast. If you practice when you’re naturally feeling alert, getting things done will be much easier and more efficient.

3. Get into a routine. If it’s possible, make it your goal to practice at the same time every day. Practicing at the same time each day helps make it a habit, and reduces the likelihood that practice will get lost in the hustle and bustle of holiday activity.

4. Set goals and write them down. At the beginning of the week, sit down and write some things you’d like to get done at each practice session. Make your goals very small and concrete, and write them in your calendar next to your practice time. It can be easy to skip “Practice”, but harder to resist the thought of accomplishing something specific with your instrument each day.

This holiday season, see what steps you can take to give yourself the gift of quality practice. Use our ideas, or share your own tips in the comments. Happy playing!

One of the best parts of the holidays is all the time off from school and work. No daily grind! No alarm clock! Ahhh! During our time off, it can be tempting to take off from playing, too; after all, practicing does take more effort than watching movies with your cousins. But any trombone player who’s taken a couple of weeks off can tell you: after-vacation chops are NO FUN!

So, how do you keep your chops in tip-top shape and still get your relaxation on? Try these tips:

1. Just PLAY. There’s no rule that says you have to do a rigorous practice session each time you pick up your horn. So why not use your practice session to just play stuff? Improvise. See what kinds of sounds your horn can make. Have a dynamics contest with yourself, whatever! Every time you play, you’re keeping your facial muscles strong and encouraging your mind to think musically…even if you’re not knee-deep in Blazhevich etudes.

2. Play with friends. OK, jam sessions are fun. So why not have one? Invite your friends over and play together. Even if you guys don’t become the next Tower of Power, you’ve practiced, and you’ve bonded with your friends!

3. Play for friends. Performances motivate us to play our best, and they give us specific things to work on. Volunteer to play a couple of tunes for your family’s holiday gatherings, and spend your practice time having fun with holiday tunes. You’ll be the life of the party, and you’ll avoid floppy chops.

The trombone may be a part of your life for many years, so learning to have fun with it is a valuable skill! Next time, we’ll talk about how to plan meaningful practice into your holiday routine.

If your family’s car is packed to the roof to visit your Aunt Bertha, and your trombone won’t fit, try these practice ideas:

1. Bring along some music and count rhythms, name notes, and mentally practice the music, visualizing exactly how it would feel to play this music on your trombone.

2. Taking a rest stop? Try this simple breathing exercise: Breathe in for four counts and blow out for four counts, working on filling up fully and staying relaxed as you inhale, and exhaling steadily across the four counts. Doing this literally takes only a few seconds, and if you do it at every rest stop, it can do wonders for your breathing!

3. Listen to great trombonists on your iPod. When you listen to people who play your instrument very well, you’re teaching your ear what an excellent trombonist sounds like.

4. Even better, find some scores of great symphonies or trombone works, and find recordings of them. Listen and follow along in the score. Can you pick out certain instruments? Can you hear when the music modulates to a new key? How do the musicians interpret dynamics, articulations, and style markings? Challenge yourself to see what you can learn from listening.

Try these suggestions, and you can make progress as a musician even if your instrument is in another city! Next time, we’ll talk about how to enjoy your vacation and still keep your practice up.

Today’s rule of thumb: Do what you can!

When you have a lot of demands piling up in your life, it can be tough to fit in a regular practice session. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t worry, just do what you can! Even if you have only 5 minutes to practice, you can pick one small thing and get it accomplished. Here are some ideas:

1. Pick a tricky measure and learn the rhythm or pitches.
2. Look up a fingering you’ve been meaning to learn.
3. Play a couple of scales.
4. Count some rhythms.
5. Improvise.
6. Do some long tones, lip slurs, and tonguing.
7. Buzz on your mouthpiece.

Even if you only get to fix one tiny problem, or learn one tiny new note, you have made some progress on your instrument today. Remember, 5 minutes of practice is better than 0 minutes of practice.

Try some of these today! Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to practice when you’re on a trip.