What's Your Practice Routine?????

[jremon]

I have been looking at the way I practice and I was wondering what everyone else does in their practice routine? You know, what warm-ups, scales, etudes, transcribing/transposing licks, improvising, learning new tunes, etc. Please share. Also, how long is your practice session?

[Wolfram]

I have been looking at the way I practice and I was wondering what everyone else does in their practice routine? You know, what warm-ups, scales, etudes, transcribing/transposing licks, improvising, learning new tunes, etc. Please share. Also, how long is your practice session?

QUALITY of practice is more important than QUANTITY or length of practice.  In other words, if you practice to perfect your tone, scales, music, improvisation for an hour every day, you will achieve more than practicing a marathon 5 hours once a week.  Saxophone is learned through muscle memory... repetition.

For a one hour session, I warm up on scales and arpeggios for ten minutes.  I use a metronome EVERY time in order to continually train my fingers to smoothly transition between each series.  Scales are played as fast as I can play the hardest scale cleanly.  In other words,  you may be able to rip a full range D major scale off in sixteenth notes at 152 beats per minute but can you do that with every major scale?  If not, slow it down to the tempo that you can play ALL the scales at effectively at full range.

For the next twenty minutes, I work technique building etudes or I sight read.  I like to mix this up a little so that I keep things fresh.  I try to find and etude book that is right above my current level and then start wood shedding until I have worked my way through the entire thing, cover to cover.  This takes time... months...

The next 20 minutes is my own.  I can either work on music that I have for an upcoming concert or I work on perfecting a different improv technique (Latin, funk, ii/V7/ I, etc...) Twice a week, I blow the dust off of some altissimo etudes during this time frame.  It helps keep the high notes in check.

The last 10 minutes is for long tone warm down.  You should be getting tired by now and long tones at this point will start to really work those muscles.

That pretty much is it in a nut shell...  hope it helps

[Cherri]

Wolfram well said... That's it...

[anointedfingaz]

That's sounds like a super effective routine Wolfram,

mine's similar...i start with a quick prayer to remind myself of who gave me this gift and why i'm doing it then long tones to warm-up and get my chops ready to play and follow with chromatic exercises starting on low D going up to octaves and coming down twice (first slurred then tongued) then a half step up and repeated up to high F# or even G if i really feel motivated then starting on low D again and working down. 

Then I work on a specific key for the week doing a variety of MEMORIZED exercises like major, three minors, whole tone, diminished, pentatonic, etc (because if you have to read it off a page then how do you apply it when there's no music?). Then arpeggios of triads (Maj,min,Aug,dim), sevenths (M7,m7,m7b5,dim7), and sevenths in the harmonized scale. Then I work a little on altissimo stuff but I'm no master because I only started this stuff a year ago. I use the overtone technique then with unique fingerings and try to hit them clean. 

Then I move to books for technical exercises (finger speed and cleanliness) and etudes for technique (breathe control, style, etc). Then literature like classical or jazz are my favs especially Charlie Parker Omnibook (great for studying improv and technique) followed by stuff I have to practice for a gig or something. 

Then just noodling. I come up with my best ideas just by noodling: new licks, songs, horn lines, etc. 

It's important to remember to use a METRONOME the whole time and proper intonation so I'm always playing with a metronome and tuner in front of me.  Wow,  I know this sounds intense and it is (2 hr sessions at least) but I've been using this routine and it has helped me tremendously in a relatively short amount of time, 3 years to re-learn the basics after trying to teach myself lol and I get something new out of it every time.

I hope it works for somebody else.