Use A.I.R. to cement your habits!

Every practice session you have is an opportunity to cement a habit. You've been hearing a lot about James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, whose book we l-o-v-e, and philosophy to life we subscribe to. He's best known for this widely-circulated pearl of wisdom:

 

 

At the core of his message is the notion that small habits seem to make little difference on any given day, but if you can make a 1% improvement each day, the impact over time can be tremendous. 

 

 

You probably have no shortage of big goals in your line of sight, but how about a few solid, fundamental reminders, the basic ingredients of good clarinet playing - slash - music making? 

 

 

It stands for: 

 

A: Air. Duh! But if we had a nickel for every time we had to remind someone to not choke off the air, to use more air, to keep the air moving, to take in more air, to differentiate the air… we'd be typing this on the beach in Maui. 

 

I: Intonation.  This one reminds you to tune in (pun intended) to your voicing. So much of good intonation depends on being able to mentally hear the pitches you're playing. 

 

R. Rhythm. The bigger umbrella of rhythm includes tempo, pulse and the actual rhythms written in the music. 

 

Lest we forget that practicing isn't all about the clarinet, A.I.R. is also a convenient way to remember this wisdom: 

 

A: Action.  You can probably rattle off your practice routine - it's full of actions specific to one aspect of clarinet playing. Long tones, scales, articulation studies, and so on. That's great as long as you are aware of the main purpose of each action. Long tones for consistency of tone, scales for evenness of finger, or articulation for ease of the tongue stroke, for example. 

 

I: Integration.  Now, all that doesn't matter if you don't PLUG IT IN, integrate it, put it into context. You finish with your warm up or drills, and move on to etudes, pieces or excerpts, and whooooosh, out the window all those good habits go! Nope. Integrate what you just did in the previous action. 

 

R. Release. Finally, you have to release and rest. Woodshedding a passage over and over isn't going to make it better. Give your muscles a break, and let your mind relax. This keeps everything from over-tightening and over-tensing! 

Keep the above consistent, and you'll reach your big goals sooner!  So go on, go rock your next practice session. 

 

To the 1% over time!