On a Time Crunch? Here's a 1-Hour Practice Routine!
With schedules getting busier, it can be hard to carve out hours every day to practice. We get it! If you’re a student, assignments can pile up or if you’re working another part or full-time job, time is limited to focus on having time for just you and your instrument. Here is a sample practice plan if you only have an hour and some resources to help with each part!
- 10 minute warm-up
- Use something like our “5 Day Long-tone Challenge” and pick an area that needs the most attention for you that day, whether that is endurance, intonation, or altissimo register.
- You could also pick a few things out of our “Foundations Packet” to start off your practice session with a clear goal in mind!
- 10 minutes of scales
- Try the “Neighbor Tones Scales” to mix things up and keep practicing your scales feeling fresh.
- Have you done the “28 Day Scale Reset?” You can purchase it at the link from our store and use this to help build your confidence in playing scales, too!
- 10 minutes of drills
- Pick your favorite etude book and focus on an area of your technique that you might be needing to polish with the repertoire you know you have coming up.
- Need to work on your double tonguing? Use our “Getting Started with Double Tonguing” packet to help develop this skill set!
- Articulation needing a little extra love? Try some of the exercises from the “Articulation Builder” to get started.
- 10-12 minutes of a piece from your current repertoire
- Have a solid plan of what you need to focus on. Maybe start by diving into the hardest section and work on interleaving your approach or increasing the desirable difficulty. Break it down into smaller chunks and drill those, too!
- Take the last two minutes to record yourself so you can listen back later and hear what still needs work and what is getting better!
- 10-12 minutes of a second piece from your current rotation
- Maybe try picking something that has a contrasting set of skills needed. Was the first piece you practiced really fast and technical? Try practicing something that is more lyrical and slow to focus on a different area of your playing in this last 10 minutes or so of practice.
- Also, take some time at the end to record yourself!
Happy practicing!
