Expectation

When approaching my daily playing I first try and ready myself for days playing by setting an expectation. How am I going to sound, how hard will I work on the various segments of my playing day. Some days I need to focus less on solo literature and work on fundamentals, others I get more out of working on phrasing and trying to emphasize a singing approach. Each day brings it's own challenges and staying aware of that can make the practice session (or sessions) much more successful.

An example of this would be coming back from a break of several days. I recently had lessons with a number of students that had been away from their instruments for a period of roughly a week. Most just slapped the metal to embouchure and tried to resume where the left off. Ouch! As a remedy I had them try a combination of visualization (thinking about how they should sound as they play) and re-focusing on playing with the best fundamental physical approach they could muster. All made some level of improvement. One player had been away from his horn for two weeks. By paying attention to his breathing and simply expecting his best he made huge improvements in all areas. It was still evident that he'd lost some muscle tone but because he knows how to get a good sound and clean attack he was able to get on track again by understanding his own expectation of good playing.

"I'm going to play just like xxxxxxxx !!" is probably unrealistic. "I'm going to play as well as I can today!" is as good a way to start as any.

Next time you get out the instrument, set your own expectation before you play a note or even work on your breathing.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read or leave a comment.