Practice Challenge 2014-2015

Because I'm slightly crazy, but mostly because I'm trying to help my students practice more and practice better, I'm running a challenge program this year.  I'm hoping that it will also make my own practicing and blogging more frequent and meaningful.  You can read the details below.

Practice Challenge 2014-2015

Jeannine Robinett

Objective:  Increase the frequency, efficiency, and effectiveness of practice for students and teacher. 

Dates:  This program will run September 2, 2014 through May 29, 2015 for students.  (June 5 for teacher.)  

Who can participate?:  Any student currently studying in the Robinett Studio. 

How does it work?:

1. Students who want to participate use the Robinett Studio Practice Journal (available in the File Area of the website)to organize and record their practice. Write on the back or use additional paper as needed.   
2. At each lesson, participating students turn in a Practice Journal for the previous week.  
3. After my last lesson of the week, I review all the Practice Journals and select the one with the highest number of qualifying minutes of practice.  
4. The following week, I match the number of minutes and the practice strategies the student used as I do my own practicing.  I will also blog about my practicing, probably one blog for the week, but it may be more.   You can read the blogs at http://jmrvoicenotes.blogspot.com
5. The person with the highest number of winner weeks for the year will receive a certificate of recognition and a prize.  The prize will most likely be a book about music or a Groth Music Gift Card.  

Requirements:

1. To count a day’s practice toward this challenge, all columns of the Practice Journal must be filled in for that day.  
2. Approved practice strategies include any listed in your lesson notes from me, or in the handouts in the File Area of the website.  Exceptions are listed  below.  
3. If you did not fill in all columns when you used approved practice strategies, or if you used strategies from the exception list or came up with your own ideas, please count those minutes in the “Other” category for your totals. 

Exceptions and other details:  

1. If a student has longer than a week between lessons, I will use their top 7 days in determining the winner for that week.  
2. The upper limit for practice time to be counted for this challenge is 90 minutes per day.  There are two reasons for this.  First, I can’t commit to more than 90 minutes every day.  Second, young voices don’t need to be practicing more than that, and excessive practicing can tire out the voice and actually slow progress.  
3. Listening to, or reading about music can count as up to 10 minutes of approved practice per day, IF your listening/reading comes from the listening list and suggested reading list found in the File Area or is approved at the lesson prior.  Any links I include in your lesson notes related to songs you are currently working on will count as approved listening and reading without the time limit listed above. 
4. Although these may sometimes be helpful, the following practice strategies DO NOT count towards your total number of minutes for this challenge:  singing in the car, singing in the shower, singing in choir or rehearsals for a show, singing while doing chores.
5. When we have a full calendar week off school, I will most likely skip that week for this program.  For example, I will use the winner from the week of December 15-19 to structure my practice for the week starting January 5.

The Practice Journal looks like this, but is set up as a table.  Evidently that formatting doesn't copy/paste into blogger. 

Robinett Studio Practice Journal

Student Name:       

Include name in blog & other recognition:  YES  NO

Lesson date:

Assignments or goals for the week (These can include technique, song study, reading, listening, etc):

1.

2.

3.

Date	Goal (s) for this practice session	What did you work on and which strategies did you use?	How long did you practice?   (approved/other)	How did you feel about what you did?  What did you learn today?  How did you improve?

Total # number of minutes from the approved strategies:

      Total number of other minutes related to your music: 

GRAND TOTAL:
Are there any questions or concerns that arose in your practicing that you need discuss with your teacher at your next lesson?

Practice Journal 10/6/09

I had a chance to warm-up and start my practicing when a student cancelled her lesson for today. Verzagen is just feeling really awkward right now. It's not bad, but it's not really improving and going where I want it to. I think I need to set it aside for awhile and focus on other things.

After all the teaching was done for the day, I stayed and worked on the Strauss songs. The Schlechtes Wetter high note that I wanted to work yesterday actually worked today. Overall, the high notes are feeling much better. I just need to remember not to force them. It's the same issue with the higher pitches in Ach, lieb ich muss nun scheiden. I have to remember that those notes are easy for me now and don't take as much effort physically as they used to. The last page of Die Nacht with all those repeated Ds is also feeling much bettter. The G is also good, but coming down after that still needs to be worked and smoothed out a bit more.

Practice Journal 10/5/09

Stayed at school after lessons today to practice. I was able to accomplish a couple of things, but the top is still a little rough, so I only did a couple of the Strauss songs and then quit for the day. I really wanted to work the high phrase, because it is so close to being what I want, but by the third attenpt, I knew it wasn't going to happen today. My voice was doing weird things when I was just talking to students today, so I didn't want to push my luck. We have a few long weekends coming up and I'm interested to see how my voice is when I have a little more rest. Hopefully it will be better.

Practice Journal 10/3/09 and 10/4/09

Difficulty with computer and iphone kept me from posting yesterday.

Yesterday, I did a lot of listening. In fact, more than I intended. I was going to take a nap and listen to 4-5 songs as I fell asleep. However, I must have changed something without knowing it, because the music just kept playing for my whole nap. I would wake up enough to hear that it was still on, but not enough to turn it off. It also worked into my dreams in weird ways.

In additions to the sleeping/listening, I did some attentive listening and then went over to the school in the evening to do some other work and practice. By the time I started singing it was almost 10PM. It was weird. I was tired, but relaxed enough that the sound was actually pretty good. From the way it feels though, I think I might be on the edge of laryngitis again, so I'm giving the voice a rest day. Yesterday I sang through 3 of the Strauss songs since I've been listening to those a lot lately. The high note in Schlechtes Wetter really felt good and I didn't even need the breath before "wallen". That's a first.

I've been listening to Schlechtes Wetter as performed by Kiri Te Kananwa, Elly Ameling, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Renee Fleming, and Christa Ludwig. Very interesting. At this moment, I like the Ludwig version best. Gorgeous, and I think her concept of the piece is closer to mine than some of the other recordings I've listened to. I thought she was a mezzo and she sounds like a mezzo, but she sings this in the high key with absolutely no difficulty on the top. I thought maybe I was thinking of the wrong singer, so I googled her and found out that she is a mezzo, but later in her career also sang a few soprano roles. Cool. Again, we see the wisdom of finding the right key for your voice. She definitely has the notes and it sounds great in her voice.
It's also interesting to listen to the choices the pianists make. The pianist playing with Fleming is very good, but I like the Gerald Moore color and interpretation better. He's the accompanist on 2 of these recordings and I'm planning to listen for differences in them. Differences could be responses to the specifice singer, or changes or maturing in his own interpretation through the years. More later when I've done more specific listening.

Permission to be bad

I'm all about lofty goals and high standards. I can spend an entire lessons
picking at little details that need to be improved in a student's song. But sometimes we have to give ourselves and our students permission to be bad. Sometime that is the only way we grow.

This week a student expressed concern that her voice just isn't sounding as good as it used to and that she didn't feel like she could do things that she used to be able to do. Anytime a student comes to me with these concerns I want to make sure that both of us know exactly what is going on with the voice and determine if there is something I need to send him/her to a doctor for. The first thing I have a student do is keep a voice journal recording what they do, what it feels like and how it sounds. For this particular student, I also made a check list of technical things that she could check when she wasn't happy with her sound. And finally, I gave her a list of things that can affect the voice and how it sounds and feels. We didn't have to go far into the list to discover the reason her voice wasn't happy. She has a very tough schedule this year at school, and her stress level is really high. I know from personal experience what that can do to a voice. So we talked about doing what she can do and understanding that it won't be good, but she can learn and progress.

Tonight, my practice session was a perfect illustration of that. Today I was dealing with a lot of pain and tension, which is bad news for a singer. As I started to work on my songs, it didn't feel good and I could feel and hear lots of things I wanted to change. But, since I knew how hard that would be on a night like tonight, I gave myself permission to be bad and focused on checking my memorization. Because I gave myself permission to be bad, I didn't stress over those things I didn't like. That just adds more tension. I focused on what was working well. By the time I finished, I was actually making pretty good sounds, but I wouldn't have arrived at that place if I'd freaked out over the details tonight.

There are some practice sessions where you need to pick things apart and really do the detail work. And sometimes, you need to go for the big picture, allow bad sounds to happen, and be open to whatever good comes. I'm learning that about my own work, and I'm planning to be more conscious of it in the work I do with my students.

Practice Journal 9/29/09

Yes.

Practice Journal 9/28/09

Did a little warming up today when a student didn't show up. The voice is still not happy, but it is getting better. In addition to my usual memorization and listening work, I played through most of the Brahms songs. I like to play the accompaniment because it helps me to be aware of what is going on there in a way that I don't get by just listening. I also find new ways of shaping the phrases as I pay attention to the harmonic rhythm.

Why I keep doing these practice journals

If you've been reading this blog over the last couple of weeks, you're probably wondering why I continue to post about my pathetic practice attempts. Shouldn't I be horribly embarrassed? I post because I want my students to know (and I want to remind myself) that:
1. I know it's hard to find the time and energy to practice.
2. I know that even a little bit keeps me moving in the right direction.
3. I know that there are days that I don't think I have what it takes mentally or physically to practice, but when I try, sometimes I have major break throughs and insights.
4. I know that there are wonderful moments and I want to remember those.
5. I know that showing up is half the battle.

So, if the post looks short and boring, feel free to skip it; it probably wasn't one of my good days. But, I will keep posting and when those wonderful moments come, I'll keep sharing. I also have several great blog ideas that I hope to get to soon. I don't intend for JMR Voice Notes to be just about my practicing or lack thereof).

Practice Journal 9/27/09

More memorization and listening. I know, boring post. I'm hoping my voice is up to some real work tomorrow. If not, I need to find more interesting ways of memorizing and listening and reporting about them.

Practice Journal 9/25/09

More listening and memorization. Voice is still weird today. I can't decide if it's totally allergy related or also just tired from talking so much at lessons this week. A lot of kids were sick, so we did more talking about technical things than actual singing which means my voice got a lot more use.

Practice Journal 9/21/09

I had planned to do lots of practicing tonight since I was scheduled to be done with lessons at 3:15. However, I was so frazzled by that time that I went home and took a nap. So...once again, I didn't get to the singing. But, I did work on memorization and I listened to the Brahms songs again.

Practice Journal 9/19/09

Have I mentioned that I love singing? Practice went well tonight and the things I've been working on are becoming more and more consistent. I took a break part way through to work on some school stuff and when I came back it was even better. I had forgotten that my voice likes to warm-up, take a break, and then get to the real work.

Practice Journal 9/18/09

The original plan for today was to stay at school after lessons and practice. But, by the time I finished all the things I couldnt' avoid, I was just too tired to try to focus with all the craziness still going on at school. Musical auditions were tonight, so there were still a lot of kids around. Instead of practicing, I came home and did a little memorization and listening. I'll try to go in to school tomorrow when it is quieter to get some practicing in.

Practice Journal 9/17/09

Good practice tonight. Nothing much special to report except that I did practice (mostly singing) for nearly an hour and a half. I also played through the accompaniment to several songs.

Practice Journal 9/16/09

I finally got to do practicing that was more than just listening. In fact, I sang for 1 hour and 15 minutes today. Things started out a little rough, but it turned out to be a really good practice session overall. Watch for more details in a post that I hope to get to in the next couple of days, titled "Flexibility."

Practice 9/15/09

Another crazy day when all I could fit in was listening. I'm hoping to find time and energy for actual singing tomorrow.

Practice Journal 9/14/09

With lessons, listening to Freshmen, running errands, and Parent Open House, I didn't get much practice time. I did do some listening, and wrote out the words to Verzagen.

Practice Journal 9/12/09

I was hoping to do a little practing at school tonight, but because of the marching band event, parking was crazy, so I skipped it.

I did listen a little this morning and tonight I read through the nightingale research. My job now is to figure out what Holty thought and knew about nightingales. For example, they use to think that it was the female that sang, but we now know it is the male singing to attract a mate. When did we figure this out? What mythology and other literary references did Holty know about? I can't remember Holty's dates. Did he know the Keats "Ode..."? What did Brahms know? More fun stuff to think about.

I'm going to write out the text tonight while I watch a movie and see how close I can get to memorized. Yes, this really does help me and it's a fun way to multi-task.

Practice Journal 9/11/09

At about 2:15 I realized that I had to teach from 2:30-after 5 and then go straight to a wedding rehearsal, but I hadn't practiced yet. Definitely should have planned the day better. So I went back to school after the wedding rehearsal. I did stop and buy dinner on the way so that I at least would have some energy. I took longer to warm up than I have for awhile and that really helped. I also did more lip buzz. It helps me to loosen up and to focus on the breath.

I did some technical work on vocalises and then worked on "An die Nachtigall." The really good warm-up helped this one to start out better today. I did some work just on [i] which has been a great vowel for me lately. This song is really hard for me to keep lined up, and I think the biggest reason is all of the consonants. If I really think about how I am creating them, and keep them loose and high, it is so much better. I very clearly remember a former choir director telling us to place the consonants on the lower pitch to help us connect the notes. Maybe this works for some people, but not for me. For example, in "der liebentflammten", the r that ends the first word needs to be on the same high pitch as the l and the vowel of the 2nd world.
This song is starting to come together both technically and interpretively.

By the time I worked all that out, I was pretty much out of energy, but decided to play through "O kuhler Wald". And then I thought I'd do a quick internet search to see if anyone had written anything about Brentano's poem. Word of warning---there is no such thing as a quick internet search, at least not for me. One thing leads to another and pretty soon I realize that I've been sittting there to long and I'm in pain. Someday I hope to learn to stop before the pain. But anyway, I did find some good resources to look at more later.

Practice Journal 9/10/09

The really long post below about Die Mainacht totally counts as practice time.

I also had a good practice session after work. For warm-ups I did some of the vocalises that I want to use with my students this year. I chose them because they are easy to do on solfege, but doing them, I realized that done right, they are really great technical exercises. I hope the kids like them.

I worked a little on Verzagen and once again remembered the if the consonants are not on the pitch, that "was weinest du" is not good.

I worked the second half of Die Nachtigall and then spend way too long online looking up info about the nightingale and its symbolism. Cool stuff. I'll report more on that when I've read through all the stuff I found.