Current Practice Guidelines

(subject to change)
March 1, 2006, 11:54 PM

Aebersold, J. (2000). Practice Suggestions. In Aebersold, J. (2000) Jazz Handbook,

New Albany, IN: Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Inc.
Improvise some every day. Thats the REAL YOU. Play what you hear in your head.
Make a habit of practicing in all twelve keys.

Baker, D. N. (1994). A Creative Approach to Practicing Jazz. New Albany, IN: Jamey
Aebersold Jazz, Inc.
When possible, spread the practice sessions out across the day.
Practice sessions should include:
1. Maintenance (warm-ups, flexibility exercises, articulation and range exercises,
and other daily routines)
2. Scales and arpeggios
3. Formulae such as II V7 patterns, cycles, turnarounds, melodic-rhythmic and
harmonic patterns (clichs), bebop and contemporary patterns, etc.
4. Solo transcription (written and aural)
5. Listening
6. Ear training
7. Sight-reading changes
8. Preparing specific assignments (if you are studying)
9. Learning tunes (include all types blues, ballads, bebop, standards, Latin, free,
contemporary, etc.)
10. Whatever else is relevant to you musically
When practicing the above materials, vary all of the components tempo,
dynamics, rhythm, meter, articulation, phrasing, octave placement, vibrato,
inflection, mood, style, etc. Dont spend all of your practice time on things that
you can already do. When the things on which youre working become
comfortable, then something has to change if growth is to continue. Play the
material faster, cleaner, louder, softer, higher, lower, in a different key, or with
alterations; or simply add new material.
From time to time, read tunes and changes from a fakebook. Simply play through
them for familiarity; dont work on them.
Remember: Practice doesnt make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Those
who fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Coker, J. (2000). How To Practice Improvisation. In Aebersold, J. (2000) Jazz

Handbook, New Albany, IN: Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Inc.
Given below is an example of a schedule that may help you to organize your practice
time. This schedule is based on a seventy-five minute period (1 hr., 15 min.), but it could
be changed proportionately to fit a shorter or longer period if modified to allow time to
take up instrumental studies (long tones, dexterity exercises for the fingers, range studies,
reading, etc.).
A Daily Practice Schedule:
Topic Sequence
1. A Slow Melody (tune)
2. Scales and Patterns
3. Pattern Application
4. Improvisation Exercise
5. Transcribed Solo
6. Special Disciplines
7. Learn a Tune

Minutes Spent
5
15
10
5
15
10
15

A new set of melodies, patterns, exercises, transcribed solos, disciplines, and tunes
should be taken up each week. Such a turnover in materials will help insure a steady rate
of progress. Items 3 through 7 should be played with recorded accompaniment. Special
Disciplines refers to studies aimed at resolving weakness in areas such as playing fast
tempos, time-feeling, use of all rhythmic levels, building intensity, or cultivating a
melodic sense. The learning of a tune should encompass melody, chord progression,
appropriate ingredients, and familiarization with the most significant recordings of the
tune (the listening is done at another time, however).

Goodman, B. (1941, 1989). Benny Goodmans Clarinet Method. Milwaukee: The

Goodman Group distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation.
Divide the hour as follows:
1.
Ten minutes for scale practice.
2.
Ten minutes for sustained tones, including crescendi and diminuendi.
3.
Twenty minutes for technical exercises.
4.
Twenty minutes for phrasing lessons.

Herman, W. (1946). Sax Scales, Chords & Solos. Milwaukee: Edwin H. Morris &
Company distributed by Hal Leonard.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Scale Practice. Memorize all prominent scales. This will enable you to
avoid looking at each and every note when confronted with a scale passage,
and ultimately brings about reading of notes in group forum an important
essential in professional playing.
Chord Practice. Use authors space and line note idea to imbed chords in
your mind. Daily practice will bring about that simultaneous manoeuvring
(sic) of more than one finger at one and the same time, since certain chord
passages are considered difficult.
Time or Rhythm. This factor is usually the most difficult among students.
Writing of music applying all time characters can be a great aid in developing
this sense of time or rhythm.
Tonguing and Slurring. Phrasing, to read instruments, means tonguing and
slurring. Effectiveness is obtained through application on the factor. When
playing a scale or chord from memory, try to apply different forms of
tonguing and slurring.
Proper Breathing. Avoid taking unnecessary breaths. Too many breaths
bring about uneven and poor results. The average professional can play a 32
measure chorus in four breaths. Apply Proper Breathing and learn to play
many notes in one breath. For best results, plan and designate exactly where
you will take a breath before attempting to play a musical phrase or group of
notes.
Technique. Concentrate mind upon fingers, applying that fine sense of touch
instead of that rigid sense of pressing. As a rule, all instruction books have
specially designed exercises to develop technique. Outstanding performers
must possess technique. Apply as much time as possible daily to this factor,
and add your name to the outstanding performers.
Reading of Notes In Group Form. Vision must always be at least four notes
ahead of actual playing. A thorough foundation on scales and chords will aid
you in reading of notes in group form. Why look at every note of a scale or
chord if you have memorized them!
Tone. Tone control, breath control, reed control, expression or dynamic
shading, vibrato, are all tone elements. This is another important essential in
all playing.

Liebman, D. (1994). Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound, 2nd. Medfield, MA:

Dorn Publications, Inc.
Saxophone Practice Schedule Two Hour Minimum
1. Breathing. Five minutes: Done slowly, eventually adding some form of
resistance to the abdomen area. Also, fast inhale/exhale breaths.

2. Mouthpiece alone. Five minutes: Play scales, intervals over a range of at least a
tenth.
3. Overtones. Twenty minutes. Clean/low note fundamentals first (dont drop
jaw); ability to prehear overtone and play it with a minimum of embouchure
movement; emphasis on laryngeal (vocal cord/folds) activity; match the natural
fingering to the overtone in terms of intonation and timbral quality; later on, add
extended overtone exercises for more challenge.
4. Long tones. Fifteen minutes: Useful for checking embouchure positions; to be
done intervallically, not just chromatically or scale steps; use
crescendo/decrescendo at times checking intonation constantly; check for
evenness of sound and breath; also do pre and post tones carefully; check ability
to pre-hear interval; keep each aspect separate.
5. Miscellaneous. Fifteen minutes: position of tongue for both sustained notes and
for tonguing; single tongue at various speeds and levels of intensity using all
combinations of tongue and reed areas; expressive, coloristic devices to be
practiced.
6. Reading. Twenty minutes: Both classical and jazz solo transcriptions for sight
reading purposes; exercises for finger dexterity and smoothness in all ranges; the
idea is that practicing fast technique separately will result in it becoming second
nature for use in musical ways.
7. Scales/Arpeggios/Intervals. Forty minutes: In order to learn the alphabet of
music; to be done legato at quickest overall speed, in various articulative and
rhythmic configurations; use the metronome for accuracy (for jazz players, beats
on two and four); these exercises are for dexterity, flexibility and familiarity with
the language.

Pino, D. (1980). The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications,
Inc.
Order of Priorities for Musicianship
1.
Relaxation
2.
Rhythm and meter
3.
Tempo
4.
Intonation
5.
Phrasing
Order of Priorities for Clarinet Playing
1.
Relaxation
2.
Airflow
3.
Embouchure
4.
Technique
5.
Articulation