Sing Play Survive

sound ideas to help make it through music school

Archive for category Practice

Things you’ll regret not doing in music school (Part III)

Dec 18

Posted by Bryan W in Free Time, Health and Wellness, Practice, Surroundings | No Comments

Well, they’re one day late, but here they are: Items 11 through 15 on the list of things you absolutely MUST do while you’re a student–or regret not doing for the rest of your life.

11. Spend time alone.

If you’re really trying to make the most out of your music school career, you’re going to be around other people almost non-stop. It’s fun to have friends, to play in ensembles, to study in groups, and hang out with your room mate late into the night. But you also need time for yourself. I’m not just talking about the alone time you get when you’re practicing or studying. I’m talking about what one friend called “naked time”–the kind of time you spend alone just for you (you can keep your clothes on if you like). Take a nice long walk now and then, catch an afternoon nap, or put on your favorite CD (NOT a listening assignment for class) and read a magazine. Just find something to give yourself a nice quiet break.

If you’re wondering why this is is important to do NOW, it’s because your schedule NOW is probably the most flexible you’ll ever have again. Most work days don’t have an hour or two in between tasks the way many students have an hour or two in between classes. Yes, those are good times to practice, study, etc., but they’re also good times to relax and de-stress a little. If you are just too busy to make this happen during the week, give yourself a little extra time to do it on the weekend.

The other reason to do it NOW is because this is a time in your life to focus on you and figure out who you are. If you’re always around other people, you’ll never get a chance to form your own identity. You do NOT want to leave college feeling like you have no idea who you are, so take a little time and figure it out!

12. Celebrate every holiday you know of.
I get it, you’re a hard-working, talented, music student–not some dumb frat-boy or -girl. Well get over yourself and have some fun now and then. It’s college! If you’re holiday calendar says Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you’re not celebrating enough. You need a calendar that gives you a holiday for almost every day of the year. That way, you can celebrate whenever you get a little free time.

13. Take up a non-music hobby. Read the rest of this entry »

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Things you’ll regret not doing in college (Part II)

Dec 10

Posted by Bryan W in Free Time, Health and Wellness, Practice | 4 Comments

Well it’s Thursday, and here at Sing Play Survive, that means another list of things you BETTER do while you still can. I wouldn’t recommend doing them during juries week (except for number 9), but they’ll all be great fun after.

Got some of your own to add? Please let me know in the comments.

If this is your first time here, you can also read Part I of this series.

6. Have a lazy “marathon” weekend

This is a great thing to do on a long weekend or over a holiday. Grab some friends, stock up on your favorite food and beverages, and take an entire day (or two) to do something like: watch an entire season/series of a favorite TV show, watch a movie trilogy, listen to the complete Beatles discography, have a Monopoly tournament, beat Guitar Hero on expert, etc.

There are a couple of rules for this one: save it for a weekend with bad weather, give yourself a day after to be productive and recover before starting another week of classes, and balance your Karma by spending another entire day volunteering with all of your friends.

7. Learn to function without caffeine
I’ll bet that colleges (and especially music schools) create more caffeine addicts each year than 10,000 Red Bull salesmen do in a lifetime. Between a demanding schedule, chronic sleep deprivation, and easy, campuswide access to fresh-brewed coffee and ice-cold Mountain Dew, it’s no surprise. If you’re on the road to addiction, take a few days off from caffeine here and there. Curb the habit before it owns you for life.

8. Spend time in the library (for fun)

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Are the Practice Rooms Making You Sick?

Dec 7

Posted by Bryan W in Health and Wellness, Music Schools, Practice, Surroundings | No Comments

If you call it yours, does that keep you healthier?

If you’ve never gotten sick during the school year, consider yourself lucky. Even a case of the sniffles can be a major setback when you’re trying to keep on top of practicing, rehearsals, studying, and a social life. Like most music students, I tried every trick in the book to keep from getting sick. Unfortunately it wasn’t always enough, and I often ended up with with a runny nose, sore throat, headache, and cough sometime during the semester.

This frustrated me since I was an otherwise very healthy person. It took a while before I found the culprit to be the practice rooms–those tiny shared spaces with little ventilation and (at least at my school) no natural light. I mentioned my theory to a few friends, who thought I was crazy–until I made my case.

Yes, if you’re not careful, the practice rooms WILL make you sick. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to defend yourself.

So what exactly makes practice rooms different from classrooms, dorm rooms, locker rooms, or any other public places on a college campus? I think It’s a combination of the environment and the activities that take place there. Let’s take a look at each.

The Typical Practice Room Enviroment

With the exception of closets, practice rooms are probably the smallest rooms on campus. Yet, at many schools, they’re occupied with the door closed from early in the morning until late into the night. I’m no doctor, but I’ll bet that means there are lots of airborne germs crammed into that little space. If they’re not well-ventilated, then  you’re breathing old, nasty air and not fresh oxygen. If the room is carpeted, you’re also breathing in all the dust and mold that collects in the carpet.
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Five Things You’ll Regret Not Doing in College (Part I)

Dec 3

Posted by Bryan W in Free Time, Frustrations, Health and Wellness, Practice | 1 Comment

I’m going to make a prediction: when you finish music school, you’ll start thinking of a whole list of things you wished you had done while you were there. If you need some proof, think about your last few weeks of high school. Didn’t at least part of you wish that you had tried out for a play, asked that cute boy out, spent more time with your friends, or practiced a little harder for your auditions?

Since you might not know what’s going to be on your college list until it’s too late, I’m starting this series to give you some ideas. Every week or so, you’ll find another five things you should try to do while you still can.

If you’re not in school anymore, please email me and tell me about YOUR regrets. If you ARE in school, please read on…

1. Start a band that has NOTHING to do with the “legit” music you play.

If you’re into classical, cut loose and join a rock band. If you play jazz, start a classical quartet and see how the other half lives. Just try something that you wouldn’t normally do. It doesn’t matter if you “can’t improvise”, or if you’re not a classical music expert. Do your best and adapt, because that’s how you learn and grow. Take advantage of the talented musicians around you. Start a group, laugh at how awkward it is, and learn from it!

2. Sleep in once a month.


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Celebrate the Small Milestones

Nov 17

Posted by Bryan W in Health and Wellness, Practice | No Comments

I was looking at my blog stats, and noticed a couple of cool things. I just had my 50th visitor to the site, this is my tenth post, and I’m going to announce it with my 100th tweet (that’s Twitter-speak for an update, if anyone’s been under a rock for the last year).

Are these small numbers even worth celebrating? Of course they are! I know that there are blogs who get that many visitors every 60 seconds, and I know ten posts isn’t much. But guess what, it’s ten more posts than I had two weeks ago, and it’s 50 people who had never seen my blog before.

But why am I sharing this here? Because it’s a great reminder of how everyone should treat their practice time. Don’t wait for your next great performance to give yourself a pat on the back. Instead, celebrate the little things. Whether you just memorized another eight bars, or sped up the metronome by a few clicks, you should be proud of your accomplishment, because it’s something you couldn’t do yesterday.

This is one of the best tips I can offer to help yourself stay motivated and avoid burnout. What’s your latest practice-room accomplishment? Let me know in the comments.

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Gear Crazed – Are You Caught in the Quest for the Perfect Sound?

Nov 12

Posted by Bryan W in Practice | No Comments

With several conferences taking place in the next few weeks–including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, which is going on right now, I thought I’d share a piece of my thoughts that have to do with every musician’s favorite part of the show: the equipment expo.

I’ve noticed a cycle that almost every musician I know has gotten stuck in. It has to do with gear. To illustrate my point, I’ll share a little story here, but if you’re short on time, you can skip ahead to the summary, or even head straight to the point.

The cycle goes something like this: Joe the drummer (is not just drummers who have this problem, but that’s what we’ll call him for the sake of this story) isn’t quite happy with the sounds he gets from his drums. He’s tried making some adjustments to his set up and tried some different brands of sticks. Nothing seems to help. Then Joe attends a concert. He enjoys the performance, and as he listens, he begins to fall in love with the sound of the drums on stage. The tone is so defined, with just the right amount of this, and not too much of that. By the end of the concert, he’s obsessed with this sound, and just knows that he’s finally discovered the sound he’s been after his whole life. *If you know where this story is going and you’re in a hurry, you can skip to the point.

After the show (or clinic), he tells anyone who will listen about how great the sound was, and he and his drummer friends speculate about what kind of drums the drummer had, how the equipment must have been tweaked, and what Joe can do with his gear to achieve the same sound. Joe spends a couple of hours in the practice room adjusting the setup and tuning of his drums, trying to replicate the sound he heard. That gets him closer to the dream sound, but he’s still not there. He checks online to see if the drummer from the show has any tips. Read the rest of this entry »

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