Practice your practising!

As brass players, we are mostly all taught that 'practice makes perfect' and throughout our playing career at every level we are all well drilled in the idea that the more practice we do the better we will get.

Yet we all know players that claim to practice 3 hours a day over 30 years and never seem to improve, and there are players that seem to hardly ever practice but can pick up any piece of music and play it as if they've played it all their life.

So if some people practice more than others and don't improve then why is this, do the good players have some amazing untapped resource of playing ability that they can turn on like a tap. We are all human beings after all and we all have the ability to play as well as our musical idols. What puts the top players ahead of others is how they practice, rather than how long they practice for.

Here is a question for you to consider, the last time you practised did you have a goal for what you wanted to achieve from that practice other than 'I want to play that piece/solo/tricky passage better'?
Also when practising do you have a set routine or just pick out your favourite pieces and blast them out for 30 minutes before you get tired and put your instrument away again? These are just 2 common examples of poor practice planning.

To achieve the maximum benefit of a practice session, however long it is, you should plan before hand and decide what areas of your playing you need to concentrate on. If your high register feels a bit weak then spending a couple of practice sessions concentrating on that area will improve that particular facet of your playing, and then you will find another area that needs working on etc.
As a maximum I would recommend just picking 1 or 2 areas of your playing to work on per practice session, and you could even plan several sessions in advance, for example Monday is tonguing, Tuesday is breathing, Wednesday is lip flexibility etc.

You can also break down your practice session into sections, so you know exactly how long to be spending on each type of study or piece to work on. If you have a hectic schedule and your practise sessions vary then the beauty of this concept means that you can still cover every area with even just a short amount of practice time available. For example if you plan a practice session of and break it down as follows:

Basic Warmup – Long low notes and basic lip flexibility = 10%
Advanced Warmup – More advanced lip flexibility and single/double/triple tonguing studies = 10%
Focus – Whichever area you decide to focus on improving this practice session = 40%
Content – Any particular pieces or solos you are working on for a contest or concert. = 20%
Performance/Fun – Either run through your piece without stopping to correct mistakes or just play a new piece or something you've wanted to try - 10% (maximum!)
Warmdown – Long low notes again – 10%

This format could then be applied however long your practice session is so that whether have 30 minutes or 3 hours then you can make sure you cover everything you need to.