When I have to practice I always manage to find things I simply must do before I start. Vacuuming is a typical thing. Cleaning the kitchen or bathroom, too. Then I tend to go through all of my reeds to pull out the dead ones and see if any misbehaving reeds have opted for a change of heart. Eventually I get to the practicing thing … well, sometimes anyway.
Thanks to Miss Mussel I just ran across this video. It’s rather long … not quite youtube video short & sometimes sweet length (it was done in 1979, after all, when attention spans were a wee bit longer):
Once I do finally get started, practicing is just fine. But it’s the beforehand time that’s a real pain.
When I practice saxophone (or even clarinet/flute) I find it a lot easier to stay on task. When I practice oboe it always turns into reed making…which turns into anything but productivity on my music. I am trying a new experiment where I am only allowed to work on reeds for more than 10 minutes every other day. I hope this forces me to do more “practicing” and less “fiddling.” Hehehe
Well, um, good luck with that, Joe! And let me know how it goes, will you? 🙂
I’m sure it is an exercise in futility but perhaps after a few days of forcing myself to practice and not obsess over reeds I will learn when to draw a line that prevents me from getting to caught up in one (or the other).
hahahaha i have totally had practice sessions like that when i’m preparing for something! except instead of banging the piano i play really ugly multiphonics and smash my reeds.
Heh … you know, Gabrielle, I’ve never once smashed a reed until it was cracked. I just keep holding out hope for them. I’m so silly that way.
Do you ever play pretty multiphonics? 😉