"I have concerts almost every week! I will be performing 7 concerts for 6 different groups in February! How long I practice is such a good question! I say this because it has taken me many years to learn how practicing is supposed to work. I practice my fundamentals or basics of trombone for maybe 4 hours a week right now - and I can mix that into preparing for concert music. I end up practicing differently for different groups. For the Paper Clips trombone quartet, I have performed the same music with the same people for about 6 months now, so I don't need to practice that anymore, its performance ready and my muscle memory from doing that music so much sticks around. The same can be said for my jazz band the ACME Jazz Company. I've been playing the same music with them since 2008. For other groups - Sometimes I have to rely on my fundamental practice to prepare me for a concert. The one I did last night I had to show up and read the music given to me the night of and wasn't given a sneak peek of what I might be doing in advance! That is where being able to read music and having spent that fundamental practice time on my instrument helps me be able to perform in that situation! I might be asked to play an orchestra concert, and given 2 weeks to learn the music before the concert - this is where I have to practice that music specifically and I will probably spend about 2-3 hours per song of focused practice. Some of my practice I don't count in that is listening to recordings of the music from different orchestras and following along with my sheet music to understand how my instruments voice fits in with the ensemble, to understand the rests I have to count and get familiar with the way the music sounds so I am confident about my entrances and style. What is important with practice is consistency! For example, I would have better results if I practiced for 1 hour 3 days a week vs 5 hours 1 day a week. Cramming doesn't help as much as repetition and focus! Which reminds me, I have some practicing I need to do today!" -Brooklynne Audette
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