Practice

bradley23

Junior Member
Hey guys,

School has now started and i am having some problems regarding my practice schedule.
Ive been very active in school activities and most days i get home at around 7pm and have to do homework and balance out my social life after that. So i am getting very worried as i am not getting much practice as i was before. if im lucky i only get 20 minutes a day or nothing.
Lastly, i also want to get into a music university which requires me to practice a lot in order to pass the auditions.

Can anyone give me some advice on how i can practice efficiently with this 20 minutes or so and how do i go about my practice schedule during the weekend?

Thanks
 
Sounds like something needs to go. What kind of activities after school are you in? Maybe music isn't your true interest?

My son is 14 and also looking into going to college for music. Practice comes first before everything including homework in my house. The first thing I ask when I get home is did you practice and what? Marimba, snare, set? Did you practice timpani today at school? We don't usually have to tell him to practice. We sometimes have to tell him to stop.
 
im doing football at school. music is really at my interest and im feeling very worried for not getting the correct amount of practice everyday
 
I agree, if you want plan to go to college playing music then you need to focus on that. Try to find some time throughout your day to practice and not try and fit it in all at once. Maybe 30 mins before school, cut your lunch short and get 15-20 mins in there, before football practice, and then right after you get home for maybe 15-30 more mins. Right there you're pushing 2 hours which is by far better than maybe 20mins a day. Plus you still have time for the ladies and your homework. :)
 
Another voice of agreement--you need to cut something else out. Set your priorities. If you're going to music school, ditch the football. Why not join the band at school instead? That way you still go to the football games, but you will be practicing drums while you're in school, plus there is a lot of socializing that goes on within school bands, so you're killing three birds with one stone.

The last couple years of high school I had 4 music classes--jazz band, marching band/concert band, orchestra, and I also took bass in beginning then intermediate orchestra, since I always wanted to learn bass, too. Your school may not have as many music opportunities, but it should have some.
 
I know what you mean about preparing for music auditions-- I'm entering college as a freshman this year, and was preparing mostly throughout my senior year of high school. I was in the marching band and I ran cross country, so I too had a busy schedule, but you just have to find some time during the day, even if it means cutting something out. I was lucky because at my high school we could set up our schedules basically as we wanted, so I had two hour-long study periods during the school day. At 10:00 I would practice for an hour, and at 12:00 I would eat lunch/do homework. If I didn't have too much homework I would practice more during that hour too.

Of course I was also lucky because my school had enough equipment for me to practice on during my free time, so your situation may be different. And if you take tough classes then you might have more homework than I did. Unfortunately, if you're going to make practicing a priority even during the school year, something may need to go...although in my opinion, your schoolwork should be your first priority.
 
I...although in my opinion, your schoolwork should be your first priority.

I hate to disagree but this advice is poor. If you're looking into music schools and you have a decent academic standing then you should be putting practice as your number one priority. I know in my son's case the schools he's looking into really don't care about academics they only care how well you play. He is a high honor roll student though. Find out what the schools you want to go to look for in the academic requirements.
 
I hate to disagree but this advice is poor. If you're looking into music schools and you have a decent academic standing then you should be putting practice as your number one priority. I know in my son's case the schools he's looking into really don't care about academics they only care how well you play. He is a high honor roll student though. Find out what the schools you want to go to look for in the academic requirements.
Heck, I blew off a lot of classes in high school and had a very spotty academic record--I didn't care about that stuff at the time, although I tried to bring my grades up in my last couple years . . . on the other hand, I had 4 band classes my last couple years! lol. I just wanted to play music. I still got into good music schools . . . although it might not be that easy with a spotty academic record now (this was the early 80s instead). I think the competition is more intense now.
 
Heck, I blew off a lot of classes in high school and had a very spotty academic record--I didn't care about that stuff at the time, although I tried to bring my grades up in my last couple years . . . on the other hand, I had 4 band classes my last couple years! lol. I just wanted to play music. I still got into good music schools . . . although it might not be that easy with a spotty academic record now (this was the early 80s instead). I think the competition is more intense now.

Hmmm, we have more in common than I thought- I was also single minded about the drums, and pretty slovenly about showing up and doing my work in HS. They had to give me special extra credit for drum corps just to get me the hell out of there on time. My SATs were good, though, and they still let me into the perc department at U of O (I think I had to take a test to prove that I wasn't a complete motorhead), and I was also able to get a jazz studies scholarship at USC a couple of years later.

For the OP: I guess if being a musician is actually important to you, you'll find a way to get your time in. It sounds like you're making music your last priority right now, which is fine, but you should adjust your aspirations accordingly.
 
In high school I took band classes and rarely paid attention in my other classes - I was usually too busy staring out the window tapping out some rhythm to whatever song happened to be going through my head at the time (and there was always music going through my head). But I had trouble playing on a kit as much as I wanted.

My problem was that my parents wouldn't let me play drums when they were home, so my solution was to play when they were at work. I could get in several hours of uninterrupted practice everyday that way, but it did lead to me becoming a high school dropout. I eventually remedied that by going to college and earning a degree in engineering, but I was 35 by the time I graduated, and I never stopped playing the whole 7.5 years it took to earn that 4 year degree.

It seems to me that you need to strike while the iron is hot. By that I mean that when you're young and have the fire to play, you really need to just play. I don't claim to be hugely knowledgeable about human development, but just as small children acquire new languages much easier than adults, younger musicians acquire skills much more readily than those who get serious about playing in later years (of course there are exceptions; I'm speaking in general terms).

You can't afford to put off practicing. Ditch the football. Practice if that's what you really want, or risk spreading yourself so thin that you never reach your drumming potential.
 
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Thanks for the great advice guys,
i forgot to state that i am undergoing the IB course which is compulsory for me to take sports during high school, i also plan on taking a double degree which is music and commerce. my school also has a swing band which is starting next year, so ill probably join that as well.

and since its friday.. i shall go practice now!
 
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