Practicing in Quarantine, with Mockingbirds
I'm a person who needs to make structure in my daily life in order to focus and function. I've always done daily practicing, so I made the choice early in this time of voluntary isolation to continue to play.
This has been impossible for many of my friends, facing weeks or months without the ghost of a gig to offer motivation. I get it. It is a depressing time, for so many reasons. But if I took this route of not playing, I would become even more depressed. Connection with my instrument is pretty basic for me. Our craft chooses us; musicians heal themselves through music. The question for me is not whether to play, but how and to what purpose?
My spouse is practicing two instruments now as well and we try to not to do it all at the same time. Unusual for me, I decided to choose the morning slot. It's quiet and peaceful. After a good warmup, I am able to get into a focused zone of concentration on my work. This has been a godsend in terms of retaining a sense of purpose. My companions in this process have been, primarily, mockingbirds, gloriously returned to our neighborhood during the smogless quiet of quarantine. Another visitor is the rosy-headed house finch, who has a short, but very charming song. You can hear it on this little recording I made of John Mayer's "Vasanta" (Spring Raga) for solo clarinet. As a background singer, the finch makes the softly meditative and modal music into a dialogue for clarinet and bird. Mockingbird, on the other hand, is a soloist-- looking for a mate, not a duet partner.
Birds or none, practicing for no particular occasion benefits from a little strategy. Maintenance practice--the kind of practice you do when you can't afford to lose your chops but don't have an actual event coming up--- can take many forms. As a life habit, it is worth cultivating a musical game plan that works for you:
1. It can be as simple as a regular, organized warmup, or a review of pedagogic materials, useful etudes, favorite repertoire. Select a few materials and create a short list that you will do several days in a row, as if you were giving yourself a lesson or constructing a physical workout for your hands, ears, or embouchure.
You could work on your audition portfolio. You could focus on one particular skill that you think needs improvement, say articulation, or altissimo. Good materials can be adapted to multiple purposes, depending what you choose to "listen for." Two excellent French conservatory methods that I personally recommend are the Paul Jeanjean Vade-mecum and the Gaston Hamelin Scales and Exercises. Both set a pedagogic gold standard and offer direct results for players who are experienced with self-correction. Slogging away at something technically challenging (but achievable!) will begin to have an immediate payoff, and relieve some of that frustration you've been feeling with the world in general. If I had one tip to offer on "maintenance" it's the importance of making a plan instead of simply reading through random materials.
2. A second way to practice--ideal for this open-ended dry spell-- is to devise a home recording project. Practice specific music as if for a performance, record your practice every day, listen to it. When you are close to being perfect, then start recording many takes a day. Listen back to the tracks and evaluate what you've accomplished so you can select your best as keepsakes or for sharing.
This is what I decided to do in the second month of quarantine. I'm recording six clarinet-alone pieces that I wanted to either bring back to performance level, or learn for the first time after coaching talented students in them for years. More about this in a later post.
3. Many people missing the experience of playing with others have been inspired to create virtual ensembles on video, now flooding YouTube and Facebook. Some of them are superb, with the top of the list including Nicolas Baldeyrou's one-man Francaix Clarinet Concerto arrangement. If you always wanted to learn how to use a music editing program like Garage Band or Logic, this kind of project could keep you busy and engaged throughout the fall. You won't achieve results like the best of these videos without either a lot of work or abundant professional help (ideally plus chops like Nicolas, a rare commodity) but you can make a clarinet duet or quartet with yourself to entertain your facebook friends, or validate your existence, with time and patience. The main thing is to try. I urge you to start small, but do find a piece you really love and want to live with for a week or more.
Let me hear about your results!