Consider this Wisdom when practicing:
1. “Lightning never strikes in the same place twice”… see if you can buck the trend in applying to your instrument: pitch accuracy, rhythmic accuracy, consistency overall.
2. “Easier to play solos at tempo, or faster, with poor ears on than it is to really put your good ears on and play under tempo”… ie practice at half speed (pulse = eighth notes), or if in 6/8 time, pulse = eighth notes at one-third-tempo.
3. Recording our practice always brings about both new ears as well as new awareness as we play. Recording with the metronome informs us of our adherence to the beat. (ie not ahead or behind…"oh this bar is where I tend to rush”)
4. Put your playing under a microscope! Be willing to take your music apart to its lowest elements - physical movements, sound production, particular scale passage, rhythm figure, etc… Videotape yourself playing, and review while imagining the most efficient robotic player.
5. However, once you improve a piece, don’t “undo” what you’ve already accomplished - a real time saver. Always maintain what you have accomplished.
6. Practicing vs. Maintenance vs. Playing
7. Isolate and Conquer! Seek out the problem spots in a given piece… use of a technique (ie. Chunking, Rhythmic Simplification, Melodic Simplification, Buzzing) to fix…
8. Where’s the loudest part of the piece? Softest? How do you want to end the piece? The more dynamic colors you have, the better!
9. Sound pictures - as nature scene, graphic images, or sine-waves… colors!
10. High quality intention in, even higher quality out!
11. Rhythm = Language; think about it the next time you hear a speech by someone with poor annunciation.
12. In Legato, "To DU or not To DU"… develop your "smoothness" skills!
13. Thoughts on Tuning: When using a tuner, or tuning to a fixed sound, always tune with your best sound!
Allow your pitch to adjust in the direction you intend with your lip setting - too often I hear players move their tuning slide, but fight to keep their tone where they had started, to the detriment of their tone!
Start a bit above pitch and bend your tone downward toward the "tone-shelf's" bottom. This will add richness to your sound. Next, be sure to use this new-found richness in your playing so that it becomes a natural part of your "sonic being”.
14. Picture an Iceberg - your tone is this large floating ice chunk, whereby the visible portion is supported by the massive weight underwater. Consider your sound as having an "undertone" that adds weight and richness to your above water tone.