Practice, Practice, Practice!

There's a new Clinic column over on the website -- Terry Guynes, band director at Lundahl Middle School, passed along an article he had written on practice tips. While it specifically addresses tips for instrumentalists (he is a BAND director, after all), there's no reason that most of those tips couldn't be applied to dancers, actors, singers -- even athletes! Practice with a friend. Pick a goal -- being able to do something specific better than you could before. Learn timing, breathing, intonation. Practice with a pro -- maybe on a video, or on a CD. Lots of good suggestions! Check it out!

Greg had Mr. Guynes as a band teacher in 7th and 8th grade, both for regular band and jazz. Terry is fun to watch as he conducts -- he practically dances on stage, and his enthusiasm for teaching is obvious. When Greg was in 5th grade, playing clarinet (at the time, you couldn't start on sax, you had to start on clarinet and switch before middle school) and hating it, but loving music, I had quite a dilemma -- he didn't practice, didn't want to play clarinet, but he really wanted me to spend more money to rent a saxophone so he could switch. Given what I saw, though, would it be worth it? Or should I just tell him that, too bad, you didn't show me that you were committed to doing this, so no sax?

I ran into Terry while he was at the elementary school testing the incoming 5th graders for instrument selection. I told him what was going on, and his reply really made an impact on me -- he said that he'd rather have a kid in band who loved music and didn't practice, than a kid whose parents forced him to practice and stay in band even though the kid had no interest. Knowing Greg fell in the first category, he got his sax, stayed in band -- and his love of music grew from there. Once in a while, I think about what would have happened had I insisted he drop band -- he hadn't really started playing guitar at that point -- would he have? Would music be so vitally important to him now? I don't know. (Would he be going into a more stable and lucrative profession right now? I don't know that either.) I think I made the right choice.

Several years later, talking with a friend whose high school son wanted to drop band, I told her about this short conversation with Terry. Her son had some ability, but really hated being in band. She was insisting that he stay and develop his talent, a move that I really felt was a mistake. Every parent makes their own decisions, I realize, but it was hard for me to see that student forced to continue doing something he didn't enjoy (when it comes to math or science or English classes, obviously it's a different situation).

So, Terry, thank you -- for today's column and for that short piece of advice that had a big impact on Greg's music career!