One-A-Days Daily Routine
I have been teaching and working at home for 7 months now and I feel like I have been relatively successful at managing my work/home balance. Most of my self-credited success has come from the application of structure onto my daily routine. I have a regular morning routine that occurs each day and you can read about that on my companion page here.
This page dives into more detail about the musical routine I have developed in the past month to help me combat my ever-fading skills - both as a percussionist and more generally as a musician. When I am working on repertoire for a recital, I feel the pressure of refining each detail and completely understanding my approach to a particular piece in the process. It is exhausting and my brain wasn’t having success in this process while commuting 12 stairs to my “office,” so I made a change. I needed momentum and finality in my practice, and this routine checks both of those boxes.
“It is impossible to really grow as a musician without playing a lot of music.”
- Nancy Zeltsman, Four-Mallet Marimba Playing, vii.
I have taken Nancy’s quote above to heart with this morning routine, which takes around 20-30 minutes. The routine warms me up for the day physically, but also mentally, and helps me improve my skills on the instruments I teach every day.
The Benefits:
I play a lot of music every day
My sight reading is improving
I have created systematic variety in my repertoire and skillset
I am maintaining many skills that haven’t had dedicated practice since undergrad
I feel inspired because I have momentum in my practice!
Materials
Any method/etude/solo books you want to play
Mallet instrument and mallets
Accessory instruments (tambo/tri/cyms)
Practice Pad/Snare drum and stand and sticks
Tuning fork
Two striking surfaces (I use two practice pads for Solomon Advanced Rhythm Studies)
Post-It notes, to mark my place in each book
Metronome
Randomizing app or 12-sided die - for an extra mallet challenge!!
Curriculum
I have developed my curriculum for my specific needs at the moment. I could see this being tailored specifically to the needs of each individual player (i.e. adding a section on intonation practice or frame drum). Feel free to use the structure I’ve created to help you, if you’d like.
+ Percussion-Specific Tasks
Snare Drum
- I will warm up everyday on snare drum and practice pad, but this is a chance to dive into solos and repertoire. I want to alternate between rudimental and concert books to keep a healthy balance. I started with the Wilcoxon All American Drummer before moving onto Delecluse's Methode de Caisse Claire. There are a lot of great books out there to explore, like Joe Tompkins' French-American Rudimental Solos or Robert Goute's *Le Tambour D'Ordonnance".
Accessories
- My tambourine playing has really suffered lately because I haven't been in a performing situation that requires tambourine excellence. I was assigning some of my students tambourine excerpts so tambourine became the first on my list. I am not exactly sure why I started with the Podemski snare drum book, but it has been helpful and very challenging. I am also understanding the Podemski book in a new way. Of course, Keith Aleo's Complementary Percussion Playing book is so fabulous, you can't go wrong with that one either. I would recommend cycling through tambourine, triangle, cymbals and bass drum, if you have them available to you.
Mallets
Reading
- I want to be playing and reading mallet music every day to stay sharp and refresh my technique. Most of the solo repertoire I play is four-mallet repertoire, so I am starting this One-A-Days by playing two-mallet repertoire. It has been years since I played an etude out of the Goldenberg book, and I'm not positive I played all of them, so I jumped all-in! Of course any mallet etude book is going to help you, or you can go diving on imslp.org and find some music written for winds or strings to play!
Transposition
- Technically this should be in the "General Music Skills" section below, but it primarily involves my mallet playing, so here it is! I use a 12-sided die and a key to determine the key in which I would play each Goldenberg excerpt. I liked having one key per day, regardless if my selection of etudes changed keys or not. If the Goldenbergs are hard enough for you as they are written, then no need for this "BONUS ROUND", but for those of you who need a little challenge, take this for a test-drive!
+ General Music Skills
Rhythm/Subdivision
- Yes, I encounter rhythm every day, but this is a chance for me to scrutize over the minutae of a quintuplet and try to exercise my brain to accept different counting patterns and feels of meter. Sam Solomon's Advanced Rhythm Studies is a perfect text for this drill. I play on two practice pads and march the beat with a metronome, as he prescribes, but I also like to use solkattu syllables to make sure that I am subdividing and following Sam's instruction: "No guessing."
Solfege
- I rarely use solfege in my daily life, but it is a wonderful skill that is unified dialect among musicians for expressing pitches. I trained at Lawrence University in "moveable do" and The Juilliard School teaches "fixed do", so I am now trying to fill in the gaps and speak both solfege dialects fluently. I will use the Dandelot book frequently, but also try to make my own drills with simply speaking the solfege syllables in scales, thirds, etc. to increase my familiarity with the patterns inherent in pre-20th-century music.
Sight-singing
- I rarely practiced sight-singing after my junior-year of undergrad, but I can think of no more useful skill as a teacher of music. So, this is definitely on the checklist everyday, even if I can't get to everything listed above, sight-singing is a skill I want to develop every day. I am starting by using the text that I used at Lawrence University, Melodia by Samuel Cole and Leo Lewis. It has so many melodies and is written to teach sight-singing in a progressive way.
Method
Choose books you would like to explore
Choose your topics/instruments of study
Systematically work through the book at a compassionate speed
(Take notes if you desire, to reflect on your process)
Of course, feel free to double-back and work on techniques or challenging parts
Turn the page!
For me, the most rewarding part is that I don’t get too caught up in the process of refining every detail, so every day or two I can turn the page and move on with my study.
Contact Mike
If you haven’t already, look above for a PDF download of the first 100-days. Of course, feel free to tailor this One-A-Days routine to benefit you the best.
If any questions or comments come up, feel free to contact me by clicking the button below.