The fate of a person who could only believe in long hours of instrument practice

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• createbloggerRyū

Is long hours of instrument practice bad?

http://o-dan.net/ja/

I practiced in the brass band club in high school, aiming to compete at the national tournament.

I only made it as far as winning gold at the Hokuriku tournament and didn’t make it to the national competition, but there are many things I learned through club activities that are useful to me now.

I’m still playing my instrument now, but if I hadn’t joined the club at my alma mater, I don’t think I would have kept it up.

However, there is one thing I am wondering about.

It is long hours of practice.

We’ve come up with ideas to improve long practice sessions.

It may be time to take another look at how we practice.

What’s not good about practicing for long periods of time?

I would like to reflect on this along with my own experiences.

I lose focus and start to idle around

Brass bands that achieve good results in competitions often have long practice hours.

The brass band club I was in had days off on the Sunday right before exams, as well as during Obon and the New Year holidays, but there are groups that practice without any breaks.

I think the concert band I was in still had relatively more days off, but even so, it feels like a lot.

There was no break time during practice.

On weekends, we had a break at lunchtime that included a 1.5-hour lunch, but that was about it.

Sometimes I even had five-hour individual practice sessions.

Humans can stay focused for at most about 20 to 30 minutes.

Even if you practice for five hours without a break, there's no way you can stay focused, and you end up spending most of the time practicing aimlessly.

We also do sectionals for each instrument, but since we end up carrying on in a sluggish mood, they’re not all that effective.

Even if they are students, it’s only natural to be tired after practicing for a long time.

Well, if I say I'm tired, they'll just say, “You're worn out from something like this?!”

Also, in the club I belonged to, there was an additional 1 to 2 hours of voluntary practice after the regular club hours.

It means, “If you want to practice a bit more, you’re welcome to keep practicing.”

It's supposed to be voluntary practice, but almost everyone stays to practice.semi-compulsoryIt is.

Self-practice is practically a second club activity period,It’s only natural to keep practicing.It was.

When I was practicing almost every day, there were times when I just lost my motivation—or couldn’t focus on the practice.

I figured there was no point in practicing in that state, so sometimes I went straight home without doing any extra practice to take a break and reset my mindset.

However, because there’s an unspoken expectation that you’ll do extra practice on your own, if you leave without practicing, some people will look at you as if you’re a criminal.

If you're tired, I honestly think you should rest, and I don't see the point of dragging on with practice when your concentration is gone.

I even think we didn’t need the self-practice time after all.

When your body and mind are tired, the effectiveness of practice diminishes.

I think it’s also important to take breaks in moderation.

The quality of practice declines.

http://o-dan.net/ja/

There are schools that make it to the national level of the wind ensemble competition but still have limited practice time.

By practicing efficiently, the practice...Quality over quantityWe are able to surpass it.

If it's an academically oriented school, the school's policy prevents them from practicing, but there are schools that, regardless of policy, have reduced practice time and still produced results.

Kashiba Higashi Junior High School in Nara Prefecture reduced the amount of practice in order to improve focus during training.

If you start slacking off even a little, practice ends immediately.

Because of that, we gradually became more cohesive and eventually won the gold prize at the national competition.

Even among clubs said to be powerhouses outside of wind ensembles, many have short practice hours.

I’ve heard that a certain volleyball team, which has won the national championship multiple times, practices for only two hours a day.

The instructor said, “That’s about how long you can keep your concentration from breaking.”

They say that doing any more than that will have diminishing effects.

What’s important in practice isQuality over quantityIt is.

Excessive amounts of practice can lead to a decline in the quality of practice.

"Resting" is also part of practice.

In this book, there was a consultation like this that was introduced.

I’ve fallen into the biggest slump of my life. The slump has been going on for about four months now.

It's hard for me to play the tuning B-flat. F comes out easily, but above that I can feel my body tensing up.

When I try to relax, I tense up again. I end up clenching my throat, body, and hands, and I also get headaches and stiff shoulders.

The answer to this is

The cause of the poor condition is probably fatigue and pressure.

I recommend taking 3 to 4 days off from club activities.

Effort isn’t about suffering; it’s about improvement.It is.

Resting now will lead to improvement.

In other words“Resting” is “improving.”It is.

That was what it was.

When you practice every day without taking a break, these kinds of drawbacks can also arise.

That's why taking a break is important too, but the more active the club is, the more it tends to...You must not rest.There is such a way of thinking.

The person seeking advice also "Because there are quite a lot of club members, we can’t afford to cause trouble for each individual student.It seemed that they were thinking, “”.

It's not good to slack off, but if you're feeling unwell from fatigue and pressure, you should definitely take a break.

It’s not a bother just because one club member takes a few days off.

It’s not like the club won’t function just because you take a day off.

In this case, wouldn’t it actually cause more trouble if you didn’t take time off?

Not taking a break isn't inherently the right thing to do.

If you don’t incorporate proper rest, your growth will eventually stall and fall apart.

Summary

I wrote a blog like this before.

Why I’ve gotten better at my instrument since cutting back on practice

I think stopping self-denial helped me improve, but I also feel that practicing less was beneficial.

I think long hours of practice are like a kind of “faith.”

Shouldn't we take a moment to consider whether that's really correct?

Thank you for reading.