As the new school year gets firmly into full swing, practice rooms throughout the land are once again filled with young (and not so young) musicians diving into the sometimes overwhelming process of practicing their instruments with the aim of achieving a professional career. For many, it’s an intimidating task as the 4–6 year clock of their degrees starts to tick. For some, ignorance is bliss and the wonders of new college experiences and new people to share those experiences with is enough to keep them from dealing with any concerns about the future. For others, they just don’t know where to start.
As a college flute professor who started in academia relatively late, following a 15 year full-time playing career, so much of my energy is focused on trying to educate my students in HOW to practice. Like all teachers, there is no doubt in my mind that quality of practice will always triumph over quantity, but to coach students in the art of effective practice is crucial in assisting them in the most important daily task they face: making progress.
A thorough discussion of excellent practice techniques would be an article so long that it could not be published, but there are 3 facets I would like to discuss:
Setting achievable goals – short term and long term
The practicing musician needs goals. Walking into a practice session blindly hoping for the best is much less likely to produce excellent results than starting your practice session with a clear objective of what we are trying to achieve. I like my students to work on both short-term and long-term goals. The short-term ones can be conquered pretty quickly with focus and determination. These short-term ones combine together to produce long-term results. For example, the development and maturity of a student’s tone can improve drastically with awareness of one smaller aspect. Simply telling them they need to work on their sound production seems like an insurmountable task that ultimately could be fruitless, never ending and disheartening. Instead, making them aware of one aspect and aiming for progress in that area can lead to greater results. For example, the awareness and focus of beautiful note endings or more care being given to the practice of intervals or some development of contrasting colors….it’s an almost endless list. But, as corny as it sounds, small steps lead to giant leaps and most importantly provide students (and all of us!) with comprehensible and achievable tasks leading to increased motivation and manageable progress—of course, with a little uplifting celebration at the end once the task is complete. I request all my students, both undergraduate and graduate students, keep a practice diary. Not just so I can keep watch over their pathway to development, but perhaps more importantly, to help them think about their goals and to practice effectively.
Concept of Sound
It is imperative that music students can recognize and most importantly get excited about excellent playing. This recognition and excitement lead to them forming strong concepts of who they want to be as a musician, how they want to sound, and crucially, how they want to be perceived by their listener. Exploration is such a huge part of good practice. Students need to be searching for their “voice.” Having a strong concept of sound makes this possible.
I am aware that, more than ever, the opportunity to listen to players from across the globe is so easily accessible online. It’s important to guide students in this area, to assist them in making sensible choices not only in who they take inspiration from but also to be aware that their concept of sound may be different to mine. It is not my job to produce 15 replicas of me. Instead, it is my job to assist each individual student in becoming the absolute best version of themselves, and ultimately, to assist them in being an employable flutist and musician.
I spend significant time each week listening to music with my students both individually and as a whole studio. I strive to show them how deeply I care about my own practice and make an effort not to hide my excitement from them when I hear incredible music making. For me, sharing that and encouraging their personal and individual concept of sound is the greatest responsibility I have.
When They Practice
Following many years of performing full time and touring with limited practice time available on the road, I am very aware of the importance of practice being done at the correct time of day. So much of what we do as flute players and musicians is based on the idea of successful muscle memory (physically, aurally and mentally). From my own experiences, successes and failures, I am confident in saying that if good, effective practice is being done, after an hour the brain starts to tire. So many students inhibit their progress by trying to make their practice sessions too long. I also find that practicing is largely inhibited by practice sessions being either too close together or too far apart.
Let’s imagine there is a college flute player who aims to do 3 hours of private practice each day and chooses a long session from 9am to 12pm every day. We know already that this enormous and exhaustive session is probably not as productive as we would hope due to its length. More concerning to me is that, although that student is achieving 3 hours of practice each day, it is 21 hours between each practice session. That is 21 hours for the brain to relinquish what it has just learned and 21 hours for the important muscle memory to decay. Instead, if that student were to practice 3 separate hours spread evenly throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening), the time between practice sessions massively reduces, leading to an increased retention of information and far greater muscle memory. This enables better results which also can be achieved faster and ultimately produce a more successful rate of progress in their playing. It is a simple solution to a common problem. Of course, this requires organization and discipline from the student, two skills which need to be developed at the start of their college career and will be carried with them for their entire working life.
Practice is an exciting process if results can be achieved and reflected upon. It is imperative that college students acknowledge this and work towards effective practice. Like all teachers across the globe, there is nothing I want more for my students than for them to make their dreams a reality. Effective practice is absolutely their key to success.
Recipient of the 2016 Sir James Galway Rising Star Award, 1st Prize winner of the 2018 IMKA Music Competition and 1st Prize winner of the 2018 Alexander & Buono International Flute Competition, Stephen Clark has given over a thousand performances across all 7 continents and made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2018. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Northern College of Music and in Switzerland with Sir James Galway. Stephen is the Flute Professor at Northwestern State University in Louisiana.
Regularly invited to perform at flute festivals across the globe, he has given solo recitals at the Conventions of the British Flute Society, the National Flute Association of America, the Sir James Galway Flute Festival in Switzerland as well as the Florida Flute Convention, Wisconsin Flute Festival, Mid-South Flute Festival, St. Louis Flute Society and Mid-Atlantic Flute Conventions in the USA. He has been the Guest Artist at countless flute festivals, flute days and events in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Solo engagements have taken him to over 120 countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Finland, Canada, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Croatia, Thailand, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Egypt, China, Libya, Malta, Poland, Lithuania, Japan, Australia, Belgium, France, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Jordan, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Seychelles, Maldives, Malaysia, Brazil, Norway, Iceland, Korea, Peru, Vietnam, Greece, Slovenia and the U.S.A. He has performed as solo flute player alongside several popular music artists including Annie Lennox, Andrea Bocelli and pop band McFly. As an orchestral player, Stephen has held principal flute positions and performed as Guest principal flute with major symphony orchestras of the United Kingdom, United States, Portugal, Ireland and Vietnam. He has worked with many significant conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Neeme Järvi, Sir Simon Rattle, Jorma Panula and Sir Mark Elder.
In addition to his performing schedule, Stephen is invited frequently to give masterclasses around the world. In the Past 12 months Stephen has given masterclasses at the Universities of Washington State, Idaho, Montana, Alabama, Western Missouri, South Illinois Edwardsville, Wisconsin-Whitewater, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Northern Colorado, Weatherford College Texas, West Virginia, Arkansas and the Cadek Conservatory. Stephen has been Sir James Galway’s teaching assistant since 2017
Stephen has recorded for Classic FM, Amadeus, Linn Records and for the Naxos label and broadcast live on Northern Ireland’s 7FM and BBC Radio 3. He has released 2 solo albums on the Voyage Record Label. In 2015, Stephen was accepted into the Recording Academy of America and is now a voting member in the Grammys. Stephen has appeared on screen as the flute player in both the BBC’s period drama series “Desperate Romantics” and ITV’s feature film “Miss Marple – The Secret of Chimneys”. He is author of “The Flute Gym” – a manual for advanced flute players.
In 2023, Stephen was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Alabama. He is a Yamaha Artist and plays exclusively on a 14k gold handmade Yamaha flute.