The Christmas decorations have been put away for another year, and 2013 is taking its first tentative baby steps, making now the perfect time to discuss new year's resolutions.
I was interested this year to find out if any of my friends and colleagues had any musical resolutions. There were some great ones - resolutions to clean instruments regularly, resolutions to stop buying so many concert clothes (made while the dear bassoon playing friend's finger hovered over the Add To Basket button on a certain fashion website, I might add), and resolutions to attend more concerts and recitals.
However, the most frequent among my peers was the resolution, not to practise more, but to practise better.
I know it probably sounds a bit silly - I mean, really, how difficult can it be? Lock yourself away, switch your phone off, concentrate, bow to string/mouthpiece to face/reed in mouth, right? To a certain extent, it really is as easy as that, but learning how to practise is one of the most difficult skills to acquire.
Good practice is as much a question of good organisation, and setting realistic goals for yourself, as it is about spending every minute of your spare time in a practice room. It involves maintaining and developing your technical capabilities, and being prepared for what repertoire is needed for each week, while also keeping an eye on any potential nasties coming up in the next month or so.
It's about having things simmering away on the back burner while you are focusing on more pressing repertoire. While you are concentrating in on the most imminent pieces of rep, you can always be listening to works coming up, even if you aren't physically learning them just yet. Being familiar with a work before you've put bow to string is always an advantage.
Everyone is different, and everyone has their own way of approaching their work, but in my opinion, approaching things in this manner means that you will always be prepared. Most importantly, it means that you can enjoy the music you perform more.
For a worrier like myself, the alternative would be flailing around like a musical octopus, trying to juggle a billion notes in dozens of works at once, and feeling like I'm slowly drowning in an ocean of semiquavers. Good practice is as much about understanding your own little psychological quirks, knowing what helps you to feel on top of things, as it is about the physical act of practising.
Practising well, with focus and intent, helps you to be more productive, but, as an hour's focused practice is as beneficial as two hours of just bashing through something really loudly, it also leaves more time for fun stuff. Like shoe shopping.
2013 now stretches ahead of us, with some amazing concerts in the very near future. I am excited about new projects, and discovering new works and artists, and I really hope that you will resolve to join us at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in this new year.
