A Doge With A Bloge

4 months ago (58 notes)

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oregonthegreat:

Shot at Bagby Hotsprings, Mt. Hood. 11/11/16.

(Credit: Keith Seibel)

(via natureoregon)

4 months ago (1,592,517 notes)

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areslinkysart:

supersexyawesomeness:
I could use that.

(Source: yars, via rococo-bro)

7 months ago (757 notes)

Anonymous asked: I’m so bad at practicing, like, in general. Tips?

classical-crap:

how to practice: a short guide
what you’ll need:
-your instrument
-a pencil, because you better mark things in your music
-a metronome. always work SLOWLY with the metronome. subdivide and make sure that you’re playing with it and not getting off the beat.
-a tuner, unless you play piano you lucky duck
-a scale book, etude book, and some repertoire
-nice to have: something to record yourself. whether you’re working on posture or listening to your tone quality. a mirror is especially good for checking posture.
1. do your fucking scales. I don’t care what instrument you play, how often you think you do your scales, how well you think you do your scales. there is always more. you don’t already play scales? add ten minutes of one octaves scales into your routine. sort of already do scales? do two octaves. three. this includes g flat major. do scales in thirds. do scales in tenths. harmonics, if that applies to you. you already do scales a lot? try left hand pizzicato. start the scale quietly and crescendo. make your scales musical.focus on tone quality or speed. there is always, always room for improvement.
2. do your etudes. maybe start with an easy one to warm your fingers up, and then do the one you hate. actually practice it. mark in the accidentals. write in fingerings. work with a metronome.
3. do your ensemble music. work specifically on the difficult parts. time is limited, so it’s best to skip the really easy melodic part you can play in your sleep and go straight for the sixteenth notes.
4. work on your repertoire. again, do the difficult parts first, and if it’s a solo, you want to be confident with all of it, so practice thoroughly (which means painfully slow but beneficial metronome practice and writing a lot in your music)
5. look at some fun music/improvise. playing an instrument is difficult but it should still be something you enjoy and have fun with.

general practice tips:
-use your frifkvrn metronome please
-always, ALWAYS mark things in your music. if you make a mistake on a passage more than three times, write something. if you consistently make mistakes or feel uncomfortable playing one of the measures, circle it, and every time you play that piece, look at that measure first and really spend time on it.
-listen to the pieces you’re playing before you start practicing them so you have an idea of what they’re supposed to sound like. in your free time, listen to the pieces you’re working on and internalize it so you can easily tell if you’re playing something out of rhythm or out of tune
-record yourself. you might think you’re playing very well, but the recording usually begs to differ. likewise, you might actually be playing great, but once you listen to yourself from an outside perspective, you might want to change some of your phrasing or the dynamics
-don’t always start practicing at the beginning of your pieces. sometimes it’s good to start from the end and work backwards, or specifically target the passages that are difficult if you don’t have a lot of time
-take breaks, and be very aware of if you’re playing with too much tension or feel pain after practicing. do NOT power through pain.
-try to aim for around an hour a day. I think it’s a good goal for most instruments. I also think that an hour of consistent, focused practice would be enough for high school-aged musicians or anyone who wants to be a competent player in an ensemble
-make practice a habit. it’s like exercise. you might not look it at first, but eventually it becomes kind of addicting and you’ll actually find yourself wanting to do it.
-don’t just play through your music. getting your instrument out of its case and running through your solo is not practice. playing the one tricky spot slowly with a metronome and gradually increasing the speed until you get it right is practice.