<p>I haven't been able to focus and practice since I finished school (1st year undergrad). I wanted to take 3 days off practicing after my exams and it ended up being 3 weeks or so. I play maybe 2-3 hours a week (!!!!) but it's just some random playing. I'm not sure what to do since I've never had discipline problems before. 35-45 hours of practicing a week is normal for me during the year. I've some performances/auditions next month, but I'm just feeling too lazy. I basically just sit around all day and waste time (TV, facebook, running). What should I do? Has it happened to anyone? I doubt anyone at my school is chilling right now. I'm freaking out!</p>
<p>Youtube some 8 year old playing your instrument better than you do. That will give you some motivation.</p>
<p>^good advice. Also start listening to artists/bands/composers you like but haven’t listened to much before if at all. Fresh inspiration usually does the trick.</p>
<p>Sounds like you need/needed a break. There’s nothing wrong with taking a month off. But after that–time to get practicing again.</p>
<p>I had some time where I wasn’t shedding a whole lot, and it was difficult trying to break the cycle of laziness. It’s easy to tell myself I need a break, and once I get out of the daily rhythm of hours of practice, it’s hard to motivate myself to jump back in (“What’s one more light practice day in the long run?”). I kept waiting for something to suddenly possess me to practice, as if when I was done “taking a break” the instrument would just crawl back into my lap and tell me what to work on. I started to worry that I had lost interest entirely.</p>
<p>What finally helped get me back on the horse was forcing the issue for myself. I decided I was going to spend four hours a day with a horn in my hands, whether I had something to do or not. I bought a timer and wouldn’t get out of my chair until my time was done (for me it was in one-hour sessions). </p>
<p>It really didn’t take long for the malaise to work itself out when I just made sure I was in the practice room instead of off messing around. I like playing my instrument, and once I was back in the habit of practicing, finding new challenges to work on and new pieces to prepare happened pretty naturally. I’m sure starting cold-turkey like that wouldn’t work for everyone, but I found once I started that all the things I liked about playing many-hour days started to interest me again.</p>
<p>You do need a break at the end of a long, intense year of work, but now that almost a month has gone by it’s time to start up. There is some excellent advice below. One thing I can add to it is that you should consider setting up a “professional studio space” to differentiate in your mind (and your family’s) between your workspace and the rest of the house. Even if your house is small, you can do this: carve out a corner that is free from distractions like computer, tv. Make it a cellphone-free zone (I know that’s hard, but bring in a clock or watch if you rely on your phone for the time, and put your phone on silent.) Make sure others in your household respect your private space (and if you have to set up work hours to accommodate their schedules, do that.) Then, like tuba269, go into the space with your instrument for those hours. If you make that commitment, to go there and stay put except for 10 minute bathroom breaks, you’ll find yourself getting back into the swing of things.</p>
<p>27dreams has a good point. There is probably music you can’t get to during the year. Try finding something fun to explore. DD uses the summer to explore other genres and have some fun with practice. But don’t forget the auditions at the beginning of next year and get your pieces prepared for that, too. Envision where you want to be next year and practice to get there.</p>
<p>This is exactly the reason that college (and all school) should be year round. </p>
<p>Back in the old days, we didn’t have air conditioners are fans, so the summer climate was not hospitable to learning, and most families needed their entire family at home working on the far.</p>
<p>We don’t have those excuses any more.</p>
<p>From the posts I have read, every college student should have something planned for their summers. If it’s not a summer music program or a job, then why not school?</p>
<p>If a student went to summer school at a local tech college or jr college before his freshemen year, and then every sumer four 4 years, he could earn at least one associate degree in a totally different field (two of them if he planned right), or a couple of minors with his Bachelors, or even a double major. In fields other than music, he might could finish the Bachelors a year and a half early and earn a masters in 4 and a half years.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies. I will be going to summer festival in june. I will try setting up a space and having a schedule. Maybe I’ll just get back to school now since it’s on the way to festival.</p>
<p>"This is exactly the reason that college (and all school) should be year round. "</p>
<p>I disagree, respectfully. My conservatory-daughter has a full schedule this summer. She’s in Guatemala now on a music outreach trip partially sponsored by her college. (The students had to design the program, apply for a grant, which covered less than 1/3 of the funds, and raise the rest of the money.) She’ll be home for ten days, then she leaves for an 8-week orchestra fellowship on the other side of the country. Both of these opportunities will help her grow personally and professionally and afford a lot more independence than the rigid schedule she has during the school year. She’ll get to work with a different teacher, different coaches, and different conductors in the orch program, and to play with an entirely different orchestra. </p>
<p>My other current college student received only a 1-week scholarship for study away from home, but she is using the rest of her time to earn money and work on skills she doesn’t have time to focus on during the school year. (She is also using some of that time to catch up on lost sleep!)</p>
<p>On another note-- as regards air-conditioning: not all institutions have it. My kids have spent plenty of summer time sweltering at programs in places like OH and PA with no AC. (I’m not necessarily complaining-- AC is an environmental disaster, and I hold the perhaps-unpopular opinion that it’s good for kids to be uncomfortable sometimes…)</p>
<p>glass, I don’t think we are disagreeing, we are just looking at the same thing from different viewpoints.</p>
<p>Essentially your conservatory daughter is doing “school” all summer, even if it is not officially a part of her conservatory degree program. It’s still educational activity that will look good on her resume.</p>
<p>As far as staying home and earning money, that’s great! Someone could easily stay home, earn money, and take a class or two at a nearby college. Or they could be enrolled at their college year round, and also earn money year round, taking summer classes could allow a slightly lighter course load year round, and thus facilitate a perminate part time job year round.</p>
<p>Air conditioning, a hundred years ago it wasn’t an option. Places that don’t have AC don’t have it by choice. Like you, I don’t think that’s a bad idea, especially in northern climates. But it is an option these days, and most places do choose to have it.</p>
<p>By the way, my son graduated from high school last night, today he left for drumcorps and he will not be finished with drumcorps until the same day college starts. It’s sorta like year round school.</p>
<p>“All-year-round” would be a disaster for young singers, who can not and should not practice as much as their instrumental classmates. And don’t even start on the A/C topic with singers, who always seem to struggle to find the proper mix of too cold/too hot/proper humidity!
And then, there are those, like my D, who work several jobs during the summer in order to help pay for school.</p>
<p>Mezzo’sMama, so are you suggesting that young singers should take months off at a time? I don’t know anything about singing, or how climate effects singers, maybe all that is correct. I am just looking at college in general, not specifically music or singing.</p>
<p>With year round school, their need to sing for hours each day would actually be reduced. Also, instead of having to work several jobs during the summer, they could work just one job all year long because they could take fewer courses at a time. Instead of student’s having to take 15-20 credit hours a week, they could take 12-14 year round, and graduate in just 3 years if they chose to.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that they don’t need a break. College students get a month off for the winter holidays, a week long spring break, sometimes a fall break, and even with summer school they have time between the end of the winter semester and first summer term, then another week off for fourth of July week, and a week or more off after the second summer term. By my count, that’s 9+ weeks off a year. Most people who work full time jobs would kill to have 9 weeks of vacation.</p>
<p>This is getting pretty off-topic, but I do think most disciplines take pretty good advantage of having a long break in the summer for something other than taking classes at the home institution: summer programs, focusing on research (either at the student’s own school or somewhere else), internships, co-ops, etc. </p>
<p>Also, there’s really not very much similarity at all in the practice habits (or just study in general, really) of singers and instrumentalists. I think it’s pretty clear that the above questions about substantial practice time are geared only toward instrumental musicians.</p>