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You are here: Home / Jazz Lessons / Practice Habits / A Practical Practice Routine Lesson
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A Practical Practice Routine Lesson

A Practical Practice Routine Lesson

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 3 customer ratings
(3 customer reviews)

$9.99

SKU: 120 Category: Practice Habits Tags: jazz improvisation, learning an instrument, practice routine, video lesson
  • Description
  • Reviews (3)
  • Lesson Sample

Description

In this lesson I take you through my practice routine of the past 20 years. This lesson has to do with one of the most asked questions i receive by email……..How do I practice? What do I practice? I talk about the 5 elements of the routine and how I focus my practice time on specific goals and areas for each practice.  The areas I focus on are Tone, Technique, Tunes, Sight Reading and Ear Training.  I talk about how I divide my time and how important it is to focus on one specific thing. i hope you will get some great tips that will help you in your practice. Enjoy!  (Video)

3 reviews for A Practical Practice Routine Lesson

  1. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Mark – November 23, 2010

    I recently downloaded the ‘practical practice routine’ this gives great focus to the areas that you need to develop, it identifies issues of information overload and encourages you to highlight an area of improvisational technique that requires improvement. There are five key areas including tone, tunes technique, ear and eye training, this is a lesson that could be easily missed but should form a crucial part of a players toolkit, Steve also talks about the importance of ending your practice on a mental high. I love the way these lessons all integrate with each other, every lesson containing part of the big picture, this is probably the biggest reason I like to source all my learning from Neffmusic.

  2. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Mark Crowley – May 10, 2011

    For the longest time I felt overwhelmed with how much information one must consume when learning a musical instrument – let alone learning jazz theory. My practice sessions felt unorganized and I wasn’t sure what I should be concentrating on. In this lesson, Steve really puts things into perspective and gives you an organized and focused road map on how to practice the jazz saxophone effectively. He explains how to break up a practice session so that you hit all the important areas (technique, theory, repertoire, etc.). I found this lesson to be very helpful!

  3. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Vincent – April 30, 2015

    I must have these tips of Tone, Technigue, Tunes, Site Reading and Ear Training right near or on computer. There are so many times where I have no plan and practice has been bad becomes a waste of time. This lesson is essential to moving forward. Thank you.

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Lesson Sample

https://public.neffmusic.com/A%20Practical%20Practice%20Routine%20clip.mp4

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Your major diatonic patterns book is great. I”m studying the first twenty patterns (first twenty pages) each day with different articulation each day and slowly increasing the tempo each week or so.  There is a noticeable improvement in finger coordination across all keys and its amazing how much more secure I feel on the difficult keys when attempting to play pieces with 5+ flats/sharps. I’m able to sort out the fingerings for these pieces now much more quickly than before, often in one or two … Read more
Geoff
I can see from your instructional videos that you are a fantastic teacher – one that can truly relate to all ages – humble yet very positive in approach – never coming across as superior and yet so totally capable of demonstrating the principles and techniques that you seek to impart to the students. I have gained so much confidence in my playing from “pouring over” time and again these invaluable lessons. Invaluable not only in musical content, but also in human interaction content. I am absolu… Read more
Ron
I have been a member of Neffmusic for more than a year now and have enjoyed every minute of it! I have not only been going thru the Dominant Bebop Scale lessons and book (OUTSTANDING!) but the mouthpiece reviews, solo clips and transcriptions are very interesting. Steve approach to beginning and intermediate improv have given me many new pathways to teach my high school jazz ensemble students. Congratulations Steve, great product!
Craig
I bought Steve’s dominant bebop book and took a couple of online lesson from him. I really appreciated Steve’s careful listening of what I wanted to get done in a lesson and his clear, concise ideas on next steps to improve my playing and musical interpretation.  His mastering  the Dominant Bebop Scale has lots of exercises to use a scale that addresses the largest percentage of chords I come across in pop/blues music. The dominant V7.  Needless say it has improved my playing.  I teach and a… Read more
Keith
It is so refreshing to have a great player, who can provide lessons and examples in a manner which is understandable to most any enthusiastic saxophonist who is ready to improve. not just the, do this, do that, memorize this, memorize that… while all that is absolutely necessary, you go on to give reasons and examples to explain and validate why you have to do all of these things, the benefits, if you will… that is the key for me, you tell, explain, demonstrate, explain some more, you give perso… Read more
Cedric
Thank you so much for the great job you are doing to help further our jazz studies. Though I make my living as a repairer of musical instruments I am a student of jazz and have been fortunate enough to be involved with a big band and a combo for the last several years. As my children began to leave “the nest” I had decided to dedicate the next half of my life to a more serious study of the sax but I didn’t know exactly how I would go about doing this until a friend of mine turned me onto your si… Read more
Jon
Hi Steve, I can’t express just how much I appreciate your teaching. My playing has improved so much over the past year since I have been studying and practicing with your lessons. It is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, these lessons are proof! Thanks, Michael Byington
Michael Byington
First, I’m really excited about your materials! This site is a vast resource for any aspiring (and maybe already inspired) jazz musicians. I’m not a sax player, I play mandolin and fiddle, but have been learning jazz and playing weekly with a quintet for the past 6 months and have been struggling with all of the issues you get into in your lessons. I bought several books and lessons and plan to continue with some others as soon as I organize my practice routine. Thanks again for a great site … Read more
Tony Galfano

Steve, just a note to say thanks.

I’ve been playing a long time, but your material, laid out in such a thoughtful way, helps me to understand concepts in a new and deeper way.

You are a true gift to the jazz community.

60 lessons and going strong,

Kevin Ledbetter

Kevin Ledbetter
I want to let you know that your instructional material is transforming my playing.  It is an immense pleasure to learn and play now, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am. The instructional material I got from you is by far the best of any I own (and I have over 100 books, DVDs, and what not). I literally can’t thank you enough! Deric
Deric

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