12 Weeks
Level 2
3-Credit Tuition
$1,545Non-Credit Tuition
$1,290Practicing Techniques for Musicians will give you tools and routines that will maximize the efficiency of your practice sessions. The knowledge and skills you’ll adopt from this course will help make your practicing more productive and fruitful. We will work together to make your practicing more effective and enjoyable, based on tried and true methodologies from many reputable resources.
During the 12 weeks of study we will identify your musical goals and experiment with ways to practice your instrument that will allow you to achieve those goals in an efficient manner. You will develop a better understanding of intonation, rhythm, improvisation, phrasing, reading, and how to use targeted practice on difficult technical passages. In addition, we will emphasize healthy routines that avoid stress and injury and that will improve your facility on your instrument.
This course will build your confidence and prepare you for performances, auditions, and virtually any musical scenario.
By the end of this course, you will have a new relationship with your own strengths and be able to improve any areas for development. You will construct your own customized practice sessions, and learn how to use established tools to improve your ability to perform and communicate with your music.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Identify musical goals by keeping practice journals and recordings of practice sessions
- Organize your practice routines
- Determine efficient practice techniques to solve musical issues
- Apply body awareness to prevent practice injuries
- Integrate Effortless Mastery principles into daily practice
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Determining a Practice Routine, and Keeping it Enjoyable
- Creating Your Practice Journal
- What are the Elements of a Practice Routine?
- What is Your Practice Routine, and What are the Goals?
- Choosing your Project Piece
- Assignment 1: Journal, Reflection, and Practice
Lesson 2: Body Awareness, Breathing, Warming Up
- Musicians as Athletes
- Alexander Technique with Bob Lada
- Hand Warm-ups with Jennifer Roig-Francoli
- The Breathing Gym
- Checking Your Set-up for Best Positions
- Creating Your Own Routine
- Assignment 2: Warm-up Routine
Lesson 3: Effortless Mastery Concepts for Focus and Skill Building
- Ego-Based Pitfalls
- The Four Steps of Effortless Mastery: Introduction
- The Learning Diamond
- The Importance of Letting Go
- Assignment 3: The Space and Letting Go!
Lesson 4: Introduction to Using Apps to Up Your Game!
- Recording Apps: Voice memos, Zoom
- Rhythm Apps: Improving Your Time and Groove
- Tuning Apps
- Using Video to Assess Your Posture
- Assignment 4: Video Recording
Lesson 5: The Secret is in Slow
- Why and How to Practice Slowly
- Identify Materials to Improve Your Foundational Skills
- Rob Knopper’s ROAM Method
- Slowly Singing/Hearing the Music
- The WOOP Method, and Jennifer Roig-Francoli’s Five Pillars
- Assignment 5: Slow Practice Piece
Lesson 6: Rhythmic Practice
- The Importance of Subdivision
- Using Rhythmic Syllables to Count out Your Pieces
- Using Rhythm Apps and How to Use the Click Track
- Understanding Terms That Describe Tempos
- Playing at Any Tempo
- Learning to Read Rhythms Quickly
- Assignment 6: Rhythm Skills Assessment
Lesson 7: Intonation Practice
- Intonation and Temperaments
- Knowing Your Intonation Tendencies
- Learning to Hear Resultant or Difference Tones
- Pitch Matching
- Assignment 7: Working with Drones
Lesson 8: Targeted Practice
- Broken Rhythm Exercises for Note Accuracy
- Practicing Backwards
- Grace Kelly’s Magic of Fingering, Singing, Checking
- Broken Rhythm Exercise for Articulation Practice
- Interleaved Practice
- Assignment 8: Targeted Practice
Lesson 9: Mental Practice
- Playing on Other Surfaces
- Score Study
- Form and Analysis: Road Maps
- Assignment 9: Practicing Away from Your Instrument
Lesson 10: Phrasing: How to Communicate the Message of the Music
- Finding the Phrases
- Priority of Meter
- Dynamic Control for Nuances
- Articulation Notation
- Putting the Line on the Wind
- Assignment 10: Phrasing Examples Demonstration
Lesson 11: Improvisation Practice
- Free Improvisation
- Improvisation Prompts
- Playing off of Key Prompts and Musical Phrases
- Baroque and Classical improvisation
- Using IReal Pro to Practice Standard Jazz Tunes
- Assignment 11: Example of Improv
Lesson 12: Sight-Reading and Preparation
- Sight-Reading Skills
- Your Basic Foundation
- Reading Quickly
- How to Improve Your Sight-Reading Skills
- Basic Sight-Reading Strategies Reviewed
- Assignment 12: Culminating Experience
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Students should have:
- Some basic ability on their primary instrument including the application of correct pitch and rhythm while performing simple musical repertoire
- Basic note reading skill that includes the ability to identify musical symbols and describe how the essential elements of music notation are used
- The desire to learn how to use practice time more efficiently
Textbook(s)
- Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner (Alfred Music, 1998)
- Recommended: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (Bantam, 2009)
- Recommended: Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure by Don Green, PH.D. (Routledge, 2021)
- Recommended: A Soprano on Her Head by Eloise Ristad (Real People Pr, 1981)
- Recommended: The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green and W. Timothy Gallwey (Pan Books, 2015)
- Recommended: PracticeMind for Everyone by Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk (Ovation Press, 2024)
Recording
- Students are required to record video for their assignments. Options for recording video include:
- Smartphone
- Digital camera
- Webcam (using either video recording software, or the video recording tool that is built into the learning environment)
Instrument
- An instrument capable of playing melodies (voice included)
Hardware
- Students are required to capture their instrumental performance, as well as monitor audio output. Options include:
- Input (one required):
- Instrument connected directly to audio interface (recommended electric option; alternatively, the microphone options below can be used with amplified instruments)
- XLR microphone and audio interface (recommended acoustic option)
- USB microphone
- Built-in computer/mobile device microphone
- Output (one required):
- Headphones (recommended option; required if multitracking and/or input monitoring a microphone)
- Studio monitors and audio interface
- Built-in or external speakers
- Input (one required):
- Note: Depending on your setup, you may also need XLR/instrument cables and a microphone stand.
Other
- Metronome (hardware or software/app)
- Chromatic tuner (software/app acceptable)
Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author & Instructor
Oboist Barbara LaFitte is a familiar face on the Boston music scene. She was the principal oboist in the Boston Ballet Orchestra, held the English Horn position in the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra from 1994-2020, where she worked with John Williams and Keith Lockhart. She was a member of the cutting-edge Boston Modern Orchestra Project, whose recording catalog contains more than 100 new works. For many years, she was the principal oboist in the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performed regularly with Emmanuel Music in the Bach Cantata series. She can be heard on two recordings nominated for Grammy Awards: Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Stephen Mackey’s Dreamhouse, and Danilo Perez’s highly acclaimed jazz recording, Providencia. LaFitte is also the oboist on the theme music for the PBS program, Frontline.
Her summer activities have included performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Monde, Tanglewood Music Center, Bay Chamber Concert Series, Rockport Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, and in 2015, Jean-Luc Fillon’s Oboe Academy for Improvisation in La Roche Guyon, France. In 2022, she was named the Copland Chamber Music Librarian for the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA. She recently returned from a retreat in Vermont, hosted by Eugene Friesen and Kenny Werner, Joy in Marlboro, during the summer of 2024.
Since 1994, LaFitte has been professor on the faculty of Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she developed an innovative oboe studio, and created classes in Efficient Practicing, Audition Workshop, and Phrasing. She coached contemporary chamber ensembles and taught Woodwind Pedagogy at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. LaFitte presents masterclasses about topics such as circular breathing, audition preparation, Nicolas Slonimsky, and more. Read Less
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Practicing Techniques for Musicians can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:
Related Certificate Programs
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
