I think my favorite TV show of all time might be Ted Lasso. I loved the humor, the depth of feeling, and the personal growth and development of each character. The show made me think a lot about my own teaching and what kind of teacher/coach I want to be for my students. I’m sure I’ll have more to write about that at another time.

One of the most fun scenes in Ted Lasso was when Ted decided it was time to cause chaos on the pitch! He wanted “chaos to rain down on our opponents!” The whole team starting talking about trick plays and shouting out these crazy names for their plays. Loki’s Tobaggan. The Sandman. The Pepper Shakers. Midnight Poutine. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.The Broken Tap. Hadrian’s Wall.

You get the picture.

As I watched this, I thought that this would be a great way to introduce all my little practice tricks! These are just little things that I do when I’m trying to learn a piece of music for the first time or when I just need to really polish up certain passages. So I gave them all names. Some names make sense. Some names make no sense whatsoever. Because why not!? Let’s get silly while we do some serious work!

Here we go. In no certain order, I give you

Dr. Little’s Trick Plays!

The Speedy Gonzales

This one is all about focus. EXTREME focus. But only for very short periods of time. Start by downloading some sort of Interval Timer App and set up a set of 5 two-minute sessions with a one-minute break between each. The whole cycle should take exactly 14 minutes. Then you plan out what items you need to practice for just two short minutes. You could pick 5 different measures, so you’ll only hit each item once. You could pick 2-3 different measures and hit each section roughly twice. Pick your metronome markings and get ready to fly through these 2 minute sections because they will feel SHORT!

I advise only working on 1 to 2 measures at a time for this exercise to really check on fingers, make sure the air is supported. You want full and complete focus for 2 minutes. On your 1 minute break, take a stretch, and get your music ready to start the next segment.

This trick play requires some advance planning so you know exactly what you will practice during the interval, but advance planning makes you more efficient and you can get more done in small amounts of time. This type of practice doesn’t “feel” great. Your brain does not have the chance to shut off and start wondering what you’re going to eat for dinner or when was the last time I watered the plants... So make sure you also schedule some time to just play things for fun because playing this instrument should feel good too!

The Rhythmic Roundabout

Do you have a fast technical section that is causing you to want to throw your flute against the wall? (Please do not throw the flute against the wall.) Try changing the rhythm! I like to use the following rhythms to help get those stubborn fingers under control. This can be used as part of the Speedy Gonzales play! Don’t worry about the time signature here, pay attention to the rhythm. The first one is long note, short note. (Long-Short). The second is short note, long note. (Short-Long)

You can also try changing the rhythm to triplets and groups of 4, 5, 6, or more! This works especially well if you change the groupings to something that makes you concentrate really hard! For example, trying playing a section of groupings of 4 16th notes as triplets! It’s a brain bender!

The Tongue Twister

This one involves changing the articulation of whatever section your working on. Is the music written as all tongued? Maybe all double-tongued? Try slurring it! Then try to keep the same quality of sound that you can obtain when you slur while you are tonguing.

You can also try changing to opposite articulation. Is the piece asking you to slur 2 and then tongue 2 for a grouping of 16th notes. Flip that around and put the tongued notes first! The following articulations work great for any groupings of 4 16th notes.

The Super Slo-Mo

Our brain creates memories by creating pathways for electrical impulses to travel upon. When we repeat an action in the exact same way many, many times, those electrical impulses have a very easy time traveling that pathway! So the most likely outcome when you get to that section of music is that you’ll play it exactly as you’ve practiced it! So we want our brains to learn the correct notes and rhythms from the very beginning. When I get a new piece of music, I like to put my metronome on very, VERY slowly. So slowly, that I will probably get really annoyed. But then I play that piece as accurately as I possibly can at that slow tempo so that my brain has a chance to create really great pathways! Then, when I come back to that piece a little faster, its far more likely that I’ll be playing exactly what I did at the slow tempo without much thought!

Depending on how long your piece is, this could take a while. So work at your piece in chunks in this manner. Maybe 4-5 lines at a time is fantastic, especially if you’re short on time.

The Flutist/Flautist Freeze

This one is very simple. You just add a random fermata. The end.

Well, not quite the end. You want to add that fermata on a note that you’ve been accidentally skipping or on a note that you want to make sure that you emphasize. You’re reminding yourself that I am going TO this note. This note is IMPORTANT!

I also use this technique for technical sections in the following way.

You can apply this same concept to any type of rhythms that you encounter. Its not limited to just groupings of 4 16th notes.

Stop! You’re under a Rest!

This last trick play might be my best one.

GET. SOME. REST.

Specifically, go to sleep. I don’t care if you’re a night owl or an early riser. Your schedule isn’t the issue. Be the screechiest night owl you can be! Rise up and get that early bird’s worm! Just make sure you find time for sleep.

Have you ever had that experience of waking up one day, after many days of struggling with a certain passage, and all of a sudden you could play it?

That’s because of SLEEP!

Sleep is the time when your brain creates the most memories. It solidifies those pathways that I mentioned earlier. If you’re lacking sleep, you are not able to learn effectively or efficiently. So if you’re struggling with your practice and you feel excessively tired, put that flute down (gently), and go take a nap. Give your brain the time to create those pathways and solidify that memory.

So there you go. Those are my trick plays that I use for efficient practice. They help me focus intensely for short periods of time and create excellent memory pathways so I can reproduce the music as I want it the next time I play it.

I hope you found these helpful! Stay tuned to this space for more practice tips, flute thoughts, and much more!

Dr. Little

Ted Lasso made me do it