Inside the Practice Room with Sergio Carolino

Want to take your practicing to the next level?

What better way to do that than by learning from the best players in the world exactly what they do day in and day out in the practice room.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear international tuba superstar Sergio Carolino do a deep dive into the practicing routine that made him a legend.

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Use offer code “sergio” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Here’s an excerpt from Sergio Carolino’s Inside the Practice Room where he demonstrates how he practices extreme dynamics by using scales and arpeggios:

Topics Sergio Covers:

• How his approach in the practice room has shifted over the years from tuba technique to musical storytelling

• Why he programs the pieces he chooses to perform

• Why the piece of metal is always going to win and how that affects his approach to playing and practicing

• Demonstrating how he approaches practicing scales and arpeggios

• Why he doesn’t play exercises (and why he doesn’t use the term either)

• The two physical things he asks all students to do when playing the tuba

• Treating the air like a bow playing a string instrument

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Use offer code “sergio” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Quotes from Sergio Carolino’s Inside the Practice Room:

• “I work mostly on scales and arpeggios. I work on dynamics a lot, like extreme dynamics. I try to go real extreme… it might seem that it's very mechanical, but I try to be always musical. So I try to use scales, arpeggios, all this technical stuff in a musical context that I'm going use in real life.”

Also Available from Hitz Academy:

Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass

Don’t miss this deep dive by Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass into his daily practicing routine!

Take me inside Jeff’s practice room!

Winning the Audition with Hiram Diaz

Are you putting in lots of hours in the practice room but still frustrated by a lack of success at professional auditions?

Learn exactly what Hiram Diaz of The President’s Own Marine Band did to win the big audition.

Hiram’s session was incredible and I’m not just saying that because he’s a friend! Some of the topics he covered include:

👉 Why in spite of having world class teachers and spending hours and hours in the practice room he wasn’t winning any auditions (and what he figured out that changed that)
👉 How he was able to get brutally honest with himself about what he could and could not play
👉 Why it’s okay to make a mistake in an audition if you continue to have a convincing musical product throughout
👉 Why he swears by recording yourself and listening to it immediately rather than while walking home from your practice session
👉 Hiram’s use of visualization in preparing for his audition (he goes into this with a level of detail I’ve never heard before!)
👉 His method of recording yourself while watching a tuner but without trying to fix anything and what that reinforces
👉 And much more!

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Weston Sprott

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear trombonist Weston Sprott of the Metropolitan Opera do a deep dive into the practicing routine that has made him one of the best trombone players in the world!

Purchase long-term access via the Hitz Academy Library.

Inside the Practice Room with Julie Landsman

Want to take your practicing to the next level?

What better way to do that than by learning from the best players in the world exactly what they do day in and day out in the practice room.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Former Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera Julie Landsman do a deep dive into the practicing routine that made her a legend.

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Use offer code “julie” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Here’s an excerpt from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room where she discusses how she helped Nathaniel Silberschlag successfully prepare for his audition for Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra:

Topics Julie Covers:

• The two most common problems she sees musicians make in the practice room and how to fix those problems

• Her intense level of self-awareness when practicing 

• How she used mediation in the semis and finals of her successful audition for Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera

• How she uses meditation and visualization before practicing, performing and teaching

• The danger of giving yourself technical instruction while performing (and how it kills creativity)

• Her approach to warming up and how she changes it for different situations

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Use offer code “julie” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Quotes from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room:

• “Practicing a lot doesn't mean you're getting the work done. Practicing efficiently with clear goals and what you're working on and how you're doing it? Go for it. That's just smart. Be smart!”

• “Constantly beating up the music and repetition and hitting that wall of frustration… it doesn't help me. I think it's not a creative process. I think it's a self-defeating process.”

• “Let's go back to the word efficient. I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm doing my Snakes (exercises) because they're good for register breaks and I'm practicing tonguing because my tongue needs exercise and I'm practicing double tonguing. So I'm going through all my register break exercises and my articulation exercises just in a very methodical manner. I love that efficiency. I love getting a lot done without wasting a ton of time.”

Also Available from Hitz Academy:

Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass

Don’t miss this deep dive by Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass into his daily practicing routine!

Take me inside Jeff’s practice room!

Inside the Practice Room with Rex Richardson

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join trumpet superstar Rex Richardson for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

During this workshop Rex described in detail the very intentional process he uses every day in the practice room: 

• The trick he uses to be nicer to himself in the practice room

• How to be objective and detached emotionally when practicing

• How attention to detail ends up leading to a set of goals in the practice room

• Implementing structures into your practice sessions

• The importance of knowing where you are right now when establishing goals

• The importance of focused listening to yourself and others

• Ask yourself “Is this my best playing today?”

• Knowing when we sound our best is how we set our current standards

• The importance of noticing when you sound good

• If he gets frustrated while practicing he steps back and makes sure he isn’t just having an emotional reaction to the session

• The danger of tackling music that is too difficult, too soon when you are young

• The powerful combination of humility and fearlessness

• Why he starts practicing at the same time each day

• His first session is the most structured of the day which is usual about an hour

• Why he doesn’t practice past the point of exhaustion

• Why his practice journal is the most important tool that Rex uses in the practice room

• His setup for recording himself and why he does all the time

• Why he also records video so he can see whether he’s doing anything inefficiently

• Why Rex thinks it’s important to take time off of the horn from time to time

• Why practicing must be viewed as a living process

• Plus an sneak peak at his upcoming book, 100 Days of Trumpet Practice

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Patrick Sheridan

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join tuba superstar Patrick Sheridan for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

During this workshop Patrick described in detail the very intentional process he uses every day in the practice room: 

• The routine he starts every day with

• The he leaves time at the end of his routine for fun which he calls “playing in the sandbox”

• His relatively random post-routine practice schedule that he refers to as “random acts of music” and how he regularly finds the time to practice even when he is very busy

• The dangers of practicing self-hatred and judgement in the practice room rather than practicing music

• He chooses at least one thing each week that he is intentionally trying to move forward in a measurable way

• Why he regularly asks himself “Could I have played that with any less tension? Was there any tension at all?”

• His “Practicing in Trios” concept and how he applies that to everything he learns

• The need to develop a love for repitition

• Why copying someone else’s practice schedule is idiotic (Spoiler: You need to come up with what works best for you!)

• Patrick’s mental approach that there’s nothing difficult in music - just familiar and unfamiliar

• The tools he uses to help him practice on a daily basis

• How he deals with both boredom and frustration in the practice room

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Demondrae Thurman

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join euphonium superstar Demondrae Thurman for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

During this workshop Demondrae described in detail the very intentional process he uses every day in the practice room: 

• His ideal number of practice sessions in a day

• Why he has a set warm-up which is followed by a daily routine that changes according to what he has to perform over the next month

• He unpacks his life mantra “I try to win every day” which he also takes with him into his practice room

• Why maintaining a minimum standard that’s really high is essential to his practicing

• Why he rarely uses a tuner

• How often he uses a recording device (hint: all the time) and why it’s so important to him

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Michael Sachs

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join Principal Trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra Michael Sachs for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

Michael took a deep dive into a number of different aspects of practicing during this workshop: 

• His preferred warm-up and why he has many different versions of the same routine (including one that's only 5 minutes long!)

• How long he practices in any given day (probably not as long as you might guess!)

• His advice for someone who needs to improve their focus in the practice room

• What tools he uses to help practice

• How he gets great results in the practice room to translate to performance

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Jeff Nelsen

It’s not every day that one of the world’s best brass players gives you such a complete look into the daily process that made them what they are today.

Join Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass as he invites us inside of his practice room!

Jeff covered a lot of ground!

• His ideal number of practice sessions in a day

• How he religiously times his sessions and why it makes him more focused

• The magic of unemotional critique

• The “Three Phases” of preparation for a performance as he has laid out in his Fearless Performance program

• Why “forced urgency” is important at the beginning of the preparation process

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

“Inside the Practice Room with Jeff Nelsen was absolutely fantastic! The step-by-step tips he shared on how to practice and prepare for a performance completely changed the way I teach my middle school students how to practice. We all have our own practice journals now (myself included!) Thanks to his tips, my students feel more confident in identifying their successes and are having a more positive experience in the practice room.”

— Kathryn Williams

Winning the Audition with Chris Martin

Learn the audition preparation strategies that have won Chris Martin auditions for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and his current position of Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic in this Winning the Audition workshop.

Chris covered a lot of ground!

👉 The almost 20 auditions Chris didn't win before winning his first win with Philadelphia and what he learned from those experiences
👉 The methodical work he did in the practice room to be able to play his best consistently
👉 How he learned to transfer playing his best from the practice room to the stage
👉 How he developed a "performer's mentality" (and the method was not what I expected!) and how long it took him to develop it
👉 How he dealt with getting nervous in auditions
👉 And much more!

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!