Practice Practice vs Practice Performance: The Two Types of Practice Every Clarinetist Needs

Reading time: 12 minutes

Have you ever practiced diligently, felt confident about your abilities, and then walked on stage only to deliver a performance that didn't reflect all that work?

You're not alone. And here's the thing: the problem probably wasn't your playing.

It was that you only did half the practice you needed.

The Performance That Changed Everything

In the early 1990s, I had what I call my "never again" moment.

I stood in front of a wall of people in an auditorium, technically capable of playing everything on the program. I'd practiced what I thought was properly, and I still stand by the fact that I was probably very capable of playing what I was trying to perform that day.

But the performance didn't go well.

The feeling afterward was visceral: embarrassment, disappointment, and the sense that all my work hadn't counted for anything. I remember thinking very clearly, "This will never happen again."

That experience launched years of research. I dove into sports psychology, performance psychology, anything I could find about peak performance. Remember, there was no internet at that point, so this meant tracking down books, talking to people, asking a lot of questions.

The answer I eventually found came down to a simple distinction that most musicians never make.

The Two Types of Practice

There are two fundamentally different types of practice, each with its own purpose:

Practice Practice is about skill development. This is where you build your technique, work on difficult passages, refine your sound, and get better at playing the clarinet. Your focus is on conscious control, analysis, and improvement.

Practice Performance is about skill access. This doesn't make you better at clarinet. It makes you better at delivering your best playing under performance conditions. Your focus shifts from conscious control to trusting your preparation.

Most musicians spend 100% of their time on Practice Practice and 0% on Practice Performance.

Then they wonder why their performances don't match their practice room abilities.

What Practice Practice Looks Like

Practice Practice is the foundation. This is where you spend most of your time, and it deserves your full attention and intention.

The Overlearning Principle

Dr. Molly Gebrian, author of "Learn Faster, Perform Better," talks about a concept called overlearning. It's a somewhat fancy scientific term for a pretty logical idea:

If you play something correctly a thousand times and incorrectly zero times, you've stacked the odds dramatically in your favor.

Here's the critical part that most people miss: Your mind and fingers absorb information whether you play something correctly or incorrectly. Every repetition matters. Every mistake gets encoded just as solidly as every success.

This is why mindful, intentional practice is non-negotiable. You're not just killing time with your clarinet. Every moment you spend practicing is either moving you toward your goals or away from them.

Eliminate Distractions

Before you do anything else in your practice session, eliminate distractions.

That means your phone. Put it on Do Not Disturb or, better yet, out of sight entirely.

"But I use my phone for my metronome and tuner," you might say.

Fine. Put it on Do Not Disturb and disable internet and cellular service so it's just the tool you need it to be. Or better yet, get dedicated metronomes and tuners.

I can see six metronomes and three tuners from where I sit right now. None of them are my phone. Why? Because I know I'm weak. My phone will distract me. I'll see a notification and think "I'll just check this one thing" and suddenly I've lost five minutes of focused practice time.

You might have more willpower than I do. But why take the risk?

Variable Practice

Don't practice everything the same way every time.

Your brain wants puzzles to solve. The more puzzles you give it about a piece, the more thoroughly you'll learn it.

Variable practice means changing things up:

• Practice at different tempos (slower, faster)
• Change the rhythm (dotted, reversed dotted, triplets)
• Change the articulation (slurred, tongued, staccato, accented)
• Change the dynamics (pianissimo, fortissimo, crescendo, decrescendo)
• Change your physical position (standing, sitting, walking)
• Practice in different rooms (different acoustics)
• Practice at different times of day
• Use different reeds

This serves a dual purpose. First, it makes you learn the material more deeply. Second, it prepares you for the reality that performance conditions will be different from your practice room.

You can't control the temperature of the performance hall. Maybe you'll be standing when you usually practice sitting. Maybe the accompanist wants to play faster or slower than you practiced. The more variable your practice, the more adaptable you become.

Spaced Repetition

This is what my tenth grade chemistry teacher Roy Timmerick called "spaced recall," and it's the most powerful learning strategy available.

Here's how it works: Practice something early in your session, then return to it at the end. The spacing between repetitions is what cements the skill in long-term memory.

Critical detail: The first time you repeat something after a break is the most important. If you can play it correctly on that first attempt, you get maximum retention benefit.

Why? Because playing it a second time doesn't replicate performance conditions. Performances happen once. That first repetition after spacing is the closest simulation of a performance situation you can create in practice.

The Red, Yellow, Green System

Dr. Molly Gebrian developed this priority system, and it's brilliantly simple:

• 🔴 RED = Don't have this yet
• 🟡 YELLOW = Think I have this
• 🟢 GREEN = Got this solidly

Go through your music and mark every passage.

Then (and this is the hard part) spend your time on RED, not GREEN.

We naturally enjoy playing what we're good at. The green spots sound great. They're fun. They make us feel accomplished.

But the green spots don't need us. They're ready to go. It's the red spots that need our attention.

If you practice those spots instead of playing through the whole piece repeatedly, you'll make dramatically faster progress.

The Build-Out Method

When you identify a difficult spot, don't just practice the difficult spot in isolation.

Here's what to do:

1. Isolate the actual problem - Often a "difficult passage" comes down to 2-3 specific notes that are truly challenging. Find those notes.
2. Practice the runway in - Practice the 2-3 measures BEFORE the difficult spot.
3. Practice the difficult spot itself - Now you're approaching it the way you will in performance.
4. Practice the runway out - This is crucial. Practice the 2-3 measures AFTER the difficult spot.

Why practice after?

Because one of the most common performance mistakes happens right after you successfully navigate a difficult passage. Relief floods in. Your mind relaxes for a split second. And you mess up an "easy" measure you've never struggled with before.

Ask me how I know.

I once played a wrong note on Broadway. I won't tell you exactly where, but I will tell you it was an easy note. A very easy note. I'd played it correctly hundreds of times in my life.

And I got it wrong because I wasn't focused. I was thinking about something else, probably feeling relief about having just played something difficult.

Someone pointed out that it wasn't even a note I needed to practice. They had a point, but it wasn't a technical mistake. It was a performance mistake. A mistake of focus and attention.

Practice the runway in and out, and you'll eliminate this problem.

What Practice Performance Looks Like

Once you've built your skills through Practice Practice, you need to practice accessing those skills under performance-like conditions.

This is where the work of Dr. Noa Kageyama becomes invaluable.

Conscious Control vs. Trust

In Practice Practice, you use conscious control. You analyze: "I need more air here. My fingers need to move faster there. The articulation should be cleaner."

This is appropriate and necessary for building skills.

But in performance, you need to shift to trust. You're not trying to get better at clarinet on stage. You're playing the clarinet you already know how to play.

Your job in performance is to think ahead to what's coming, hear the next phrase in your mind, and let your preparation do its job.

Most musicians never make this mental shift. They try to consciously control everything on stage, which actually makes things worse. Your conscious mind is too slow for real-time performance. You need to trust your trained subconscious.

Know Your Roadmap

Think about driving in a familiar city versus driving somewhere you've never been with GPS.

With GPS, you're reactive. "Turn left now. Turn right in 500 feet." You're finding out what to do as you do it.

In a familiar city, you're proactive. You know a mile ahead of time to get in the left lane because that exit is coming up. You know the route by heart.

You should know your music the way you know directions in a familiar city.

Your printed music should remind you of what you already know, not tell you what's there for the first time.

If you're using your music like GPS (finding out what's coming as you get there) you're not ready to perform.

Record Everything

Take that phone you put away during Practice Practice and turn it back on. Record your practice performance sessions.

This gives you essential information about what might go wrong in the actual performance, because it will have gone wrong in the simulated performance.

Recording adds just enough pressure to expose weaknesses you wouldn't notice in regular practice. It's not the same as a live performance, but it's closer than practicing without recording.

Listen back objectively. What went well? What needs more work? Those answers guide your next Practice Practice session.

Mock Auditions and Simulated Performances

You cannot get good at performing without practicing performing.

If you're preparing for an orchestra audition, do as many mock auditions as you can. Set them up formally. Have people listen. Use a screen if that's part of the actual audition format. Make it as realistic as possible.

For recitals, perform the entire program for friends, family, colleagues, even stuffed animals. The point isn't the audience quality. It's that you're practicing the complete performance experience.

Build Your Performance Routine

One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my audition career was winging my preparation routine.

I'd show up, get a warm-up room, and sort of figure it out on the spot. Sometimes I had an hour. Sometimes I had twenty minutes. I didn't know what I actually needed, so I couldn't adapt appropriately.

Here's what you need to know:

How much time do you need to be ready for your best playing?

You have to test this. Try different amounts of time and see what actually works. Some people need forty-five minutes. Some need fifteen. There's no right answer, but you need to know YOUR answer.

What exactly do you do in that time?

Write it down. Make it a routine. Then practice that routine multiple times before the actual performance so it becomes automatic.

What happens if you have extra time?

This is important. If you know you need twenty minutes but they give you an hour, don't just keep playing for the extra forty minutes. That's likely to erode your confidence rather than build it.

Instead, spend the extra time on mental preparation. Sit quietly. Visualize. Do light stretching or breathing exercises. Review your mental cues. But don't tire yourself out or create opportunities to make mistakes that will shake your confidence.

Converting Nervous Energy

I remember standing backstage before performing the Copland Concerto from memory in the Philippines. It was a huge hall. I was playing from memory. And I stood there thinking, "Do I even know how to play the clarinet?"

Then I walked on stage, and something switched.

I thought, "We're doing this. I'm going to show you this piece."

That shift (from anxiety to presentation, from self-doubt to confidence) made all the difference. It was one of the best performances of my life.

As Noa Kageyama discusses in his work, the goal isn't to eliminate nerves but to channel them. That nervous energy is actually useful if you can direct it toward engagement and expression rather than letting it spiral into anxiety.

This is a skill you develop through Practice Performance. The more you practice performing, the better you get at managing that energy.

Putting It Together: The Week Before a Performance

As you approach a major performance, your practice balance shifts.

In the weeks leading up, you're doing mostly Practice Practice with some Practice Performance mixed in.

In the final week, you flip that ratio. Most of your time goes to Practice Performance, with targeted Practice Practice only on specific spots that showed weakness in your recorded mock performances.

Here's a sample schedule:

7 days before: Mock Performance #1. Record it. Identify problem spots.

Days 6-5: Practice Practice on those specific problem spots. Keep it focused and efficient.

5 days before: Mock Performance #2. Record it. Note improvements and any remaining issues.

Days 4-3: Light Practice Practice on remaining issues. Mostly mental preparation.

3 days before: Mock Performance #3. Record it.

Days 2-1: Minimal playing. Run through your performance routine. Mental preparation, visualization, review of mental cues. Trust your preparation.

Performance day: Execute your routine and deliver.

The cycle continues: build skills, practice accessing them, identify gaps, build those skills, practice accessing the improved version.

Your Challenge

Here's what I want you to do:

Pick a performance date three weeks from now.

It doesn't have to be formal. Play for friends, record yourself, even perform for your pet. But pick a specific date and a specific piece.

Then follow this process:

Weeks 3-2: Focus on Practice Practice. Mark your red spots. Use spaced repetition. Build out from difficult passages. Eliminate distractions.

Week 2: Start adding Practice Performance. Record yourself playing through the entire piece without stopping. Note what goes wrong.

Week 1: Do mock performances on days 7, 5, 3, and 1 before your performance date. Record all of them. Practice your performance routine.

Performance Day: Execute your routine and trust your preparation.

Keep those recordings. The trajectory will tell you everything about whether your preparation strategy is working.

The Resources That Changed My Approach

Two people have contributed more to my understanding of performance psychology than anyone else:

Dr. Noa Kageyama runs The Bulletproof Musician (bulletproofmusician.com) and provides research-backed strategies for performance psychology. His newsletter is essential reading. His work on the mental game of performing (particularly the concept of shifting from conscious control to trust) has been transformative for my teaching and my own playing.

Dr. Molly Gebrian wrote "Learn Faster, Perform Better," which is simply the most important book I've read about cultivating clarinet skill and confident performance. Her concepts of overlearning, the red-yellow-green system, and evidence-based practice strategies form the foundation of how I approach teaching adult learners.

Everything they put out in the world is worth your time.

Final Thoughts

Here's what I want you to remember:

Everyone wants you to succeed. Whether it's an audition panel, a recital audience, or a conductor, nobody wants to hear you struggle. Everyone is rooting for you.

Your job is to show them what you can do by accessing the skills you've built.

And that requires practicing both types of practice.

You can get better at the clarinet through Practice Practice. And you can get better at performing the clarinet you already know how to play through Practice Performance.

They're two different skills. Both matter.

The mistake I made in the early 1990s was only doing the first. I'd built the skills but hadn't practiced accessing them under pressure.

That performance was embarrassing and disappointing, but it taught me something invaluable. It sent me on a journey that's made me not just a better player, but a better teacher.

Now I get to watch people have breakthroughs every week. They nail something they couldn't play before. They walk into performances with confidence instead of anxiety. They deliver the playing they've worked so hard to develop.

That's what's possible when you practice both types of practice.

Now go do it.

Take This Further

Download the Free Practice Performance Roadmap - A complete guide with worksheets, practice logs, and a 3-week preparation plan. Get it here 

Join the Clarinet Ninja Dojo - Work on these skills with live guidance, personalized feedback, and a community of players. This is where the real transformation happens. Learn more 

Questions? Email me at [email protected]. I read every message.

About the Author

Jay Hassler has performed on Broadway, at the Metropolitan Opera, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall, and at the White House. He's the creator of the Clarinet Ninja Dojo and works with adult clarinet players who want to build real skills and deliver confident performances. His approach combines decades of professional experience with research-based practice strategies specifically designed for adult learners.

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