Practicing methods..

[Thomas Erickson]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

If you mess up, you will loose the Job for what ever that's worth.

For sure!

I don't think there's any problem with listening to or playing along with recordings beforehand at all; it's probably a good way to go. I personally have found it, at times though, distracting to have a certain interpretation of the music in my head going in - I find that it's more effective (for me) to study the material as it's written and woodshed as needed, and then adapt anything that needs tweaking for the interpretation/performance at hand - just kind of a more "direct" path, almost like if I get a particular interpretation in my head first, then before I can get on board with what's being asked I have to "undo" my thinking rather than working from my own, albeit perhaps flawed, study.

I think it is undoubtedly just a matter of how different people learn, like how some pick up material better from lecture and others from text, and still others do best by observation; a healthy balance of each being the most successful for all involved, I'd say...