Balanced Practice

I have run across so many students that seem to have very unbalanced practice habits. Make sure that each day provides a good balance of both musical and technical practice. Too much of either is not such a good thing. In general, I would recommend splitting them pretty close to right down the middle. All fundamentals and no music makes for a boring, stagnant player. All solos and excerpts with no breathing, buzzing, long tones, lip slurs or scales is a recipe for disaster as well.