Many times, students will ignore practicing their ensemble music and instead practice their lesson music (etudes, or concert pieces). While I’m in favor of practicing lesson music, to miss the opportunity to improve through working on ensemble music is just being stupid.
Here’s the situation: if you are playing music in an ensemble that you can already play – that you can sight read – don’t practice it, practice your lesson music instead.
However, if you have ensemble music that you can’t play it’s because you don’t play your instrument well enough. Hmmm, what do you do when you can’t play your instrument well enough – doh!, you practice.
Now if you practice the ensemble music you can’t play until you can play it you’ve accomplished two goals: you can play your ensemble music, and – by definition – you can play better (thus satisfying goal of practicing your lesson music).
Musicians, get smart – practice your ensemble music for ALL of the right reasons.