The beginning of a new year is a great time to evaluate our practicing and to reaffirm our commitment to consistent, thoughtful practicing. How we practice can be even more important than as to How Much we practice. To go along with this idea, here are 10 tips to help elevate your practicing this year.
- Practice Every Day – Similar to doing anything well, it requires a consistent effort. When practicing becomes part of your daily routine, your practice sessions become easier because you have already accounted for that time during your day. As you practice more often and consistently, you’ll notice that you are becoming a better player thereby creating a better experience in your performance. End result, you’ll have more fun because your enjoying the momentum that comes from a consistent practice routine.
- Organize Your Time – Understand each component of your practice session and its’ purpose. Rather than an open-ended practice session, limit the practice minutes to each practice item on your agenda. Split up your time into items such as scales, etudes, unaccompanied Bach, Suzuki pieces, orchestra music, etc. Also know the difference between playing thru a piece and knowing when you need to practice small sections of a piece or etude.
- Identify Your Objective – Make sure you review your teachers notes from a previous lesson to understand specifically what you’re trying to accomplish. Playing thru a piece over and over may not accomplish what you hope it will accomplish, unless you have a specific end result in mind.
- Use Your Time Efficiently and Intelligently – Answered don’t come without questions – and Questions don’t come without work! Practicing almost always involves problem solving. In your practicing, work to identify the problem and then consider the most efficient and effective way to solve it. If you don’t know exactly what to do, consult a private violin teacher to help you identify ways of practicing in an efficient way.
- Stay Mentally Alert – One of the best ways to do this is to break you’r practicing up either by minutes in each category of practice, or to spread out your practicing throughout the day. One such example is to practice your technique in the morning and pieces in the evening, or vice-versa. This idea can be approached from a variety of angels. Find what works best for you in order to avoid sloppy practice. Remember, too that if you are consistently listening to yourself that you will be more mentally engaged than if you allow yourself to go on autopilot.
- Imagine What You Want It To Sound Like – Do you have a favorite violinist? If not, search around on YouTube to find musicians that you enjoy listening to and watching. Without some kind of model of sound, it can be difficult to feel inspired. Equally important is remembering to listen to what you sound like and how you want to sound differently. Consistent evaluation of your playing is an important aspect to becoming a better player.
- Stay Relaxed – Relaxation is the key to all technique. Consider the various joints that need to be relaxed before you play: the right shoulder, right elbow, right hand wrist/fingers and the left hand fingers. Tension is the enemy to progress!
- Slow Down – Nothing can be more important when beginning a new piece as to begin slowly. It is so easy to want to practice fast because we are so anxious to be in “performance” mode. Allow yourself (mind and body) the time it deserves to learn the correct fingerings, notes and bowing. Of course, as you are able to play it faster, your choice of fingerings and bowing can change. Slow practice is critical so that you don’t learn incorrect notes and ensures that mind and muscles have time to learn and remember the correct finger patterns. There are times when it can be beneficial to play at full tempo, however as a general rule – slow down!
- Repetition – Whatever we repeat becomes a habit. Once we have created a habit, it can become very difficult to change it. Consistent repetition (also daily), at slow tempos will gain you the correct muscle memory needed for performance tempos.
- Always Play Your Best – The title says it all. Playing your best means that you are practicing the way you would want to perform (minus tempo). Understand too that playing your best does not mean that your practicing will always sound great, but rather even when you are working at learning difficult passages, that you are still playing at your best.