| Ways
to organize your practice
Use a notebook to write notes from your lessons, organize your practice for
the week, record problems you encountered during the week
and summarize your work of the semester. I used the notebooks
of two of my former students in preparing this web site; you
will find their words quoted in some spots, their profiles
in the "Profiles" section of the site and my words
of profound thanks in the acknowledgments. What they created
in their notebooks was helpful to them while they were at
Mount Holyoke studying their instruments; what they have now
is their own personal reference manual.
What ARE you supposed to accomplish during the week? What
was assigned at your lesson? Jot down how you will divide
the work for each day of practice so that you will cover all
the material by the next lesson. Was there a particular technical
element that was a point of focus? If so, be sure to practice
that every day. Speaking of practicing each day, are you aware
that muscle memory is much less consistent when you are in
the learning stages of an activity? You can spend HOURS practicing
a particular passage or technique and feel that you have conquered
it for all time but if you skip practice for a couple of days
that learning will DISAPPEAR. As the amount of time you have
practiced a particular passage or technique increases (weeks
and months), so will your muscle memory and you will then
be able to go without practice for short periods of time with
less loss. This doesn't sound fair but then that's the way
it is not only in music but in all creative pursuits. Read
some of Brenda Ueland's If You Want To Write to get another
perspective on how important it is to be consistent in all
of your pursuits.
As you are organizing your practice, think about how you
study. Since you are a student at Mount Holyoke, you know
how to study successfully. What techniques do you use when
you are learning new material in other subjects, trying to
recall it or getting it to a point where you can transfer
it to similar situations? Have you tried using these same
techniques to practice your music? You know yourself and how
you learn best so trust yourself. Keep a record of your practice
and of your problems. What you can't solve for yourself you
should bring to your lessons.
Warm-up
My brother, the baseball and basketball coach, once told
me that "all athletes are artistic performers and all
artistic performers are athletes." This fact of life
is one that musicians forget all too often; we wonder why
we hurt our muscles (Did we omit warm up before intense activity?)
or why we are unable to repeat a particular move with any
consistency (Have we practiced that move enough to develop
reliable muscle memory?). We need to stretch our muscles and
our brains each time before we play, whether at the beginning
of practice or before performance, so that we are prepared
to use the many different techniques needed to play the violin
and viola as well as the multi-tasking that will be necessary.
Since most of us come to our practice time in the midst of
busy, stressful, exhausting days, do some general stretching
first-stretch your back, legs and arms so you can approach
your instrument with flexibility. Though the instrument may
appear to be a stiff piece of wood, it is a vehicle for the
music in your own being which is anything but stiff. While
you are stretching, work on centering your mind[url]
Continue your stretching once you have the instrument in
hand by exploring the range of the bow (starting first by
setting at the tip and the frog and then all areas in between)
remembering to keep your hand flexible but set, giving in
arm movement and in wrist "break" rather than by
letting go of your hand position on the bow. [video to come]
You also need to explore the range of left hand/arm activities
by making sure your hand structure is set for a single position
(01, 02, 03, 04 and all variants) as well as for shifting
(do a one finger scale [link to come] and also move your arm
to carry your hand from First Position ( I ) to the very end
of the fingerboard). It is crucial that you USE YOUR BRAIN
while you do these stretching exercises; using your brain
will make multi-tasking easier later.
Last in the warm-up process, choose 2-4 études that
exemplify the kinds of passage work in your repertory pieces.
Do only a couple of lines of each étude and concentrate
on the skill you need to employ to play the étude well.
[example]
Practicing
When you get a new piece of music, you should decide what
you can already play and what you will need to work on. Mark
the spots where you think that problems might occur; if you
identify problems early, you may save yourself from having
to unlearn a wrong habit. Once you have identified a problem,
determine a solution, play the spot or passage 3 to 5 times
and it should be fixed. If it isn't, perhaps you have too
large a practice unit. Remember, X should mark the precise
spot where the problem occurs; practice just the spot you
can't play rather than running through large sections. Once
you have fixed the problem, the best thing you can do for
yourself is to find all the other places that are similar
and try using the solution on them. Place time limits on what
you practice and then move on.
Starting near the end of your piece can have very beneficial
effects: 1) you will break down the psychological expectation
of wanting to play through to the end because you will already
be there. Even though you begin 2 measures from the end, your
mind will reward you for reaching the end.
2) as you work your way back through the piece, you will have
the opportunity of then playing to the end, reinforcing your
recall of the very end and making it feel very secure. When
you eventually are performing the piece, you will feel very
comfortable as you approach the end because you have done
it so often.
Hopefully by now your music has been organized into lists
by types of technical and musical passages. If not, please
refer to the section on Learning New Music.
· Now that you have listed all the measure numbers
for each kind of technical and musical passage, practice through
each list. This will have a couple of benefits: 1) once you
have decided how to solve a particular kind of problem, you
can use that solution over and over, making your recall of
the solution and of all the similar spots more solid and 2)
you will feel immense satisfaction at making it through to
the end of the piece each time you complete a list. True,
you will only have completed a portion of the movement or
piece but your mind will see the double bar, know it is the
"end" and reward you.
Tricky Spots
1) If a spot is hard to play, try playing it without looking
at the music. If it is hard to memorize, try actually writing
out the music for the spot that is giving you trouble.
2) If coordination is the problem, be more aware of making
both hands and arms move at the same time. If you feel compelled
to watch what you are doing, watch the mirror rather than
your hands.
3) Try playing the passage backwards.
Scales
1) Look at the "scalar" or stepwise series of pitches
to see if they conform to a particular scale or mode. If they
do, you need to see them as a single unit. Identifying the
scale will help you to do that.
2) Look at the beat unit to see what the ratio of notes to
beat is and play a)slowly and accurately and b) build speed.
Use your metronome as explained in the Practice Aids section.
Chords and Double Stops
1) Identify the interval(s). In your mind's eye, set the spacing
for the particular interval and then pull your fingers down
to fingerboard.
2) Try the bowings without the pitches.
3) Try playing the passage backwards.
Arpeggios
1) Look at the pattern of notes to see if they conform to
a particular chord. If they do, you need to see them as a
single unit.
2) Look at the beat unit to see what the ratio of notes to
beat is and play a)slowly and accurately and b) build speed.
Use your metronome as explained in the Practice Aids section.
3) Try the bowings without the pitches.
4) Try playing the passage backwards.
Figurative Passages
1) Look at the passage to see if the notes conform to a repetitive
pattern. If they do, you can see them more easily as a single
unit.
2) Look at the beat unit to see what the ratio of notes to
beat is and play a)slowly and accurately and b) build speed.
Use your metronome as explained in the Practice Aids section.
3) Try the bowings without the pitches.
4) Try playing the passage backwards.
Melodic Passages
Melodic passages are often the most complex with regard to
rhythm and shifting. To practice the rhythm, follow the instructions
for a New Piece of Music, first clapping or talking through
the rhythm without the instrument and then consecutively adding
bowing on open strings, phrasing and pitch to the rhythm.
After the middle of the Classical Period, melodic passages
use many different positions to achieve tone color; you may
need to identify the positions and practice the shifts. To
practice the shifting, [link to "shifting" to come]
Technical Passages
1) The most important thing to do is to play through the passage
slowly and accurately.
2) You need to build speed. Use your metronome as explained
in the Practice Aids section.
3) Try playing the bowings without the pitches.
4) Try playing the passage backwards.Coordination of Left
and Right Hands
If coordination is the problem, watch the mirror or the video
tape rather than your hands. Your left hand should wait for
your right hand.
Brain Time vs. Real Time
The brain moves much faster than physical motions can or should
actually happen. Sometimes a coordination problem will occur
because you have tried to move at the same moment you are
visualizing the move. Be sure you wait for the right time
in the music for the actual movement to begin.
Complex Problems or How to Multi-task
Multi-tasking is a term used to represent those "layers
of things" that we have to think about and do simultaneously:
If you have a passage that contains at least two of the kinds
of tasks listed below, you will need to coordinate and assimilate
them so that you can perform them as easily as a simple and
less complicated passage. Practice each kind of problem or
"layer" separately. Later play them together several
times, first concentrating on one layer and then another layer.
· Left Hand layer (passages within a position, position
to position, chords, melodies, etc.)
· Right Hand layer (single note lines, chords, dynamics,
color, etc.)
· Rhythm layer (metric and musical)
· Phrasing layer (harmonic base, gestures, etc.)
· Ensemble layer (unless you are the only person playing)
Multi-tasking is like a walking centipede-how do we coordinate
all those things? Aren't our brains wonderful?!
Intonation
Pick out the tonic and dominant pitches in the passage you
are working on; be sure that all the tonic pitches sound the
same and all the dominant pitches sound the same. In this
case you would be using the tonic and dominant pitches as
anchor tones but you can also use another pitch which repeats
often through the passage or piece as your anchor.
Chords and Double Stops
Regardless of the pitches, the spacing will always be the
same for a particular kind of interval (all major thirds are
spaced the same regardless of note spelling, all minor sixths
are spaced the same regardless of note spelling, etc.); if
you have identified the kind of interval(s) in your double
stop or chord, your life will be easier. In addition, the
spacing is the same for the enharmonic equivalents to a particular
interval.
Within one position, visualize the spacing and set both fingers
simultaneously.
For double stops and chords you should always be listening
to and adjusting the SPACE between the pitches rather than
the individual pitches/fingers.
When you have a series of double stops that move among positions,
know which position you are moving to and then what the spacing
will be before you start moving. Remember, you always finish
visualizing the move before you physically move. If you begin
to move while you are still visualizing, your brain will have
recalculate along the way several times and that makes the
move slow and clunky.
"Brick walls"
As you experiment with all these practice techniques, you
may hit the proverbial "brick wall"-that feeling
that no matter what you do, no matter how much you practice,
you don't seem to be getting better. Alert your teacher in
case there is something you are doing incorrectly. There are
times, however, when you will be doing everything right and
it just takes time for a passage to become a part of you.
Don't give up, the wall always seems highest before it disappears
completely.
Kreutzer Études section to come
The biggest enemy of progress in your practice is boredom;
the following are ways to help you to keep your practice fresh.
1) If you only practice your piece, it will cease to be a
multi-dimensional creation; it will become a flat two-dimensional
piece of paper with ruts where the beauty should be.
2) Back in the warm-up section, there was a suggestion to
do parts of several Kreutzer Études that would relate
to your piece.
3) You could also do more than one piece of music; I encourage
you to pick music for yourself to keep your practice lively
as long as you also keep your goals for the week in mind.
|
