Efficient Practice
Just HOW DO YOU practice?
When the teacher says “Practice”, Does the student, and importantly, the parent/guardian, know what that means?
Efficient practice doesn’t take hours. Here are the key steps:
- Listen
- Slow
- Swing It
- Put it Back
- Listen for goals
- Metronome
- Backing track/Drone
- Listen Again
LISTEN: Are you listening daily to a really good quality, full recording of your piece, preferably a well known pro on the instrument? Listening is the quickest, most painless way to learn your pieces well. You can put on recording while you’re in the car, eating, doing homework, or playing a game.
SLOW: Can you do it ridiculously slowly? When you slow things down, the awkward parts reveal themselves quickly. If you can’t do it slowly, you haven’t mastered it yet.
SWING IT:
Dotted rhythms everywhere for faster passages! Longggg-short Long-short.
Then reverse the dot, doing the faster note first. Short longggg Short-long!
This quickly reveals the one note that needs to be drilled going to the next. Could be change of string, or position, or finger or pitch placement.
PUT IT BACK Together: Then mark anything that’s still wonky.
Repeat steps 1-3.
LISTEN to the recording again. Check out a new recording.
What’s different/the same? What feelings are evoked?
METRONOME: get comfy with using one of these.
Set your goal tempo.
What is the recording speed that you’re listening to? Don’t increase more than a couple notches daily, go back to the original in between, let the increases feel easy and steady.
*Upbeat metronome is one of my favourite FREE apps for simplicity of use.
BACKING: Now it’s time to try it with the accompaniment.
Try a drone if you’re still under tempo, in the key of your piece or google “slow” or “medium”.
There are many good accompaniment tracks out there on youtube or ask your teacher for a suggestion.
LISTEN AGAIN: How can you add more expression? Colour?
Mark your music where things get intense or calmer.
Create a story in your mind that informs every section of the music and makes performance more fun for you and the audience!
All these steps can be broken down and followed over a matter of months.
Parents ask me when exams can be taken. When all these steps have been completed and when the performance is “bombproof” we’ll book an exam or live performance.
Happy Practicing! (Now you know how!)