Practicing More Effectively

This post is written by one of our Violin teachers, Desiree Hirschfield. Some of the things are really specific to violin players. But most of it applies to everyone practicing an instrument.

Practice. You know you gotta do it. Your teacher always wants you to do more of it. But it can be really hard to get started… How do you get started?

Never forget that practicing is playing your instrument, and playing your instrument is great. Any time you get to play your instrument is awesome.

Getting Started:

You should begin your practice by warming up. Check your posture and the alignment of your body. Check for tense muscles and unwind them. Put your instrument into position and make sure it feels secure and comfortable.

Start with playing long notes, using the whole bow. Pay attention to the movement of your bow arm, keeping your shoulders low and relaxed. Open and close your arm at the elbow. Bend your wrist as the bow moves. These are fundamental movements, but paying close attention to them at the beginning of practice starts is always essential. Observing these movements closely helps bring your mind and body into “music mode”, and making sure they are correct prevents developing bad habits that can affect your tone or cause you pain.

Next, play a scale. Using the same long, fluid bows you used in your warmup, listen to your pitch and your tone. Play each note perfectly in tune. Listen for your up bows to match your down bows, and for your tone to stay consistent through each bow stroke. Play your scale a few more times, going faster each time, until your fingers are warm and you feel ready to go.

You should do these steps even if you don’t feel like practicing. Doing these things everyday (or nearly every day) will help you maintain and develop your skills. Every day you don’t play your instrument, you lose a little. On days that you just don’t want to practice (and we all have those days), do your warm ups and scales anyway. If you finish those and you still aren’t up for it, you’re done. But often, once we start playing our instrument we remember that we LOVE to play our instrument, that it feels good even when it’s hard work, and that it’s worth the time and the energy we put in to get better. And that the yuckiest, dumpiest, crummiest of moods can feel better with a little music playing.

Meat and Potatoes:

The next step in your practice is to work on the hard stuff. This is the stuff that needs the most work. The tricky fingerings, the shifts, the weird intervals, the notes that are too fast (why do they have to be so fast?!). This practice should not sound much like your song. It should sound like lots of repetition, like you trying things out, like listening and analyzing and cementing new ideas. We do this practice first because it it hard work, and you need all your energy and resources here. Violinist Hilary Hahn has great advice about frustrating practice days, “I’ve learned that just because you’re having a tough day doesn’t mean you’re not making progress. The tough days are actually when you’re making the most progress because you’re trying the most things, you’re pushing against that wall that you haven’t broken through before and eventually you will break through because you’re pushing against it.” Find ways to mark your progress and know you’re doing better- keep track of your tempo with a metronome, and note your speed each day. Mark the tricky spots with a box or circle, then erase it when you can play them easily. Notice your tendencies and habits that need to be corrected. And mark your music with a pencil the second time you make the same mistake.

Once you’ve ironed out some wrinkles, play through these phrases and passages. Stop when a spot needs more work. Mark things you need to focus on tomorrow. Work on making the music sound fluid and connected and beautiful.

Finishing Up:

The last part of your time spent practicing is the most fun, and that is REVIEW. Review is playing any piece you already know well. Play it so you don’t forget it. Find ways of making it more beautiful, more natural, more expressive and more real. Play it because you love to play your instrument, and this is your reward for putting in all that hard work.

Practice is work, and it’s the work that makes you a better player. Consistent, effective practice is the key. Committing to a practice routine, even when you don’t think you want to do it, is the way to grow as a musician.

Click here to sign up for lessons with Desiree.