#how to practice

[thecuriouspianist]

[howtomusicmajor]

I know this sounds stupid, but do you have any tips on how to practice effectively? I really want to work on practicing effectively because right now I feel like my practice sessions aren't as effective as they could be

It depends on what you mean by "effective." Sometimes you'll go through phases where individual practice sessions don't feel like they're doing anything. That's normal! We can't progress at a super speedy rate all the time. As long as you have goals you're working toward, don't worry too much if your individual practice sessions are helping you make minor improvements instead of vast steps.

On the other hand, if you don't have goals, your practice sessions may not be doing anything. In that case, it's time to get yourself short-term, long-term, and daily goals.

Long-term goals are what you want to accomplish in the next year. They can be things like "getting into a YAP," "performing a recital," or "getting 1st chair." These guide your decisions about repertoire and skills to practice. For example, you'll focus on rep for your recital, the content of your audition package, or excerpts for chair auditions. Most people have one or two long-term goals at a time.

Short-term goals are what you want to accomplish for each lesson. They guide what specifically you work on each day. If you want to have a piece memorized by the next lesson, you'll focus on memorization for the week. If you're attempting to improve your long tones, you'll work on those. It's a good idea to have two or three short-term goals per week: one for skills, one for rep, and one extra goal for anything that you want.

Daily goals are the things you want to do each practice session. These are things like "Warm-up for ten minutes" or "do 3 octaves of long tones" or "practice two pieces for 20 minutes each." They give structure to your daily practice. My general routine is:

Warm up for ten minutes with onsets and scales

Break down a piece into 2-4 measure phrases with onsets

Practice speaking the lyrics effectively

Sing the piece

Once you have goals and a plan, you can get a lot more out of each practice session. You know where you're trying to go and what you're trying to do.

[weskid123-blog]

My Practice Overview

I try to practice everyday. Usually two hours a day, at least.Now, I admit, I’ve been pretty bad these couple days. I’ve been trying to set up all my social media accounts and have kind of put practicing off to the side. But not for much longer!

I’m going to share with all of you my practice room regime!

First off, I keep a practice journal. It is so helpful for keeping myself accountable! If you don’t have one, regardless of if you’re a seasoned player or a beginner, I highly recommend you all consider investing your energy into one! It has streamlined my sessions.

Obviously, all practice time and how you dedicate it depends entirely on what you need to practice and when you need it accomplished by. For me, I like to break my practice sessions into Warm up, scales, etudes, and repertoire. 

The foundation for any successful playing session is a good warm up. My warm ups usually consist of long bows, vibrato, and trills, however in actuality, I spend very little time on the later two. Long tones are so indispensable; they should be your time to meditate, breathe, and focus your mind on the core of the beauty of your music: your tone! I’ll explain in a later post how I go about my long tone exercises.

Other things I work on during my warm up times are shifts and bowings. There are a couple exercises I work on. I don’t do every single one every day. While I do have certain ones I focus on, using my journal I rotate and keep track of my progress with each one!

After that, I focus on my scales. I’m currently doing B Major, focusing on no vibrato or shaking and smooth shifts. I try to work on just one scale a week, and sometimes when I get bored, I’ll work on another. But one will always be my priority! Scales, and long bows for that matter, should ALWAYS be done with a metronome. The object of the game is to play them not only in tune, but even more important, smoothly, in time, as relaxed as possible, and with minimal glissando in between shifts. Scales can be done in many different ways, so have fun with it! Make it fun!!! 

Etudes are little golden beauties of wisdom. If you’ve never heard of them, they’re basically songs that are exercises that work on specific aspects of technique. Think of if a scale and a song had a baby. Or, at least, that’s how i see them. Now, you can work on specific aspects of technique with exercises alone, but working on etudes allows you to work on those aspects in context. So ingenious. The types of etudes you work on completely depend on your level, and it should also be said that one does not need to play every etude. You’d practice until the end of time. Just select etudes which help you with your fundamental technique or which mirror the techniques you’re working on in your repertoire.I’m working out of the Kreutzer book, currently on No. 9.

Repertoire. The reason we slave in the practice room (my own practice room is a bathroom.What’s yours?) Repertoire should be something you want to play. Right now, I’m working on two pieces. One is Schön Rosmarin, a relatively simple piece. It has a lot of good bow work to keep me busy, since my bow hand is currently awkward. My other piece is Chaconne by Vitali. This one is definitely a long term project. I feel like I’ve spend a good deal of time on it and haven’t come any closer to performing it. 

To that, I want to add that repertoire should be something slightly out of your reach, but achievable. If you are still barely learning your first scales and shifting to third position, you’re probably better off waiting to play a Shostakovich concerto. Obviously that’s a bit of an exaggerated example, but use your own discretion. If you feel that you’ve chosen a piece too difficult to do, don’t be afraid to put it on the back burner for a while. When you come back to it, your technique will have improved and playing the piece will be noticeably easier. 

I realize I didn’t go too far into detail with this post, but I’ll probably come out with some more pretty soon on each aspect individually. 

Thanks for taking the time to read!

[studyvari]

Struggling

It's ironic how there's this huge post floatingn around that i wrote like 2 years ago and tels you how to practice right for your instrument - and i actually haven't really been practicing intensley the past half a year because there's no use in it anymore. I'm not going to be a professional pianist, so why should i be able to play Beethoven without any mistake when it's just no fun anymore? Then there's popmusic, which i like to play but bores me, and then there's jazz, which i've been doing the past 3 years. I feel like i know the basics of improvisation, but i am not really good with building phrases and my left hand. And tbh, jazz is pretty boring when you're practicing on your own and when you don't understand it most of the time. It's kind of sad to see my piano skills go to waste, but i don't know what to do with it...

[thecuriouspianist]

Tips for practice consistency

Next time you sit down to practice, set a timer for 5 minutes and start a small project, such as..

Learning a blues scale (I'm a classical player learning jazz and it's intimidating as a whole, but 5 min of practicing a blues scale is fun)

Practicing a difficult passage

Sight reading new rep for school, work etc

Write a few phrases of your own music if you're an aspiring composer

Improvise on three chords and see if you can make up a little tune

When the timer goes off you have to STOP! No matter how much fun you're having or progress you're making! Then:

Write down somewhere (day planner, notebook) what you did and what the next step is, such as: "Chopin Cm etude: played LH all the way throughwith metronome at quarter note = 52"

Move on to another piece or project with another 5 minute timer.

For big projects, I allow 10 or 15 minutes.

The next day, sit down with your instrument and pick up the *same* first project. Doodle around with it for another 5 minute session with the timer. Same rule! STOP immediately when the timer goes off (ok sometimes I cheat and finish a phrase just to hear the cadence resolve) and make another quick journal note.

For professionals or those with huge amounts of rep to cover, here's how to stack up 5-min bursts for a larger project:

Have an AM practice session of 45-75 min (divided into a 5 min warmup and a few 10-15 min blocks; you can cover 2-5 separate projects)

Take a 10-25 min nap or meditation. NO LONGER. This is to allow your brain to move the info into longer-term storage and freshen your mind for the afternoon.

After lunch, have a 30-45 min session (3-5 projects.) I usually *don't* repeat any material from my AM session; I treat this as another "first" session after sleeping.

After dinner, run through everything you practiced already that day, but in a more "big-picture" way. (I don't set timers for this session.) Run all the way through repq if you only worked on sections earlier. If I'm tired mentally, I improvise for fun or play my favorite rep..or, if I'm on a deadline, whatever is coming up soonest. If I still have some mental energy I do a bit more detail work in addition to run throughs.

After a few days of practicing in 5/10/15 min bursts, not finishing the project will feel like a cliffhanger. You'll have continuity and purpose in your work. Imagine you're a sculptor and each day you carve out a bit more progress; each day's work is small on its own but before long you have a finished piece of artwork.

And why the 5-15 min limitation? We humans have short attention span. My favorite teacher once told me the first 15 min of any practice session are the most productive. So use that to your advantage!

What do you guys think? Anybody else out there use timers and journaling to stay on track? I want to hear your ideas ..xoR

[ image : steinway model o via the pianoshopbathuk ]

[thecuriouspianist]

Practice tips for avoiding injury

We approach practicing like a mental activity when, in fact, it is at least 50% a physical activity by definition. Try caring for your physical self too after practicing:

Ice your forearms

Do PT designed to counteract the overused motions of practicing

EAT before and after practicing

SLEEP every night like athletes to

Naps help practice sessions sink in

Be careful about overuse through activities that strain the same muscles and joints...i.e. careful how much you type if you’re a pianist. (Looking at you here, Rachelle)

If you have the privilege of affording it, get regular chiropractic care

[thecuriouspianist]

Really!!?!?!?!?!?!??

This is my goal. I've been just trying read my scales as much as possible hands separate. I'm going to do this.tell me more. Please about fluent reading. I have my grandmothers old hymn books too

Just pick some music you’re interested in and play all the notes one at a time, then do that again and again and again..and before you know it you’re sight reading much more comfortably than you thought was possible.

The progress will NOT feel like progress. You will feel like you’re not getting any better. This is because reading music always takes effort, and the better you get at it the more notes you realize are there to read. But trust that every time you sight read it’s worth it and it IS moving you toward your goal!

Try sight reading with a metronome on to force yourself to keep going no matter what mistakes happen. Pick a slow tempo that doesn’t make you panic (if that means one note every 30 seconds so be it, as long as you’re rhythmic) and just start reading!

Good luck! I would say “have fun” but... “enjoy the struggle” is probably more accurate ;)