3 Ways to Start and Sustain a Daily

Practice Regimen
Master your Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart pieces by maximizing
your practice time
By Laurel Thomsen posted October 2011

The Problem
Practice can seem like an overwhelming experience. And the notion of
committing to a daily regimen is downright daunting.
The Solution
Take a deep breath. Relax. By mastering a few organizational skills, you
can develop an effective practice regimen with results that will make you a
better string player.
1. Create the Right Environment for Practice
Your practice environment sets the stage for your practice success. A
simple, quiet space with no distractions is perfect for some students, but
others might feel like they are being sent to their rooms for punishment.
Growing up, I practiced best in the living room with my violin and stand set
up near the piano. The comings and goings of family members made me
feel as though I was still a part of things. As the duration of my practice
grew, I eventually created a space in my bedroom with my pet birds to keep
me company. If you are a communal space practicer, you will probably
need to compromise with family members. These days I practice in my
living room when home alone and in my home office the rest of the time.
But choose a practice spot with good light and a pleasant view. You wont
feel like practicing if your practice space is uninspiring or your instrument is
packed away in a closet or behind a couch. Create a safe place where your
instrument can be ready to go, either resting in its open case on a shelf or
table, hanging from the wall on an instrument hanger, or sitting on an
instrument stand. Keep everything you need for practicing close at hand,
including your rosin, stand, music, and a pencil.
Still finding it hard to get started? Take the pressure off by chunking your
time. Set a timer for five minutes each day, focus on a single issue or
piece, and play until the timer goes off. If you want to keep practicing, set
the timer for another five minutes and address a different issue or piece.
Stop practicing when you find your focus waning, no matter how long or
short your practice has been. Five minutes of focused practice can be more
effective than an hour of clock watching, plus youll be more likely to return
to practicing frequently.
Heres another tip: practice for a few chunks of focused time and later in
the day return for a review of the same material. This maximizes your
effective practice time and gives you a review of the techniques and pieces
youve worked on while they are still fresh in your memory.
2. Maximize Your Practice Benefits
Learn to isolate issues. Ideally, when you first begin learning a new piece,
etude, or exercise, although it could be at any time, go through your sheet
music and mark all the challenging spots with parentheses. Shifts, string
changes, and phrases with accidentals are often areas that need extra
attention. For the first few days, practice only the notes within these
parentheses. Discover what the root issues really are in each case and
master them.
Dont know what to do next? Not sure if your piece is sounding right?
Record yourself from time to time as you practice.
I have found this to be one of the most effective ways to spark self
reflection in students and to encourage practicing. Most students know
exactly what they want to sound like, but often in the process of learning to
produce sound they stop listening to how they actually sound. When I
record students in lessons and we listen back, the students are full of ideas
for improvement and motivated to do the work.
But above all, avoid flailing. Einsteins definition of insanity was doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Practicing
the same thing in the same way again and again and expecting
improvement is what I call flailing. To avoid flailing, play less, plan and
analyze more. Take time to isolate and analyze the root cause of each
issue, try new approaches, listen to recordings, and ask for help rather than
practice mistakes. Practicing mistakes is a surefire way to make mistakes a
part of your repertoire.
3. Keep Up the Momentum
If you find yourself getting bored with the music youre playing, its a sure
sign that you need to add some feeling. Assess the mood, imagine a story
line, and then find ways to make your rendition of the music tell the story. A
good storyteller never gets bored.
Also, learn to celebrate the positive. Take time during and after your
practice to commend yourself for your improvements. The more successes
you look for, the more successes youll find, and the more likely youll be to
practice tomorrow.
One additional step is to journal your progress. At the end of each practice,
make a few notes about what you accomplished and what your next steps
are. This way, you will know exactly what to focus on during tomorrows
practice.
Mirror, Mirror
Playing in front of a mirror will not only help you identify and address
postural and technical issues, it will also help inspire you to become the
musician you eventually want to look and sound like.







What do you feel you need to do on a daily basis to maintain your skill level?
Keeping both hands limber and fresh is always a good challenge. One of
the most important things as a full-time string quartet player that I've
learned and been told by mentors is to keep solo projects and repertoire
going at all times. I will be able to play a Beethoven quartet better if I also
have Paganini, a concerto, and solo Bach actively in my fingers, for
example. So, in my daily solo practicing, I try to spend one-half to two-
thirds of the session on solo worka combination of scales, etudes, and
solo repertoireand the other part I devote to quartet repertoire.
Do you have your own daily routine of scales or technical exercises?
I play scales (including arpeggios, thirds, and so on) every day. I spent
many years following different scale systems and methods (Ivan Galamian,
Carl Flesch, and others), but at this point I like to be creative and
spontaneous in my routine. Every few days I add new elements into my
practicing of scales, challenging myself to address issues I see in my
playing of solo and quartet repertoire. For example, if Im playing a moto
perpetuo type of movement, I might focus on fast spiccato in my scales to
awaken precision and quickness in both hands.
Do you still use tudes and/or study guides?
I always enjoy practicing tudes and seeking out new ones. I grew up
studying a lot of the standard violin tude booksincluding Kreutzer, Dont,
Paganini, Sevcikand I still work regularly on these. In my quartet folder I
currently have Kreutzer No. 1, Dont No. 7 and No. 14, and Paganini No. 6
and No. 7. Im interested in tudes that are artistically motivating, such as
Tartinis The Art of Bowing; this book ostensibly focuses on particular
bowing techniques and articulations, but each variation is a real piece of
music, beautiful to play and to work on. It is important to me that technical
exercises are not always practiced in a vacuum, separate from their
practical purposes.
Was there a particular teacher who was instrumental in developing your practice regimen?
Each of my teachers has given me different, invaluable help on my practice
regimen. Kathleen Winkler, with whom I studied for seven years from the
crucial age of 1118, gave me an extraordinary foundation for organized,
purposeful practicing of scales and etudes, grounded in the Ivan Galamian
tradition. I gained inspiring advice from my teacher Joel Smirnoff on how to
solve problems creatively in my undergraduate studies at Columbia
University and the Juilliard School. My teachers in graduate school, Masao
Kawasaki at Juilliard and summer studies with Donald Weilerstein and Earl
Carylss at Aspen, all helped me in my transition from practicing like a
student to practicing like a professional.
How has your daily practice regimen changed over time as you've advanced?
I have learned to become much more efficient and creative in my
practicing: I change around the order of my practicing (not always starting
with scales, for example), I practice mentally (without the violin in hand), I
change my perspective on a piece or etude on a regular basis (for instance,
practicing in a different physical space, experimenting with different
bowings, speeds, and so on). In general, I like to keep myself on my toes
while practicing.
How do you know when you need to brush up on fundamentals?
When my quartet is traveling and performing frequently, without much time
to practice, I find that I most need to play slow scales of all kinds and get
myself reconnected to my sound. This is a good time for tudes like
Kreutzer No. 1 for focused bow awareness and Paganini No. 6 for left-hand
clarity.
What advice can you offer about developing a daily practice regimen?
Its essential to look at established books and methods for guidance on a
helpful practice regimen and try these out for periods of time. However, a
key to keeping yourself focused and inspired in your practicing is finding
your own regimen, maybe a compilation of different techniques and advice
from others, and keeping it varied. In my experience, if you do something
exactly the same way every single day for years on end, you are not
always challenging yourself to get better. Establish artistic goals for your
playing that can be worked on in all parts of your practicing.





How to Make Better Use of Your
Practice Time
Manage your time effectively and creatively to make woodshedding
fun
By James Reel posted August/September 2005
Why do people give up playing after just a little study? Usually not because
its hard. Not because they hurt themselves. Not because instrument rental
and lessons are too expensive.

No, the problem for most people is practicing. They want to play great,
beautiful music, but what gets in the way is the daily drudgery of practicing.
Its like having a chance to go back in time to help Antonio Stradivari create
an instrument, but spending most of your visit watching the varnish dry.

It shouldnt be that way, says Philip Baldwin, assistant professor of violin
and viola at Eastern Washington University.

Good practicing is creative practicing, he insists. Practicing shouldnt be
dull. But how do you make it more creative?

Baldwin offers plenty of tips on how to avoid mindless repetition.
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First, he advises, establish a flexible set of priorities for practicing a new
piece. Decide which elements you need to be working on, and which of
them are most important. The order of importance can change depending
on your technical and musical abilities and performance demands. If you
have to play something without a lot of preparation, for example, you need
to get control of the notes, rhythms, and intonation before anything else.

Its really important not to get the cart before the horse, Baldwin warns. A
lot of students tend to focus on just their favorite thing. If intonation is what
they deem most important, theyll focus on it to the extent that they may not
consider their physical movement. And if theyre absolutely rigid physically,
they wont hit the notes every time; rigidity destroys good playing.

So your priorities should include some balance of getting the correct notes
down, working out the rhythms and bowings, watching your position and
posture, being careful with intonation (more on that later), working on
shifting (with a relaxed left thumb, repeat each shift five times or more, up
and down), watching bow division and articulation, and paying attention to
vibrato and tone, all while developing an interpretation of the piece. Thats
just for starters.
Time Management
Before you get nervous about what else youre supposed to accomplish
during creative practicing, Baldwin would like to remind you that you can
get a lot of good work done if you manage your time smartly.

Use a tape recorder or video camera to record a segment of your practice,
then play it back and note the time of every change of activity, and decide if
that pattern has helped you make any progress. If not, change it.

Set a kitchen timer at the desired period you think it will take to accomplish
a practicing goal. One minute? Five? That depends on what youre working
on, but dont spend more than five minutes at any one thing. Having to
accomplish the goal in a certain time frame adds focus and makes you
work faster, says Baldwin.

Place a Post-it note at the beginning and end of the passage youre
practicing, so you wont be tempted to waste time by reading beyond the
end. Be sure to start with the correct bowing and position, and dont go on
until youve performed the section accurately several times.

But dont use that technique for every single passage you practice. In the
midst of one section, stop playing and perform a different, difficult section
once only, then return to your regular practicing. That keeps you from
getting bogged down in repetition.

Speaking of time, repeat a new activity for 60 seconds without judging
yourself. Sometimes students are afraid to try a particular bow stroke,
posture, or part of the bow because they are afraid it will sound bad, says
Baldwin. Little is lost if only 60 seconds are devoted to it, so be brave and
take a risk.
Make Your Mark
Most important to using your time efficiently, Baldwin says, is marking your
music. Mark bowings and fingerings in the score as soon as you decide on
them; mark reference bowings so you can start in the middle of a phrase;
use colored pencils for specific kinds of markings; use brackets to identify
practice spots; mark tempos. Keep pencils handy, and use them! Then you
wont waste time figuring out the same things again and again.

A lot of students think its their teachers job to mark things in their music,
Baldwin sighs. Students dont feel they have the right to change teachers
fingerings or bowings, which probably is not a bad instinct. But theres
nothing wrong with marking a reminder bowing, or clarifying a direction. I
have to tell my youth orchestra to write in staccato or circle piano; if I
dont train them to do that, they wont do it. Maybe its something about the
sanctity of this beautiful page of music.
"If I have a nice edition I dont want to get sloppy with, I photocopy a page
and do all my messy erasing on the copy; then when I get it to what I want
it to be, I transfer the final marks to the original.
Clear the Way
To learn notes efficiently, Baldwin advocates what he calls the Zamboni
Effect. Zamboni is the make of the machine that cleans the ice at a skating
rink.

It eliminates all the grooves, Baldwin explains. In music, the grooves are
the mistakes or the miscoordinations that we make when we play. By
completely reorganizing the way the music is practiced, your brain can
learn in new ways; its not stuck in its old ruts.

To achieve the Zamboni Effect, take a passage you need to practice;
rewrite it, eliminating the printed rhythm; and play the notes one at a time.

The most evident problems, says Baldwin, are rhythm and bow control.
The rhythm is primarily a left-hand problem, while the bow control is
obviously a right-hand problem. The best way to conquer this passage is to
separate the functions of the hands and to learn each independently.

To learn the left hand, first, remove the rhythm and practice the notes as
equal quarter notes or half notes, using a drone pitch wherever possible.

I also find that changing the metric grouping helps a great deal, says
Baldwin. For instance, regroup patterns of fours into triplets or quintuplets,
or shift the metric accent to the second, third, and fourth note of a group.

Once youve mastered the notes, you can address the right-hand problems.
Train Your Ear
Baldwin also advocates using practice time to train your ear. Take a high
passage down an octave. Sing through a passage for pitch and musical
contour. Close your eyes and just listen to a passage in your head. Sing
and play at the same time.

Having a good ear is essential to working on good intonation. Baldwin
suggests that you use drone pitches to check the harmonic integrity of your
intonation; you could even record a series of drones with a metronome
pulse, and play back to the recording.

Intentionally miss a note or shift sharp or flat, Baldwin says. If you can
miss it, you know where it is. And practice something called visual
intonationvisualize the spaces between notes with the various fingers,
so you can create each note accurately in your head before moving your
finger on the string.

There are many ways to work on coordination between the left and right
hands while making practice less repetitive. If you assume the problem is
in one hand, says Baldwin, check the other for the solution.

He suggests that you play a slow passage quickly, or a fast passage
slowly. Practice the hands separately.

Change the tempo, but never go faster than you can play perfectly. Try a
musical version of sprintingpractice short segments, and then join them.
Use light left-hand fingers and keep them close to the strings. Release the
thumb pressure of either hand. If youre playing notes in groups of four, say
one-two-three-four as you play. Group notes into units and think only of
the unit, not of the individual notes. And if an open string follows a fingered
note under a slur, use a mild left-hand pizz to help rhythmize the bow.
The Big Picture
But while practicing, dont get so focused on the physical aspects of playing
that you forget about your mind and heart. Baldwin suggests that you
spend some practice time analyzing the musics chord structure, writing in
enharmonic equivalents, analyzing bow placement and distributions,
memorizing, even playing a passage backward to keep your brain working.

And in terms of your emotions and those in the music, vary the mood of a
section, vary the dynamics, vary your practice environment, vary the time of
day you practice, do mock performances for a tape recorder, and do real
performances for anybody nearby, even your dog.

At all times, keep your mind in motion, right from the beginning of your
practice session. Baldwin is especially fond of a line from Robert
Gerles The Art of Practising the Violin: Think what you need to accomplish
specifically during the days practice: three minutes spent thinking about
your practicing before you start are worth three hours spent in aimless
repetition, during which you only learn the bad better.