Welcome to Gaia! ::

lady madrigal asked a question a while back that I haddnt seen until now. I answered with some advice that you may or may not find helpful



I know this was written in July and im replying really late. But in case you or anyone else runs into this problem again, here is some advice. I'll move it to the main forums so more people can see it This is going to be long... but it should help if you really dont know how to practice.

==== Your not going to get it overnight ====
You may already know this, but some people really don't so im going to tell you. You need get past the idea that your going to learn it overnight. It's not going to happen. You would be like godly if you did. Your probably not going to perfect it all in a couple weeks. But you really need to give him something to work with or you'll waste your own time and his. When it comes down to it, a teacher can only teach you what your willing to go home and learn. They can show you what to do, but if you dont go home and do it, you wont get anywhere. You'll be in the same place every lesson and it'll be a waste of money and time.

==== The Kitchen Timer and How Long To Practice====
If you have a kitchen timer get it out, if you dont then go buy one. I LOVE my kitchen timer. Have you ever started practicing, get bored, and feel like you've practiced for 30 min, and really its only been 10min? Yeah, I did that until I started using a kitchen timer. It scares the daylights out of me everytime it goes off but it works.

My professor told me I have to practice 3 hours a day to get better. Then he added to that statement, don't ever sit for 3 hours straight and practice (He also told me about the kitchen timer). Unless your a music major at a university practically living in the practice room, who has time for that? You have to learn to scatter your practice throughout the day. Practice 20 min here and 15 min there. Until your satisfied with your day. Use the timer to set what you want to accomplish, maybe its 10min, maybe 40min. Dont forget to write down what you've practiced each time so you dont forget. Believe me it works. Im an oboist and building endurence is huge for oboe so the timer forces me to keep going without realizing it.
==============================================
So if I break it down. Here's some tips on how I practice...

- Find a place with little distraction, get your tuner, metronome, timer, some water, ect out. Get it all out so you dont keep getting up to get something. (Im really ADD i'll get distracted doing that) This may sound wierd, but I like to practice in a bathroom or a hallway thats echoy. I just like the oboe sound coming back at me, it makes me feel better. xp But practice were your comfortable and not distracted.

- (This one will help you in the long run) Play one or two scales before you start anything else (make them different everytime) Maybe some long tones or warm up excersizes for your particular instrument. Dont wear yourself out on your warm up though. If your going to do like a quick 15 min practice dont beat yourself up on this, just play a scale and move on. That said, scales are very important and you should take the time every once in a while to focus on them and make sure your getting them down.

- Take out your most pressing piece first, not just your easy ones.

- DO NOT get overwhelmed by what's in front of you. Breath... your going to take this one step at a time. You might be surprised by how many people cant make it past this part.

- DONT barrel through the piece from beginning to end, time after time until you get bored!!! All you'll end up knowing is the beginning, the easy parts, and maybe the last line. You'll struggle through the rest forever. Im begging you not to do this... You will officially fail at practicing if you do this

- Start one measure, line, or phrase at a time. GO SLOWER than regular tempo. DONT move on until you have the previous measure down. If you really cant get a measure, circle it and skip it until you can get to your instructor about it. But go back to it! and play it a million times until your proud that you learned it right.

- USE YOUR METRONOME!!!! Instead of barreling though only making sure you get the right notes. Focus more on giving each individual note beauty. Think of each note as having its own voice. THIS IS WHY WE GO SLOW FOR A LITTLE WHILE. wink Take this time to look at dynamics, intonation, articulation, phrasing, ect. Most people miss these things going too fast too soon. This is how the pros do it. START SLOW. I cant say that enough. When you get it down right GRADUALLY speed it up until you can play it just as beautiful fast as you did slow. Dont think that your just going to learn the right notes first and add the musicality later. Its extrememly difficult to do that actually, whether your aware of it or not. Go slow enough so you can do it all at the same time.

-After that you've done it. All you have to do is polish up anything little you need to work on. It may seem like going slower will take forever, but it really dosnt. You actually learn faster going slower. xd
===============================================
This calls for a lot of discipline, but its vital if you want to do this right. If you can do this it shows how much you really want it... Practicing correctly is a mind game as much as anything else. You just have to take control. And dont think you have to start these habits all at one time. Habits are things that take time to make and lose. Dont ever let yourself get overwhelmed, you'll probably just shut down... You need to work towards this though if you want to do the best you can. And you can do it. It'll just take a little time and effort. Like I said, its how much you really want it.

Good Luck Practicing wink
-Kel

I really does come down to how much you love it. It's easier for some people than others. But then again there are still people who really love music that truly practice the wrong way, so they get bad resilts and get frustrated and overwhelmed. Thats why I wrote this, I used to get that way a long time ago, but I had a big enough passion for music to learn and change the way I practice.

I'm really glad that I came across this post. Now that it's summer, I've been losing some of my motivation to practice. Even though I have a performance coming up I just haven't been able to concentrate.

Now I'm going to try some of those tips. Thanks `Kel`.

Great tip! I started getting into yoga lat year, and omg, i did not know how stiff i was. most likely from the repetitive motions of playing all these years. My current instructor works out at a gym and does cardio, i might follow in her footsteps. Hopefully it will give me better endurance for those long stretches of playin (and incredibly defined arms razz

Awesome thread, thank you for posting this. Practising comes easy to me for singing but with piano I find it harder so having a reminder of these things is good.