By rights I should be posting my philosophical musings on practicing first, but I’m not. Instead, in the spirit (get it??) of the season, here are some of my favorite practicing tricks and treats!
Your Toolbox
I believe that, in order to practice most effectively and efficiently, you need to cultivate a “toolbox” of problem solving techniques. What’s in your personal toolbox depends on you! I think of it as a collection of techniques (tricks) and physical tools (treats [yes I’m stretching this metaphor]) that can help you get where you want to be. This is going to be musician-centric, because that’s what I do, but it can probably be applied to most endeavors.
Treats
Let’s reverse our favorite childhood phrase for this, because the physical tools are going to inform our practice techniques.
- METRONOME: You gotta have one. If you’re not familiar with metronomes, it’s a machine that goes CLICK CLICK CLICK at whatever speed you tell it. Music is sound in time, and if you don’t know what that time is you’re going to have… a rough time. It doesn’t have to be a fancy pants Dr. Beat, but you need to be able to hear it while you’re playing.
- TUNER: Sometimes these come in combo with your metronome, such as the popular Korg dealios (which appear to have gotten fancier from when I started in music). I personally use a phone app (TE Tuner, it gives you a smiley face when you’re in tune!) for this. But basically you want something that will tell you if and how sharp or flat you are.
- DRONES: These can be single pitches that either your metronome or tuner might be able to produce, or something like Richard Schwartz’s The Tuning CD which adds in fifths and octaves. These are really great for tuning your ears to hear pitches, and where you fall in relation.
- RECORDING DEVICE: Again, this doesn’t have to be some fancy set-up. All you want from this is good enough sound quality that you can hear everything in your practice that you need to hear: dynamics, pitch, tone quality, whatever. If your phone has good enough mics for this, great! Of course if you’re recording an audition or something you might want to look into some of the nicer options. But you need to hear the problems in order to fix them, and recording your practice lets you do that after the fact. It’s amazing how much you can miss if you rely on your feedback in the moment!
Tricks
There are SO MANY potential practicing tricks. I’ll list some of my favorite general ones for now.
- ASK YOUR TEACHER. If you’re still in school/studying with a teacher, this is your best resource. Naturally we want to get to a point where we can work out things for ourselves, but first we have to learn.
- PRACTICE FLOWCHART. If you search in your favorite search engine, you can find dozens of different charts that people have made to walk you through practicing. I have a violin-centric one from my teacher that breaks down problems by genre (intonation? coordination? bowing?) and offers solutions based on that. You can even put together your own. If you often get stuck in your practicing, these will be great for you!
- ASK A FRIEND. Have a friend listen to your playing, and get their advice! Musician friends can offer more specific and actionable advice, but non-musicians might give you some different perspectives.
Remember, practice makes permanent, so if something isn’t working, don’t keep doing it! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Find some way to change things up, be it rhythms, tempo, bowings, however you can attack from a slightly different angle.
Step one is almost always to slow things down, just so you have time to analyze what’s going on. See if you can pinpoint the problem area(s), and then you can work from there to solve them. Even if it’s a general technique that’s weak, you can use this method to break down what exactly is giving you grief.
Practicing
I always think that half the struggle of practicing is getting into the practice room in the first place. Going in with a plan, or some semblance of one, really helps me get started. Having a toolbox of practicing tricks at your fingertips is a reassurance that you’re not going to be spinning your wheels for the next 1–4 hours, and you can make so much more progress with focused practice!
More to come, but for now, what’s your favorite practice technique, and what have I left out that I ABSOLUTELY shouldn’t have?