Advice for Practicing

Practice = (perception + effort) × repetition

            The idea behind practicing is that our bodies adapt according to how we use them. If you use your body to shoot a basketball, those muscles will develop. If you use your body to watch TV, those muscles won’t develop. Each muscle in the body gets built according to what it was specifically used for.

            We learn things by patterning motions. Repetition makes these motions a part of you. When you’re repeating something, that’s not your time to daydream. You should try to learn something from each repetition. Mistakes are never random; mistakes are things that are easier for your body to do than the right thing. Was the note too high or too low? Did your bow move too much or too little? Paying close attention can work wonders.

            The biggest thing you have to conquer is the desire to give up. If you trust yourself and keep doing it, over weeks and weeks things will build up until you see how much good practicing can do. If you only practice once in a while, things will not build up, and it’ll feel hopeless. Remember, improvement itself is a skill. Once you start improving, it’ll snowball.

When working on a passage:

1. Notes. Read the music carefully. If there’s something you don’t understand, look at it one note at a time. If an ornament is messing you up, learn the passage first without the ornament

2. Intonation. Choose a small, manageable section and play for pitch, slowly, without tempo or bowings. (A small section might be only two notes.) Make sure every note is in the best place possible, to the best of your hearing. Do this many times. No speed is too slow! Always focus on shifts first, then the notes that are in the same position. Don’t go past a wrong note.

3. Bowings and Rhythms. Play at this same slow speed with the printed bowings and rhythms. Remember where the big beats are.

4. Tempo. Gradually speed it up, keeping everything in tune (difficult!). When you’ve got it together, use the metronome to slowly inch things up. When you’ve reached the point where you can’t do it anymore, that’s your top speed for the day. Write it down for tomorrow. Play just under this top speed many times—with concentration, maybe you can inch it up.

5. Musicality. Some musical ideas, especially those done with the bow, will have to be practiced slowly and worked up. Make what’s in your imagination come out of the violin.

When working on a shift:

1. Find where the two notes are.

2. Old-finger slide.

3. Clean shift.

4. Speed. Don’t give up—this takes time.

5. Put it back in the piece.

String Crossings:

1. Find notes (double stops are very useful).

2. Alternating accents for bow coordination: strong-weak, weak-strong.

To speed something up:

1. Make sure you can do it correctly. (Slow practice.)

2. Find a good pace with the metronome and inch it up.

3. Use speed rhythms: LSLS, SLSL, LSSS, SSSS

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why do I have to practice scales?

A: Scales are the simplest thing we do on the violin, so if you can’t play them right, something’s wrong. They’re also amazing for intonation. Scales are a perfect way to warm up your fingers, to warm up your bow, and to warm up your ears by playing something harmonically simple. When these scales come up in pieces, which they will, you’ll already know them. They’re great for your hand position, and we use them to practice other things like bowstrokes, shifts, finger articulation, grouping, and of course speed. There are hundreds of other reasons, too.

Q: I’m practicing, but I don’t see any improvement.

A: Keep in mind that the effects of practicing often take place over a long period of time—you can do something every day for a week and only see the effects at the end of the week. That’s normal. Another reason might be that your standards have gone up since the beginning of the week. A lot of things affect your improvement, and not just how many days you’ve practiced this week, but the week before, and the month before that. Another thing to think about is how much sleep you got the night before.

Q: I feel like I’m worse than I was yesterday.

A: Don’t expect the beginning of your practice to be as good as the end of yesterday’s practice. This is a common thing to do. Chances are, the beginning of today’s practice is not worse than the beginning of yesterday’s. Also, if your assignment is something that’s physically hard, like an extended fingering, it could be that your muscles got worked out and are still building.

Q: I play so much better at home.

A: Remember that there are different degrees of being able to do something. Doing it on command in front of someone else requires you to be a lot more solid in your skills than doing it at home where you’re comfortable.

Q: I already know how to do this. Why do I have to practice it again?

A: If you know how to do it, that’s great. But knowledge is not ability. I want you to be able to do it, 100% of the time. If I assign something, it’s because I think you need to get even better at it.

Q: What I’m supposed to do feels awkward.

A: Chances are that if you keep practicing, it’ll start to feel more natural.

Q: My hand hurts.

A: STOP. There’s a difference between muscles being tired and muscles being damaged, and it’s important to know the difference. If it feels like what you’re doing is really harmful, let me know.

Q: There’s too much to think about! How can I do all of these things at once?

A: Practice on one thing at a time. Look at the list at the top of this page: intonation first, then rhythm, etc.

Q: After I practice for about a half hour or so, my brain gets full.

A: Take a small break. This doesn’t mean call your best friend or watch a movie, it just means go get a glass of water and come back.

Q: I didn’t practice, but it didn’t seem to matter at the lesson.

A: It could be one of two things. First, I might not have said anything because I was being nice. Second, your assignment might have been easy for you. They won’t all be.

Q: I’m too busy, and I just don’t have time to practice.

A: I’m sorry to hear that.

Q: How many times do I have to repeat something before it gets better?

A: There’s no perfect answer to that. Sometimes I’ll put a number on your music (20x, etc.), and this number is a minimum. I’m guessing that if you do it at least that many times, something will happen. If you want to get better at it, do it more. If I didn’t give you a number, you have to pay careful attention and keep doing it until you feel something change.

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