Why Practice: As humans, we are what we repeatedly do.

These repetitions (whatever they are) become our habits and become what we do well. What we do well can be viewed as positive/correct or negative/wrong. When you are learning something new, you will need to spend time studying to learn the material. In music, the way we study, is to practice. When we practice, we want something to happen (play beautifully, gain expert technique, learn new pieces, etc.). In other words, we want results positive results! Positive Results Require: Setting specific goals and objectives (short, medium, and long range). Setting high standards of excellence for technique and artistry. Committing to regular self-disciplined effort and training. Consistently producing a high level of physical energy for any given task. How to Practice: Understand the difference between playing and practicing. Playing is when we are making music with our instrument, but not intently focused on skill development. This is the most fun outcome of studying music (concerts, jam sessions, etc.) but is not to be confused with practice. Understand that practice does not make perfect it makes consistent. Good practice will in fact perfect a passage, but bad practice will make you an expert at playing badly. Understand you are working on being able to make music on your instrument this requires developing a necessary skill set and muscle memory through individual practice. 3 Steps (3 Cs) to Developing a Skill: (Skill = being able to do a task consistently and with ease) 1. Comprehension understanding exactly the task you are trying to do (be able to explain with words and instrument). 2. Cooperation getting your physical body to cooperate with what your mind comprehends. Allow only 3 attempts to see if you can do the task if you are unsuccessful, review comprehension and check your speed. Go slowly with small sections. If you practice slowly, you will forget slowly. If you practice too fast, you will forget quickly. The music must be practiced slowly to have time to be programmed into and absorbed by your brain/muscles. 3. Constructive repetition repeating the task after you have achieved cooperation. Two parts of brain judging part (smart side yes you have it, or no you do not) and the one in charge of motor skills (not as smart as judging). The brain remembers only exactly what we do it does not care whether it was done right or wrong it knows what we did and how many times we did it that way.

Use the two sides of the brain to execute the task and evaluate (or judge) what you did. Dont practice UNTIL you get it right Practice WHEN you get it right. Practice until you do it correctly, even the score of correct repetitions with the incorrect repetitions, and then do 10 times more correctly. Disguise constructive repetitions with rhythms (short-long /long-short), add a note sections, doubling, etc. if an added level of focus or variety is needed. Once we have done our constructive repetition, it is very important that we review this skill in DAILY practice to commit it to muscle memory. Muscles tend to forget skills that arent reinforced through DAILY practice. Approach your practice with balance. As you skill level grows, there will be some pieces/skills that you can learn with less section breakdown and constructive repetition. Be smart in how you practice so you use your time wisely by putting extra time and constructive repetitions on the most difficult sections. Ideal Daily Practice Outline Set daily goals Keep the priorities of posture, tone, intonation, rhythm and musical expression at the center of your practice. If you dont have a specific practice goal, use the forward progress thought of being better today than yesterday. Remember that there is no maintaining you are either getting better or getting worse. Set specific times and lengths of practice Practice should be daily or at the very minimum every other day. Not following this necessary step in muscle memory will only result in dramatically slowed forward progress. Good advice is to only practice on the days you eat. Practicing often is much more beneficial than random lengthy practices. If practicing is focused on the 3 Cs of skill development, much can be gained in a short session (15-30 minutes). The more technique development (scales, etudes, review) and new repertoire that you are working on will demand longer practicing sessions. Dont practice more than 5 hours a day and take a 10 minute break every hour you practice (50 minutes on followed by 10 off). Tuning and Warm up Tune your instrument at the start of each practice session. Warm-up with a tonalization a piece or selected etude with many resonance points that emphasizes tone based on the natural resonance of your instrument. Skill / Repertoire Development After a warm up, most practice sessions will follow with a series of skill-building components. These include scales, etudes, review of polished repertoire, sight-reading, and technical exercises (vibrato, shifting, bow exercises, etc.). The next component is focused practice on current repertoire Choosing appropriate repertoire is usually done in your private lessons.

End of Practice Session If the practice session has been lengthy or physically intense, allow some cool down and possible stretching to take care of tired muscles. To give a focus towards the next practice session, evaluate the forward progress you made and set goals for the next session. Remember that developing our musical skills requires lots of constructive repetition. To perfect and polish these skills requires an immense amount of dedication and patience.