Posted on: 6/19/13 by Sulli
Hey
guys, Sulli here with the first Practice Tips in a while. I'm going to make
this an actual series now, and will have its own tab and picture soon but let's
start off slowly. First, let me say I am a 90's kid, so I will use a lot of
90's-00's references when I'm writing these tips so bear with me if you don't
quite get them at first. Anyone who has been in a science class at all since
the mid-late 80's will recognize this first reference.
So,
let me go ahead and say one of the biggest problems that I see in students that
I've taught or have studied with. They aren't confident enough with their
instrument and/or not confident enough with their playing. I, too, have had my
fair share of these sorts of mishaps and still do from time to time as well, however
what got me through that was with a little saying; live by Frizzle's Law. Now,
as you can probably guess I'm referring to Mrs. Frizzle from "Magic School
Bus". Her most famous saying is to "take chances, make
mistakes, and get messy" and I see it as the perfect example to practice
and sight read by.First we have “take chances”. I see this as, "Don't be afraid to
take a chance on something new. Do it because you know no matter what, you will
benefit from it.” Use this as a way to see a mistake in the practice room or
from sight reading as menacing. One will never grow as a musician, or a
human being, if they don’t ever look at something new and say it’s too hard.
Personally, I love to go for new stuff. I look for the most challenging pieces
I can find and try to play through them. If they are completely out of my league
then I put it down and come back to it whenever I think I think it’s just the
right amount of challenging. That, too, is another point I need to stress as
well. If it’s entirely out of your league then don’t force yourself to play it.
One should know his or her strengths and weaknesses however don’t ignore it
because you think it’s too hard. Give it a look over, or try to play through
it. If you can’t make it through, then don’t push yourself too hard.
Next we have, “make mistakes”. Now, in this case I don’t mean to make them intentionally while performing or repeatedly make them when you should have fixed them in the first place. By this part, I mean “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake when practicing because something is too difficult”, or “Don’t let making a mistake in a performance throw you off your zone”. Don’t let a mistake make you frustrated while practicing. Remember that you are simply practicing a piece, not performing it so should there be one then note it and work on it more. A good musician knows when a mistake is from not practicing enough, and when it’s an honest mishap (yes, they will happen whether you’re ready or not). When it is an honest mistake, and you are in a situation where it would not be in the best interest to stop playing then don’t stop. Don’t let a mistake throw you off your zone.
Finally, we must remember to, “get messy”. This doesn’t mean to get messy with your technique, but “Don’t be afraid to sight read music because it might sound messy”. Don’t forget that you are practicing for a performance which shouldn’t sound messy. One should get messy when it comes to practicing and sight reading because the piece shouldn’t be performed messy.
So, as you have hopefully seen this thought can be used as a good mentality to practice with whenever one may need it. If you like what you have read then don’t forget to Subscribe to the blog via email, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or SoundCloud. As always, thanks for reading and remember to fear the cellos!
Next we have, “make mistakes”. Now, in this case I don’t mean to make them intentionally while performing or repeatedly make them when you should have fixed them in the first place. By this part, I mean “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake when practicing because something is too difficult”, or “Don’t let making a mistake in a performance throw you off your zone”. Don’t let a mistake make you frustrated while practicing. Remember that you are simply practicing a piece, not performing it so should there be one then note it and work on it more. A good musician knows when a mistake is from not practicing enough, and when it’s an honest mishap (yes, they will happen whether you’re ready or not). When it is an honest mistake, and you are in a situation where it would not be in the best interest to stop playing then don’t stop. Don’t let a mistake throw you off your zone.
Finally, we must remember to, “get messy”. This doesn’t mean to get messy with your technique, but “Don’t be afraid to sight read music because it might sound messy”. Don’t forget that you are practicing for a performance which shouldn’t sound messy. One should get messy when it comes to practicing and sight reading because the piece shouldn’t be performed messy.
So, as you have hopefully seen this thought can be used as a good mentality to practice with whenever one may need it. If you like what you have read then don’t forget to Subscribe to the blog via email, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or SoundCloud. As always, thanks for reading and remember to fear the cellos!
Posted on: 6/26/13 by Sulli
Hey everyone, Sulli here and I'm back with episode 2 of the Practice Tips series. Today, I'm bringing back an older topic from the previous series and mixing it up a little bit. As the title says, one of the best things to do is practice slowly. If you want to read the original article(and it's worth a look over, but nothing great): http://sulliadm.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-practice-episode-1-start-slow.html
Back to the topic, one of the more common problems in musicians is the desire to keep things fast, especially while practicing. While that is not a bad idea if you know what you're playing, the better option is to play slower than you think. The overall objective of practicing is to know what the music you are learning is, not just recognize it through finger motion. Learning it involves not only being able to play it, but to be able to play it starting from anywhere. In order to get that deep of learning something, one must practice slowly.
Another thing to remember when practicing slowly is everything that goes in behind the music, such as bowings/breath marks, articulations, the style of the piece, etc. Run through the piece multiple times at that tempo and do the following: 1st focus on the note accuracy; make sure you can play every note at that tempo and the pitch is correct. 2nd focus on the articulations and bowing/breath markings and enforce those because they are there to make the piece easier or to sound a certain way that the composer likes. Finally focus on the stylistics if there is a style listed.
The way to tell if you're starting off too slow is if you can follow the checklist above and not have any errors. Usually when I'm deciding where to start the tempo at, I usually start with the tempo as written, then dial it back 20. If that's too fast, then I go back in intervals of 5 or as close to that as you can get. After you have completed the song or section several times and feel comfortable speeding up, then do so slowly. Only make tempo jumps in increments of no more than 5 BPM (beats per minute). This insures you are sure you know what you are playing. This process is a long way, however the payoff is you are creating beautiful music. There will be times this will be cumbersome, annoying, and possibly time consuming but I promise this is the way professional musicians like to practice.
So, as you have hopefully seen this thought can be used as a good mentality to practice with whenever one may need it. If you like what you have read then don’t forget to Subscribe to the blog via email (to the right), YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or SoundCloud. As always, thanks for reading and remember to fear the cellos!
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