Practicing
Whether you make music for fun or desire to become the greatest soloist of all time, the most time spent playing your instrument is not on performing or rehearsing chamber music with your friends, but practising. We all want to get better.
Yet, have you ever felt, that your practising was a waste of time, since you were able to play a part after a practice session and the next day when you attempted the part it seemed like you had to start all over again? Have you ever wondered how to make practice less boring and frustrating, and even give fun and satisfaction?
The Principle of Hope
Many, who want or need to play a piece soon, find themselves trying to work hard and long hoping that, if they just practice enough, they will at last become perfect.
This then gets even more frustrating, because the harder they try, the slower it seems they progress.
Those who practice with hope sound often like a broken record, repeating a section mindlessly over and over again hoping that they will „get it into the fingers“ or on autopilot, playing a piece until they notice a mistake, correcting it, playing on until they notice the next mistake and so on.
Mindful Practising
The way of practising I want to share with you in this little series on my blog is a different activity.
Deliberate or mindful practising is a highly structured and focused activity, which takes in advantage everything we know today about how our brain learns memorises and acquires skills. It is a sometimes seemingly slow process, that requires defining a skill and searching for the best solution to certain problems, which will after a while make your practising more efficient, measurable and therefore a more joyful and rewarding activity.
In this blog, I don‘t want to give you only a simple How-To Guide, but share with you information to help you with making your practising a more mindful and efficient activity and some recipes on how to tackle certain problems.
Please feel free to comment on, discuss with me and to share the articles, that I will publish here over the next few weeks.
General Thoughts:
- Goals – Start off with asking the right questions!
- S.M.A.R.T -Goals
- Getting Into Practice Mode
- How long should you practice?
- Practice to Remember! How does our brain memorize best?