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Copyright Jan. 2004
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Practice
within 24 hours before and after the lesson.
Use short-term memory to advantage for remembering exactly what and how
to play each piece and exercise and to remember what the teacher said about
each problem to be solved. Try to remember every suggestion, correction,
or comment. Practice 5 days a week if possible.
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Use
problem-solving techniques (practice strategies) to get each piece close
to its exact truth (Problem-solving Mode).
If while playing or practicing, any error is performed, stop playing, repeating,
or practicing and switch into problem-solving mode. Execute one
of the strategies below to repair the error and fix the problem. Then switch
back into either save mode, review mode, or performance mode.
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Playing
two or more notes repeatedly forward and backwards many times in a circle is
one helpful strategy. Often the problem to be solved is only a few tricky
notes or patterns. Spend most of the practice time on these problems.
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Playing
one or more measures very slowly until problems disappear
is another strategy.
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Add
a note or group backwards
is another strategy that takes some explaining. Start at the end of the
problem and work backwards towards the beginning of the problem. If the
music section where there’s a practice problem goes like this: (abcdefghijkl),
then play (kl) many times, then (jkl), then (ijkl),
(hijkl), (ghijkl), (fghijkl), and so on, repeating
each group as many times as necessary to solve the problem and achieve
evenness and ease. Each letter above could represent 1-9 notes or 1-2 measures
depending on the difficulty of the music and the student’s ability. Then
play on to find other musical problems. Start at the end of each problem
and execute add a group backwards.
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Once
all problems have been solved and the music can be played correctly and
evenly at a slow tempo, Save Mode is executed.
We (chemical, electrical, analog) humans do not possess a save button as
such. To learn, reinforce, gain confidence, memorize, and achieve repeatability
of a difficult piece of music, we must evenly and correctly repeat the
music many times a day, five days a week, for many weeks. How many is again
dependant on our ability and the difficulty of the music. During Save
Mode, the music will start to get easier. Since we start this mode
at a slow tempo, we only speed up as it gets easier to speed up. Remember,
the musical speed limit is for there to be no errors played, an evenness
of tempo throughout, and a relative ease of effort. Slow down, evenly,
until this state of ease and error-free playing is reached. Then continue
repeating at this speed until it becomes easier to go faster without errors
or rushing. At any time, some difficulty can require further slowing down
or returning to problem solving mode.
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Review
this material five days a week for up to three months.
The number of daily repetitions depends on the music and the level of the
player. This long review will allow the brain to store the skill in Long
Term Memory.
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Remember-Practice
makes permanent, but playing is not the same thing as practice.
The difference is in the goal setting to improve, repair, and make the
skill easier and permanent. Practicing to improve is an attitude and a
habit that can get better as you work on it. Practice is a means to an
end. Practice will be enjoyable as you experience improvement.
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