Practice Tip #2

Don't just play through your piece.

What was that?  You thought you were supposed to?  Well, yes, you are supposed to play through your piece, and that's great.  But that's not the ONLY part of practicing.  You also need to actually practice.

What is practice?  It's all the boring stuff that you really don't want to have to do at your lesson, or that you don't want everyone else to hear.  It's going through your piece, measure by measure, and painstakingly taking it part.  Perfecting notes.  Then rhythms.  Then bowings.  Then starting to put them back together again.  Measure by measure.

One good tool to use during this time is your metronome.  Oh, you hate yours too?  Yeah, me too.  They're annoying.  But GREAT little tools.  Use yours.  You'll thank me later.  And guess what?  Every time you use it, it gets easier.  That's right.

As a matter of fact, every time you practice, it gets easier.  As you get the hang of taking pieces apart and putting them back together, it gets easier.  It also gets easier to learn a new piece when you're a better sight reader.  If you can read through a piece, for the first time ever, and get 50% of everything perfect, that's only 50% left you have to learn.  Well, if you can read it through and get 90% perfect, you only have to learn 10%!  And that's a good thing.

So remember, when you are learning a new piece, before you play it through, take it apart, then put it back together.  When you are reviewing an old piece, play it through, take apart the bits you need to relearn, put it back together, then play it through again.

Until next time.  Happy Practicing!