Practice Tip #3 - The Four Practice Steps

Last time, I discussed the need to do more than just play through your piece during your practice sessions.  The need to take your piece apart, perfect each piece individually, then put it back together.  Well, how do we do that?

Several ways.  One of which is the Four Practice Steps.

The first thing you need to do is divide up the part you're perfecting.  Take it a measure, or even just a couple of beats, at a time.

1)  Stopped Eighth Notes
Play the little itty bitty section you have (4-8 notes maximum) as all stopped eighth notes.  The point of this first practice step is to get the notes figured out.  Bowings don't matter, neither do rhythms.  And certainly dynamics and other musical ideas aren't in play here.  Just the notes.  Place each note accurately, precisely, and perfectly.  If you play a wrong note, now's the time to fix it.  Mark your part as needed.  You'll need to do this step a few times until you know where all the notes are.  Use a piano to check your intonation if you need to.

2)  Hiccups
Set the first note of your itty bitty section.  Check your finger, check your bow.  Then play that first note, twice.  Very quickly.  The rhythm should sound like the word, "hiccup".  Again, bowings and rhythms that are marked in the piece don't matter.  We're still after solidifying those notes.  Then, once you've played your first hiccup, stop.  Set your next note.  Check your fingers, check your bow.  Then play another hiccup.  Keep going like this until you reach the end of your itty bitty section.  This is supposed to be slow going - you're perfecting notes here!  So make sure you stop in between each note so you can check the next one.  You should never be playing any wrong notes here.  Repeat this step a few times, until you don't have to stop for as long, BUT YOUR INTONATION IS STILL PERFECT.  That's important.  Never practice incorrect notes.

3)  Doubles
This step is just like the hiccups, without any stops.  Start slow, and each time you repeat this step go a bit faster.  You should be playing this step very fast, PERFECTLY, before you go on.

4)  Stopped Slurs
NOW is where bowings and rhythms finally start to matter.  Play the bowings as marked, but instead of playing any smooth slurs, all slurs that are written in your part should be stopped.  Yes, this means you actually stop the bow.  This step is very important.  It makes our body stop so our brain has time to direct the muscles to do the correct bowing.  It also allows our brain and muscles to figure out how much bow to give each note.  If you only have one note per bow, it's not hard.  Go up to two notes per bow, not that difficult either.  But what if you have eight, or sixteen, notes per bow?  This is where stopped slurs come in very handy to quickly learn how to distribute our bow.  This step should also be repeated, with the same passage, several times.

NOW you get to play it as written.  If you followed the steps correctly, you should easily be able to play the passage correctly, as written, with correct bowings and intonation.  Assign yourself a small section to learn each day, and you'll be amazed at how quickly you learn your piece!  Once you have a few very small sections mastered, try going through the four practice steps with longer sections.  This should not take as many repetitions, as you've already learned it.  You're just putting it together now.

The four practice steps are just one method of learning difficult passages.  More ideas to come soon!

Happy Practicing!