How I practice - A Guide to Maximising your Time
Over the summer break I worked out a good routine and schedule for my practice, so now it's easier to drop back into it as time allows.
There are lots of tips and tricks online about effective practicing, but here I describe what a my practice sessions actually look like - the nuts and bolts if you will - sometimes I find it helps to see what those ideas look like in a practical sense, to then adapt it to your own practice.
So the Easter holidays have arrived and the first school term is done. While I do miss the kids (and the income) I do not miss the endless traffic jams I face each day driving around Auckland.
The best thing about the break though - ample time to get back into some solid practice.
This term has been super busy, especially trying to fit in work on my side business (Tricot et Toile) around classes and performances. Regular practice kind of took a back seat. Luckily over the summer I worked out a good routine and schedule for my practice, so it's easier to drop back into it when everything else cools off a bit.
It's easy to find lots of tips and tricks online about practicing and how to practice specific things in more detail, but I haven't found much describing what a good practice session actually looks like - the nuts and bolts if you will - sometimes I find it helps to see what those ideas look like in a practical sense, to then adapt it to your own practice.
Typically, depending on the time I have, I'll do 1 or 2 chunks of 1.5 - 2 hours each -they go a bit like this:
- Tuning (2 mins) - It's important to spend the time to tune properly, 'near enough' is not going to do your intonation any good. I try whenever possible to tune by ear to a concert A, my other strings in perfect fifths. Using the tuner is quicker for sure, but after a while it makes your ear lazy.
- Warm up Scales (10-15mins) - When short on time it's tempting to skip this part, but even just 4 or 5 minutes makes the work you do from then on so much more effective. Scales are such a great way to get you physically and mentally in the zone. I find it's also a good indicator of the day I'm having, if I can crack into it or if I'll need to take things more slowly. I tend to switch between all different types of scales and patterns to keep it interesting.
- Studies (10-20mins each) - I usually have 2 or 3 that I work on at a time. I might spend 1 or 2 weeks looking at it before going on to something else. Studies are an excellent way to target specific areas of technique and develop or maintain skills that are perhaps not as often addressed in the repertoire. Currently I'm working through some Dotzauer studies, but I also like Sevcik and Werner.
- Repertoire (1 hour approx.) - Depending on time and how much there is to cover, I usually divide it up, working 15-20mins on each part. For example:
15 -20 mins each on 2 movements of Symphony
20 mins on Overture
or
15 mins each various excerpts
15 mins each 2 sections of Concerto
This way I can cover a large amount of repertoire, spending time on certain areas or aspects of the music. Rotating through everything over a series of practice sessions. I will of course periodically dedicate a longer time in order to run a whole work or larger section.
When doing 2 sessions in one day. I've found I work best doing one session in the morning, then at least 2 or 3 hours where I can get on with some other work, admin, lesson prep etc. Make something to eat and then return to my cello later in the afternoon. The structure I follow is basically the same but I will vary the material. This way I have more energy and focus, as opposed to doing it all in one hit.
When time is limited, an abridged version of the schedule will leave out the studies and I will be much more selective about choosing the parts of repertoire needing the most attention, either based on technical difficulty and/or performance deadline.
Around 95% of my practice is spent with a metronome.
The most important thing I've found is the quality of practice above quantity. If I'm really focusing, correcting things, listening and feeling everything, the practice is far more effective. For me, I do this better thinking in terms of small chunks. If I sit down for an hour and half to practice just as it comes, it's far too easy to whittle away the time without really achieving much
At a master class with Richard Aaron, professor of cello at Julliard, I remember him saying he'd get his student to set the timer for every 6 minutes and then note down what they had done in that time. Making you hyper aware and accountable for every minute spent. Whilst I'm not quite that disciplined, a little time pressure certainly keeps me focused and motivated.
Here are a couple of nice resources with further tips for good practice:
BBC Bitesize guides - this is aimed at school aged students but the concise pointers can apply to everyone.
Creative Commons article: This longer article goes more in depth with ideas and advice around effective practice techniques.
I hope this inspires and motivates you to work out the best most positive and sustainable practice regime for you. Please do let me know if this was useful and fell free to share any ideas or questions you might have.
Review - Metronome App - Pro Metronome for iOS
Given that I talk a lot about using a metronome I wanted to tell you about the Metronome App that I use: Pro Metronome by EUMLab
I have looked for other metronomes which can do everything I want, but I can't find one except for Pro Metronome.
So, given that I talk A LOT about using a metronome (often to the sound of student groans) I thought I ought to tell you about the Metronome App that I use: Pro Metronome by EUMLab
Midway through last year my ancient iPhone was dying a slow and painful death. I couldn't quite justify a whole new phone at the time, so I started looking for a metronome which could do everything I wanted it to do, basically what Pro Metronome does - I couldn't find one, at least not without costing me a fortune.Eventually I had to bite the bullet and got myself a shiny iPhone 6 SE - the first thing I installed was...Pro Metronome.
It has a fairly comprehensive set of basic features:
- 13 different sounds + mute/light only so chances are you'll find something you can works with.
- You can set the number of beats (1-16) and time signature (any note length from semibreve down to demi-semi quaver - whole notes to 32nd note)
-Each beat can be controlled individually with 3 levels of sound as a regular beat, sub accent or accent, you can also mute any beats.
- Alongside the beat display, there is a visual light display that can be customised in several ways , from only flashing on accented notes to flashing different colours on all the different levels of beat. Personally I prefer the pendulum mode as when I'm working with some tricky rhythms it gives me some visual anticipation for the next beat.
- Pro Metronome features an impressive speed range from 10-500bpm, combine that with the ability to mute beats and it's really gives a lot of scope to play around - super useful when your trying to work on your internal pulse.
The App has a number of paid add-on features, that you can buy as a bundle (NZ$6.99) but you can also purchase individually (from NZ$1.69), which I think is really good of EUM to do this as I don't necessarily want to pay for features I'm not going to use.
-Sub Divisions:
I use this all the time, as the name suggests, it lets you hear different subdivisions to the beat. There are up to 16 rhythmic variations to choose from, including off beats, syncopations and triplets.
I find this really useful for speed control, rhythmic accuracy and what I call cognitive confusion (I'm sure there's a proper term but I can't find it) where in order to play something straight and even, you practice against an alternative rhythm making it harder to play in time, so when you play again normally it feels easy.
You can also overlay a regular beat click using the accent levels. For example I might set the subdivision to offbeat semi-quavers and set an accent on just the first beat of the bar to keep my own internal beat in check.
With such a large number of combinations, there is something for every style.
-Practice Mode
Another useful paid feature I recently started using. I find it very useful for practising short exercises or passages that are easily repeatable.
I have been mostly using Automator - you can set the duration for each tempo by time or bars, then pick a start tempo and a target tempo and the increment which to increase each round. It then gives you an approximate time to complete. This is great to use as a warm up on a scale or short repeatable exercise, a bit like a musical beep test (but more satisfying and less competitive than the gym version). The only improvement I'd like to see here is that when you press start there be a count in. Using it for a continuous warm up activity, between pressing the start button and having my bow ready to play I miss the first couple of beats - but not a huge issue when I start slow and will be repeating it many times anyway.
The Warm Up setting is a bit more fiddly, for my purposes at least. Here you can set a tempo and then set multiple sections where you choose a multiplier for the tempo (faster or slower) and a time. Given that the things I play have a set number of bars, setting the time is not as useful. It does indicate how much time equals a bar at the given speed, but I found you still have to do a bit of maths so that rounding doesn't catch you out and you have to skip the last half beat of the bar.
It is still a very useful tool, and you do have a bit more control than automator to speed things up and slow down as you wish.
Other paid features are available like Polyrhythm, letting you play multiple rhythms simultaneously and Rhythm Trainer which mutes certain bars to train your internal pulse, but I haven't used these. There is also a tone generator, but I have a specialist Tuner app which I'm very happy with.
On the whole I find the app very user friendly and intuitive with swiping and tapping both getting you to the different menus. The tempo is easily controlled, with multiple manners to adjust it, including a TAP button. The display is clear and simple, and most importantly the sound is loud and clear. I would definitely recommend this app to anyone wanting to work a bit more seriously with the metronome.
You can download Pro Metronome from the App Store
For Android and iOS
If you found this post useful please click the like button below. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other metronomes do leave a comment underneath, I’d be happy to open up the conversation.
I do reviews for practice tools, concerts and other things from time to time, so subscribe to my feed to get the latest updates.