Practice Advice

GENERAL PRACTICE ADVICE: 

Break music into small sections (examples: 1 measure, 2 measures, a phrase)

Repition, repition, repition (Don't play fast until the section is comfortable at a slow tempo.)

• 10 times slowly is not too much.  
•  Sometimes 5 times does the trick, sometimes 25.  Whatever it takes!
• Slow practice with the right notes is better than fast practice with wrong notes. 
• Slow practice wins the race!

Violin/Viola/Cello students:  

    1. Say notes aloud. 2. play pizzicato (plucking) until comfortable. 3. play with the bow.

Wind instruments (Flute, Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone):

         1.  Say notes aloud.  2.  Say and finger (trombones slide) notes. 3. Play

From one parent to another: 

    Practicing can be lonely and tedious.  All that repetition.  There's a lot of hard (i.e. boring) work before the reward of a song actually sounding like a song.  Sitting with my own clarinetist daughter while she practiced as a 4th grade beginner helped a lot.  In the beginning I was more active, pointing to notes as she said them aloud or played.  In time she just wanted me to sit with her but not say much. 

    Now she's in 7th grade and practices more independently : )  She practices in our open living space in the middle of dinner preparation and other mild hub bub.  I think she'd be terribly lonely at this stage if I sent her off to her room to practice alone. 

    She likes when I'm in the room busy with something else, not necessarily sitting next to her.  She really doesn't want my advice but she's always receptive to positive comments like "good tone" or "you really got it that time!"  Of course I can't lie. I only say what is true, but I can always find something positive to say. Sometimes she's even receptive to "why don't you try that part again 2 or 3 times until it's comfortable?"  Sometimes! 

Beginning Flute (DOC 11 KB)
Beginning Clarinet (DOC 31 KB)
Beginning Trumpet (DOC 23 KB)
Beginning Trombone (DOC 29 KB)
Beginning Violin and Viola (DOC 23 KB)
Beginning Cello (DOC 23 KB)
Home Practice Calendar (DOC 89 KB)

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