Taking Notes Whilst Practicing.

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:13:04 GMT

Hellooo.

I have never written a blog before. I & nbsp;have always wanted to write & nbsp;one but procrastination always seemed to get the better of me. Well, not this time.

I & nbsp;like writing a lot, actually. When I go to college I want to do some sort of English major, perhaps along with a music major. I adore writing so much that I & nbsp;write when I practice.

I started doing it the summer before I was a freshman in highschool. All of my practicing before then was....non-intelligent practice. It was something I & nbsp;did but didn't want to take much time to give thought to. I & nbsp;practiced to satisfy the practice sheet my elementary school director handed out. There was a summer when I didn't touch my violin at all. The reason why I & nbsp;started taking violin (and, thus, practicing) more seriously was when a) I got a teacher and, b) & nbsp;All-State orchestra auditions were coming up and I & nbsp;wanted to get in.

I & nbsp;always had a notebook which I & nbsp;would decorate with pictures of violins, musical notes, quotes, or anything pertaining to music. My first notebook had entries that were more like practice journals. I would write down what scale I & nbsp;would play next, or what solo piece I would run through, and then I'd write metronome marking goals or other comments. It was, actually, a lot like the practice sheets my director used to give me, but this time it was (yes) voluntary, and, it sometime seemed, necessary.

Over the next few years I continued to write in notebooks. For the three years I've been doing it I've filled up three notebooks and am working on my fourth. As I & nbsp;observe them, I & nbsp;notice a shift in the topics they cover. Before they were merely a jot of what I & nbsp;had played through during the session. A stranger sitting in the same room could have written the exact things. Now, they focused on quite a broader range of topics, technical (intonation, vibrato, sound production, bow distribution), musical (character, phrasing, dynamics, timing---very sadly, I didn't think of music much until & nbsp;the summer of my & nbsp;sophomore year, thanks to my awesome, ruthless violin teacher), philosophical (auditioning, the different mindset of playing in front of different people vs. playing by yourself, and & quot;the attitude of a student & quot;). I tried to concentrate my entries on what goes on in my mind, what I'm thinking as I play something, elements that can only be observed by myself. Not that the 'outside listener' aspect & nbsp;is not important (in fact, I would say that it is the most important). It can be observed by recording and playing back, or decided that a certain practice session will be dedicated to listening and correcting by that.

The notebooks have focused my practice sessions. For me, at least at the beginning of learning something, I & nbsp;must know exactly what & nbsp;I am doing. I & nbsp;not only have to be physically prepared to play, but mentally able to (somewhat) & nbsp;comprehend how I'm making that sound, all the little muscles that go into play, and be able to explain it & nbsp;in words.

Hannah Wright on Violinist.com

Taking Notes Whilst Practicing.