Practice Regimen for Joey Corpus Preparation

November 19, 2007 at 4:40 PM

So, as most of you know, I will be studying with Joey Corpus in the month of August 2008.

Yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of days ago I typed up a practice regimen. Do not worry, I do that for fun every couple of months. But this practice regimen is planned until the last week of July.

I have been practicing almost four hours a day.

My daily schedule:

6am--go practice until 8am. Scales and Schradieck.

8am--breakfast and thinking about music.

9am--work at the WLC while thinking about music.

11am-2pm: Classes while thinking about music.

3pm--Teach violin Lessons to underprivileged children and thinking about the children, of course.

5pm--Orchestra rehearsal (just promoted to concertmaster!!)

7:30pm-Japanese Class, thinking about Japanese.

9pm--Practice repertoire and orchestra music until 11pm.

I've already seen improvement. I can control my bow a lot better. I want to start laying a foundation to play virtuoso pieces or really fast show pieces. So I am doing scales and...

Any suggestions of what can be added to this practice session?

Thanks
JAsmine

From al ku
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 4:45 PM

jasmine, you forgot the mention when you come online for v.com:)...

From Oliver Quilala
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 7:11 PM

Wow, what a schedule. It looks like one of those 'happy to do it' things. You've obviously found your calling.

From Tom Holzman
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 7:57 PM

Very impressive. You are clearly dedicated. However, as a parent, looking at this schedule, I would be concerned about whether you had a life. Unless you are not sleeping, it does not appear that you are doing anything that is neither music nor academics other than posting here.

From Ben Clapton
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 10:25 PM

I agree with Tom, Try and find something non-musical to take up a part of your time. Even if it's just taking 30 minutes somewhere each day to go for a walk, or to sit down with a good book. Music is all about expressing our emotions through music, but if we're not in touch with what emotions feel like, we'll never be able to share them.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 10:43 PM

Greetings,
I respectfully disagree with two of my favorite people on this site. Hi guys!;)
It sounds to me like you have reached that point in your life that every violinist hits when you just have the need and guts to work your butt off and you should go with it. Joey will keep you on the right track no problem.
The only @problem I have with what you are praciticng is the question of diminishin returns on pure tehcnical work. The violin is about singing and making music. You need a balanced diet and oyu need to relate the technical work you are doing to music. It is not an end in itself. Indeed, I would go as far as to suggest sme of this wpork you are doing is on automatic pilot. Its not the end of the world but there is repetition for its own sake and there is having a very clear vizualisation of what you wnat before you play before you do it and comapring results. That is much harder, more strenuouos and one does a lot less actual physical playing. It is all mind.
What I think you might add to your routine is the first two movement of the Handel a major sonata. Begin each day with the first movement. Plat it through once without vibrato so you are feelign warme dup. Then sing each phrase and try to express it with the bow still not using vibrato. Then add the vibrato to complete the whole picture. But always sing each phrase. Don@t spend morethan ten or fifteen minutes on this and maybe then go into the tehcnical stuff. You will be more emotionally connected to what you are doing. Start your secondtehcnical sesison with the second movement. Notice that there are excellent double stopped scale sin 16trh notes. Practice them as individual line swith one stirng silent but fingered and then switch string and do it again. Get them 100% in tune. Nothing less than perfection will do. The get your stringcrossing bowing wotrking on open strings and finally put them together. Then go to the very tricky double stop passage and isolte the two times you need to slide the fourth finger back and forth perfectly in tunes with other foingers held down. The only way you can do this is tohave an image of the fourth finger controlled absolutely by the mind. Repetition that is out of tune and mindless means nothing. Put all thes etricky little doublestops into whole chunks and then perform the movement. About half an hour.
Again. not too much time but USE YOUR HEAD. Then scales.
Next day try the tehcnicla stuff first and then the piece. Find out what works for you.
Remeber you are firts and foremost here as a vehicle for music not as a schradieck dispenser.
Cheer,s
Buri

From Jasmine Reese
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 1:17 AM

Thank you for all your comments...

Buri, you are correct. I have hit that point in my life where I am ready to work really hard as far as music is concerned.

I do have a life!!! I write for the school newspaper, I work at the Women's Leadership Center, I walk my teacher's dog in exchange for violin lessons, I have read over 1500 years of British Literature in one semester (not all of it, but works from each period. I just finished all of Jane Austen's Novels, Shakespeares poems and plays, John Donne's Poems, John Milton, Dickens, and so on); I am going to New York City, France, Germany, and Switzerland next semester; I do not drink or party, but I hang out with my friends; I play in the orchestra, which is fun for me; I take 22 academic credits, I play the violin, and I attend Christian services regularly. (Out of breath) I have too much life!!! I wish I could sleep a little more, altough I do not know how I still manage to get 7 hours of sleep. :)

DO NOT WORRY. I WILL NEVER TAKE 22 CREDITS AGAIN!!! HECTIC!!!

From Jasmine Reese
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 1:29 AM

Oh and Tom, the schedule is tentative. Sometimes, I am too tired to get up in the morning.

Buri, I do two hours of technique (Scales, Schradieck, Kreutzer) in the morning and two hours of repertoire at night, is that not balanced? Or would you suggest less time on technique and more time on repertoire.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 1:39 AM

Greetings,
okay I got you now. Two hours and two hours is a good split. However, I am not a big fan of what I call the `one hour syndrome.` Because of the way we divide up our world this unit of time for action has been veryy arbitraily selected and inspte of constant denials, poo poos and whatever I have almost -never- seen a student or pro for that matter, who could work with 100 percent cocnentration for an hour. That is why Galamian stipulated fiftymiute sesisons with ten minut breaks. My work in education/psychology has taught me that this is not maximally efifcient either! Fifteen minutes is better. One ha sto process one set of data before adidng a new set of clutter...Note Auer stipulates forty minutes. Otehr texts not related otmusic talk about genuine cocnentration lasting for much shorter periods. Indeed, whn studnets tell me about all these hours i know they are on automatic pilot becuase to work solely with vzulaization and feedback with much less playing is -extremely- taxing. When player sget to a high level they cna utilize automatic pilot to some extent because their tehcnique is completely automotated. They really don`t nee dot think hard while doing finger exercises. Kennedy watches TV while doing his dailys. I don`t recommend this for most people...
I would reocmmed you break up the technical work more. Follow Kievman`s idea: whatever time you spend practigin, be it an hour or one minute, always spend half the timeon tehcnique and half on music. Also I don`t belive anyone really need stwo hours on scales and scradieck. You need a halfway house which is why we have etudes. If you don`t feel like doing Kreutzer etc iuntil you are settled with your dream teacher then try something like Dancla. Just choose one etude numbe rone is good and learn it as though it were a cocnert piece. Or try the Dont etudes that were designed as a preparation for kreutzer . You should also play with the piano at leats once a week. Bashing through books of sonatas really pulls up your playing.
Cheers,
Buri

From Ben Clapton
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 5:11 AM

Buri makes a good point. It's very difficult to focus for one hour at a time, and you need to give your body a break as well. There are a few different ways you can organise your practice time. I wrote about one in my blog The Power of 7 Minutes which talks about how you can split up your practice into 7 minute sessions. For example, you might spend 7 minutes on G Major 3 octaves, then move onto 7 minutes on Bb minor 3rds, and so on. When I've done this, I did 7 sessions, then an 11 minutes break where I would make a coffee or something else.

Other options are Productivity measures, such as (10+2)*5 - which is mentioned in my 20 Procrastination Hacks post, where you work intensively on one aspect for 10 minutes, then take a 2 minute break. Repeat this 5 times and you've taken up an hour. Or you might like the 30+10 option, where you practice for 30 minutes intensively, then reward yourself with a 10 minute break.

From Mayra Calvani
Posted on November 20, 2007 at 8:11 AM

What great posts! I'm learning a lot here!

Best,
Mayra

From Bill Busen
Posted on November 22, 2007 at 3:46 AM

violinmasterclass.com recommends THREE MINUTE work units for technical stuff! I've tried it for piano, and the psychological advantage seems to be that I think, "This is my only shot at this today."

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Practice Regimen for Joey Corpus Preparation

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