May 23, 2005 at 4:29 AM

Do not practice when you're tired. Do not practice when you're tired. Do not practice when you're tired. I'm going to write that a hundred times longhand if I do it again. It doesn't matter if I haven't practiced that day or not.

The scale that was reasonable on Saturday was awful tonight. "Twinkle, Twinkle" didn't. It was all frustrating and disheartening. For the first time, I wasn't happy working with my violin.

Fortunately I wasn't too tired to realize I should stop.

And I'm going to do a search here tomorrow and take all of the advice I find about practicing to heart.

From putch panis
Posted on May 23, 2005 at 8:45 AM

Yup, practicing when you're tired leads to much frustration. Like you, I started to study the violin a bit late. I have to balance a full-time job, church ministry, and the demands of two very loving dogs when I'm making time for practice. Sometimes I'm just dead tired. I usually wait a bit until I'm more relaxed then, even if it's late at night and I run the risk of waking the neighbors, I fire away :)

From Evelyn Ray
Posted on May 23, 2005 at 10:30 AM

Learn to enjoy the downs. There are a lot of 'em and they make the ups so much more fun.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on May 23, 2005 at 3:30 PM

Don't write that out 100 times. It will make you tired. I suggest that if you're too tired to practice but you want to do something constructive violinistically, just listen to some violin music that you like. Subliminal learning, fun, whatever.

From deborah mitchell
Posted on May 23, 2005 at 3:42 PM

Thanks all. I have a question. Is it useful to do things like scales if I'm having a lot of difficulty hitting the notes? When I hadn't been previously, I mean.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on May 23, 2005 at 11:12 PM

At that point your practice should consist of figuring out why you can't do it anymore. It's a rational process. Me, I'd just go to the beach. If there was one around.

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May 23, 2005 at 4:29 AM

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