Wishing for Quality Study Time

December 18, 2009 at 12:38 PM

Hello Folks,

I used to live in an apartment building very close to my workplace. Every day, just after lunch, i would go home to practice the violin for about 1 and a half hour. I have been doing that for some 2 years. That was a consistent practice time. Some times i would study even more after work, to reach 3 hours in one day. That was really good.

But now i have moved a bit far away from where i work.

I need to improve my violin studying time. I have been able to study about 3 hours after work now, but not every day (2 to 4 times a week), and i'm worried about having a quality study time.
I'll try to study some 30-60 minutes on the days i can't play 3 hours.

Must plan what i'll study every day. Scales is a must. Etudes too. On days i can study for 3 hours i'll might do the following:

Warm up (10 minutes)
Scales (50 minutes)
pause (10 minutes)
Technical (Etudes, shifting, bow control, dynamics, etc) (50 minutes)
pause (10 minutes)
Music (50 minutes)

The other days i'll try:

Warm up (5 minutes)
Scales (10-30 minutes)
Technical (10-30 minutes)

Don't know if i should reduce the time invested on Scale study to enhance the Technical study time, or something else.

Good Luck every one!

Erick

From simon lyn
Posted on December 18, 2009 at 8:10 PM

Hey Eric - I face this too, like many adult practitioners. For me the trick is to combine what you call technical work with scales. So plan and weave bow stroke variations, vibrato exercises etc in with your scale work.

The challenge with this approach is that you will need to be able to share your focus over perhaps two or three areas instead of one, but this is possible.

I have developed for myself a 'power workout' that includes single-note scales, fifths, fourths, sixths, octaves, fingered octaves and tenths, in maj/min/chromatic variations, from half position up to 10th, incorporating whatever bow strokes I'm working on - all in 20 min.

For me it's the only way to stay serious about my playing and meet life's other demands!

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Wishing for Quality Study Time

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