We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:

Search the site Search

Over and over and over again...

January 26, 2006 at 2:06 AM

I'm lucky that my husband and brother-in-law (who's living with us temporarily) were born to musical parents and are used to listening to real practicing, or else I'd have been thrown out of the house last night. I worked on the same four measures of the Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso for half an hour. (Measures 4-8 of the Più allegro section, in case anyone's curious.) The passage starts and ends on the same C#, so I was able to make a nice little loop and go through it over and over and over...

Not just blind repetition, though. That was how I practiced in childhood, but no more. The best thing about my current teacher (oh, how I wish I'd had someone like her when I was young and had TIME) is that she's really taught me how to practice so that I actually improve. I know now that to play in tune, I need to 1) know what the notes are, 2) know where to put my fingers to play them, and 3) actually put my fingers in the right places.

My first problem is that I can't easily identify notes that are written four or more ledger lines above the staff. So I first had to go through and figure out, "Ok, that's a B, that's an F#...". Then I had to figure where all the whole steps and half steps were so I'd know exactly where to put my fingers. Finally, I had to work on actually putting my fingers where they were supposed to go. It's only in this last step that repetition is useful. If you don't know what you're trying to do, doing it over and over again isn't going to get you there.

That said, I'm now managing to play those four measures in tune at about 1/3 the speed that they're eventually supposed to go. I'll keep at it, and I hope the speed will come. I keep thinking of that scene in "The Red Violin" where the little kid plays to a metronome that's sped up gradually until he reaches his goal.

I think that little kid was actually Evil Linda before the goatee...

Man I hear ya on the ability for people to understand that practice isn't supposed to sound pretty... Have some occasional house guests that just don't seem to get it.

Eric, you're worried about house-guests. I have a cat that when she decided she didn't like my practicing would come to the door of the room and scratch until I opened it. She'd then let out an almighty yowl and turn on her heel(s) and walk off tail held high.

Mind you that was when I was learning violin. She hasn't done that since I switched to viola. :)

The speed will come Karin.

Neil

Actually, it was sped up until he had a heart attack.

Practicing better sound pretty! Otherwise you sound ugly. Makes sense, eh?

No, Jim, he had a heart attack when he was about to play in front of some noble dude. He did manage to get to the highest metronome speed, when he was gearing up for the audition.

Joshua Bell is simply fantastic.

How..wha? You found out Eric? AHhh! My secret is out!

I love that scene. Almost more than the scene where he has a heart attack. Maybe more. xD

Karin I know exactly what you mean about that scene in The Red Violin!! I can never get it out of my head, and he makes it look so easy!!