Practice

Today we’re talking about practice. If you’re anything like me when I was younger I was forever being nagged by my parents and told off by my teacher for not doing enough, but there are many ways to make practice purposeful, efficient and enjoyable, so let’s get started.

Tip number one: be ready.

Find yourself a well-lit quiet space and remove any distractions, whether that’s a TV a computer or even a younger brother or sister. Don’t launch into a tricky passage straight away – make sure you’re warmed up and ready to go. A sprinter wouldn’t start a hundred meters without warming up and for us as musicians it’s no different. A series of short warm-up exercises might cover simple things like long notes, something to stretch out your fingers, and something for articulation. If you’re not sure then speak to your teacher and they’ll be able to help with a five or ten minute set of exercises.

Tip number two: be organized.

Before you start make sure you’ve got everything you need: music instrument, stand, pencil, rubber is very useful. It’s really good to have all these things to hand so that you don’t interrupt yourself straight away looking for something that you forgot. Also, write down some aims for your practice session before you begin. Ideally get yourself a little practice diary to write these down. You don’t have to stick to them but if you’ve written them down then you’ve got a plan for your session ahead. And when you’re finished, take a few notes about what went well, what didn’t go so well and what you’re going to do next time.

Tip number three: be your best.

Always try and practice with your very best playing, with your best posture, your best sound, your best hand position, bow hold, air support, whatever is relevant to you and your instrument.

Tip number four: be smart.

Think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Resist the temptation to play through your piece from the beginning to the end over and over because otherwise the beginning will probably get stale and the bit towards the end where your attention is wandering will be less good. If you find yourself getting stuck or bogged down in a section then leave it; don’t spend hours and hours battling one thing.

Tip number five: be efficient.

Tackle problematic areas promptly and work on these whilst you’re fresh. There are several ways to tackle tricky passages: you could try using a metronome at a slow speed and gradually increase the speed as you feel more comfortable. Alternatively try a set of practice rhythms and work through a couple of bars at a time. Finally you could zoom in even further and work on four, five, six notes at a time and gradually work through a bar. That way when you’re practicing like this you improve quickly and the practice time passes faster too.

Tip number six: be creative.

When we perform we have to get used to new and unusual performance spaces really quickly, but this is something we can practice. Try practicing in different rooms and different acoustics. You can even try running up and down the stairs before you begin your practice session to recreate the feeling of nerves. The more you do this the more comfortable you will become with performing, plus being creative makes your practice sessions far more engaging and fun.

Tip number seven: be aware

Make sure when you’re practising that you’re always mentally really sharp. If your mind’s wandering then stop and take a break. A really good way of being very aware of your playing is to record it. It doesn’t need to be a great recorder – you can just use your phone – but do listen back and do be really strict with yourself. Be your own teacher.

Tip number eight: be committed.

No one becomes a superstar overnight. Get into the groove with your practice and be prepared to come back to tricky passages day after day. When you come back to a passage after working on it the day before you might find it’s not as good as you remember, but if you keep working, investing time in that passage, it will improve. And remember that practising a little and often is much better than one big practice session once a week. Your muscles need that regularity to become super fit. Now if you don’t feel like practising don’t be disheartened. Getting started is often the hardest thing. If you feel like that convince yourself to do five or ten minutes, set a timer and get going. Once you’re on a roll you’ll find that you want to keep working.

Tip number nine: be a detective.

Have you ever practised a passage over and over for it simply just not to get any better? That’s when you need to put your detective hat on and really break down the problem to work out what’s going wrong. So often in my own playing I think a problem might be in one hand when it’s actually in the other and it’s not until we break things down that we can sometimes find out the thing that’s holding us back. So if you’re stuck really break things down and reveal the clues to get you started again.

Tip number 10: be kind.

Be kind to yourself. Dopamine, the feel-good hormone, is a very powerful hormone and if we can harness it in our practice then we can feel more motivated, more positive and more resilient. But how do we get the dopamine flowing? Visualize the joy of successfully playing the piece that you’ve been working on. You can go to town on this – you can visualize the room you’re in, the people you’re with, the weather outside. And in doing so your brain will release dopamine. The more you focus on positive outcomes the more you will achieve and the greater you will feel.

So there you have it. That’s the Berkeley Ensemble’s top 10 tips for practising. Now these are just some of our ideas and it’s important to remember that everyone is different, and you need to find out what works for you. Speak to other musicians and find out how they practise and share your ideas. We can all learn from each other. Practising should never feel stressful or a struggle. Try some of our tips, relax and immerse yourself in your music.