Practicing: Breaking Monotony

Woohoo, I made it a year…Exactly one year ago today was “A Majestic Prelude”, my first post :)

Anyways, so my last post was about things to do while we’re not playing our instruments…

Now I shall write about what to do while playing them.

If you’ve been playing long enough, you’re well aware that a good practice session is a bonding moment between you and your instrument—and it is magical. It is essential to the development of a musician.

But as in life, there are good days and bad days. There are times when you feel like a natural virtuoso, and you could play absolutely anything you wanted with perfect technique, grace, and expression. Then there are times you feel like dirt…you don’t deserve to touch the instrument much less have it in your house (ok, I tend to exaggerate).

Have you ever thought that maybe your method of practicing could have to do with your performance? Pick up the instrument, tune, do scales and arpeggios/triads/chords, practice the same assigned pieces of music over and over, and repeat daily. That’s pretty standard.

But honestly, if we really want to improve as musicians, we need variety.

Sometimes we need to mix things up, or even just step away from whatever we are currently working on and try something completely different.

A couple days ago I decided to do this—ok maybe Arsen did, but I definitely agreed we needed a break. For the last few weeks we’ve been primarily working on the same music, over and over. I will not lie, Vivaldi can get quite boring after a while.

So after losing interest in our current repertoire, we pushed away the music stand. Turning toward the window, we played the first thing that came to us…which happened to be something we’d never played before. And it was amazing! To just play what we felt, not trying to force things or be strict about technicalities, was a beautiful experience. I eventually pulled up some songs on my computer and we played along with a few tracks—which unintentionally took up a few hours. We just couldn’t be separated. At the end of the day, it felt like we had had three practice sessions!

So take home message: next time you sit down to practice, and feel bored or uninterested in the monotonous routine, do something different. Switch things up, move things around, or simply try something entirely new. If you were trained classically, you might find this difficult. And perhaps you are someone who prefers a solid practice routine, which is completely fine. The bottom line is everyone learns differently, and you need to find the way that works best for you.