Points for Parents: Practice Challenge Thoughts, Part 2: Ms. Elisabeth Weighs In

Weekly lessons at CYM cover quite a bit of material and it can be overwhelming trying to remember everything at home. It’s easy for practice to become unfocused, ineffective, and unnecessarily time-consuming. Here are a few general principles of effective practice that help to ensure student success:

• Efficient and effective home practice starts in the lesson with accurate and detailed lesson notes. Write down the specifics of what you are looking for so that you know right away whether or not you are doing your assignment correctly. A good example of quality lesson notes deals with the bow hold. If your assignment is to develop a correct violin bow hold (and that is an assignment for every violinist!) your notes should include a checklist like this:

1. Bent thumb making a 90 degree angle

2. Two bumps on the curved pinky

3. Three spaces between the fingers

4. First finger “dangles his feet in the water”

If you have those four things, you have a good bow hold! If not, you know right away what to fix.

• Research shows that the rate, depth, and permanence of learning are all dependent in part on the spacing between practice sessions. Practice will be much more effective if the practice sessions are spaced regularly throughout week (i.e. daily) rather than massed together into one or two big cramming sessions. Night-before-the-lesson-marathon-practice is not going to get you very far.
  
  

• Listening to music is a huge part of developing music skills. Just like learning a foreign language, immersion in music will make learning pieces and developing musicality faster, easier, and more natural. Listen to the pieces you are studying (the Suzuki book CDs are a great place to start!) and find recordings of the great violinists and violists online. Ask your teacher if you would like further suggestions of excellent listening.
  
  

• Make technique a priority in every practice session. Proper technique is the foundation upon which we build musicality and expression. Solid and reliable technique allows students to play the pieces they want to play and continue playing throughout their adult lives. Poor technique risks injury (tendonitis, carpal tunnel, etc.) and frustrates progress and development.

I hope these principles help you make the most of your practice time! And remember, your teacher is there to help you through any particular questions and challenges.

Happy practicing!

Elisabeth Graham