Practice Challenge Day 50- Mr. Ryan Checks In

CYM Practice Challenge Award Winners Fall 2012

Hi Everyone,

I'm nearly to day 50 of my practice challenge, and I promised that I would check in and let you know what my experience has been.  Here are a few things I've noticed:

I need variety!

Sometimes I will have a string of days when I distinctly hear my brain say "Ugh!" when I begin to practice my recital pieces.  

"What?!" I cry, "but you love this piece!  YOU were the one who picked it!"  But my arms gradually lose their strength, and I realize I am dragging my feet.  Finally, my practice grinds to a halt.  

"This won't do," I say to myself, "I have to practice something!"  So I choose one thing at random to learn in a piece I'm not supposed to be playing.  Miraculously, the strength in my arms comes back, and I learn the new thing very quickly.  Why does this happen?

In school, I took a class in the kinesiology department call "Skill Acquisition Strategies".  In that course I learned about Hull's Resistance Theorem, which states that the brain builds resistance to doing the same thing over and over.  The more you do something, the more the resistance increases.   

The resistance decreases when you take a break or change to a different activity.  

Perhaps this explains why I can't practice some days.  I do want to learn, but it's hard because my learning is always "same old, same old"!  Now I try to notice when I drag my feet--that's when it's time to work on my "hobby" piece.  However, more often than not I find myself going back to one of my many dozens of old pieces (review!) and using one of these old pieces to accomplish my current practice goal.

The length/quality of my practice sessions is uneven.  

Yes, it's true.  Some days I am very busy, or I just don't feel like it.  Other days I am going very strong.  

If I may say so, life is too short to drudge through practicing.  Mere drudgery goes against the spirit of Dr. Suzuki's philosophy.  Therefore, I define a practice session for myself and for those students of mine who practice every day as "calm, focused attention on one thing."  Almost without exception I have "calm, focused attention" on much more than one thing, but not always.  I prize the quality of my musical work, and only a little bit is better than none at all.  Remember, "skill equals knowledge plus 10,000 times" but also "when the child looks up, the lesson is over!"  

I have had near misses.  

On two days out of my fifty, I have only practiced five minutes each.  Those days were exceptional--for exceptionally poor planning!  I was very busy, hadn't eaten, hadn't slept, and left my practice sitting until the very last thing I had to do that day.   

What a list of errors!  Fortunately, a list like the one above is very handy...just do the opposite of what is on the "things NOT to do" list and you'll be fine!

I need a goal.

I have known for years that I need a goal for my practicing, or it seems pointless.  Right now my goal is getting ready for my recital.  After that recital, however, I will need to find a new goal!  

I have improved a lot!

I'm not the same cellist I was back in September.  I have a new approach to making a beautiful tone and using my vibrato and bowspeed to shape the music.  My intonation is also much better.  In fact, I'm spoiled with all this improvement.  I don't want to give it up, and so I am glad to practice.  

I'm not working my tail off.   

Once upon a time, I bought a large bucket of ice cream and kept it in the freezer.  After a week, I opened the ice cream and found that it was half gone!  I learned my friend had been eating two spoonfuls a day, hoping I would not notice.  He was very surprised he had eaten so much ice cream by himself!  My practice challenge reminds me of that bucket of ice cream--rather than jamming the spoon all the way down in the ice cream (and bending it in the process) I feel like I am taking only two spoonfuls from the top each day.  I don't get sick from eating too much (although I need a different flavor every now and then) and pretty soon the whole bucket is gone!

Happy Practicing, Everyone!