How to Practice Violin

You finally took your first lessons in violin and you are ready to practice on your own, but you don't know where to start? Not a problem. If you have the basics, you can be your own teacher – so long as you're focused and ready to concentrate and improve. Detach yourself from your music, listen critically, and let's get started.

Steps

Setting Yourself Up for Success

1. Find your prime practice time. Whether it's violin, basketball, or teaching yourself how to speak Klingon, everybody has a time during the day when they're at their peak. When do you feel the most awake, energized, and capable of taking over the world? That's when you should be practicing your violin.
   
   • This is different for everyone. It could be right when you wake up, in the middle of the day, or even at midnight. It could last 2 hours or it could last 20 minutes. When is it easiest for you to practice? Clear your schedule for that time.
2. Pick a good, quiet location. You need a practice space that's away from distractions. No TV, phone, or friends or family members barging in and out. And if the acoustics are good, that's a plus, too.
   
   • It should be a place you feel comfortable practicing in as well. Ideally, it's open and uncluttered and a space where you feel like you can actually get things done in. What's more, it shouldn't be somewhere that bothers others, either.
3. Bring everything you'll need with you. In order to even get started, you'll need your music, a pencil and paper, and your music stand for starters. Did we mention your violin? That, too. What else helps you get going? For some it's a certain chair or a recording device. You'll be in there for a few hours most likely, so it's best to come prepared.
   
4. Get yourself comfortable, too. In addition to taking care of the things you actually need, take care of the things that just make it easier, too. A bottle of water, a comfortable pair of pants, a snack, whatever. Feeling good will make your practice time more productive and make it easier to concentrate.
   
   • Being ready and raring to go is part of the battle for productive practicing. If you're not in the mood, you're practice time is going to be dull and, well, a waste. But if you feel good physically, practice will just come that much easier.
5. Don't worry about a length of time for right now. You know how lots of people believe that you don't really become a master of something until you've done it for around 10,000 hours? Well, it's true and it's not. It's 10,000 hours of deliberate practice – meaning that if you practice for 20,000 and you're not focused, you still won't be any good. So don't really worry about the duration of your practice. As long as you're focused, you'll improve.^[1]
   
   • We'll talk about this a bit more in depth later, but for now just worry about every minute being mindful and focused, not just racking up the minutes. After all, practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes habits. And not all habits are good.

Getting Started and Staying Productive

1. Warm yourself up. You wouldn't run a marathon cold, so don't go marathon practicing cold, either. Start by limbering up your fingers with scales, arpeggios, exercises, and trills. Even the most seasoned of violinists has to start with a warm-up.
   
   • Depending on how much time you have, your warm-up session should be about 20 to 30 minutes in length.^[2] It's a good idea to work in the key of the piece you're working on, too.
2. Determine today's purpose. Every time you walk into that practice room, have a purpose in mind. And it shouldn't be "to practice violin," either. It needs to be something specific – a goal you can work toward. Whether it's fixing a problem spot, polishing a piece, or starting on a new one, have that lined out at the start. And then at the end you'll know if you accomplished it or not.
   
   • You'll note that with every session, your purpose likely changes. One by one, each little goal will get crossed off, until you're working on more and more skilled issues. This will give you a sense of progress and accomplishment, too, aiding in your motivation to keep going.
3. Be open to problem-solving. Too often when anyone is practicing anything they just go over it again and again and again until they're exhausted and need to put it down. This isn't good practice – this is practicing your mistakes. Every time you run into a problem, be willing to stop, take a look at this issue, and then do it differently. It'll take more time, but it'll help you reach your goals.
   
   • Take a problem spot and stop. Section it off into the bit that you find challenging. Then concentrate on only that part. Start by playing it slowly until it starts sounding better. When it does, gradually up your tempo until you have it down.
4. Record yourself. When we're in the heat of the moment, whether it's violin or otherwise, our brains are so focused on getting the job done that we often don't realize what we're doing wrong. Our foot went too far to the right on the dismount, we sang a note a third too high, or we didn't notice the music in front of us indicated a full rest, and not a half. But if you record yourself, you'll be able to look back and hear where you went wrong, even if you didn't notice it in the first place.
   
   • If you keep flubbing up on a fast passage, break it down. Play the series of notes, only repeat each note three or four times before moving on (d-d-d-d-e-e-e-e-a-a-a-a), sort of like a bowed tremolo.^[3] As you get used to it, you'll have the pattern down and can take out the extra notes.
5. Think of your musicality. Imagine handing a computer a piece of music and having it play it. Technically, it'd be correct, but it wouldn't be good. Your musicality is your ability to interpret and play the piece with feeling. If your notes are lacking something, this very well could be it.
   
   • To get started finding this, experiment with different phrasings and variations in tone, style, and intensity. And once it's memorized, you'll be even freer to explore. Once it's ingrained, you'll be able to make it your own.

Getting Better and Better

1. Work on your improvisational skills. To be really good at playing the violin, you've got to be able to hear the music you're playing and improvise with it, much like a jazz musician. This skill makes you and the music one and the same. You can hear it still going in your head even though you're playing different notes. Once you've got a piece down, try adding your own flair to it and seeing what happens.
   
   • To experiment, start by playing the bassline of a song you know well. Then continue playing the line in your head while you improvise on top. It takes the piece to a whole new level and can be very liberating.^[4]
2. Build up your stamina. Playing violin can be surprisingly strenuous on a person, especially if you mentally get into it. In the beginning, you'll find that getting through a movement is difficult and takes its toll on you. Start by just doing a piece full out and adding in passages from there. When you start feeling worn out, make note so you know what to aim for in tomorrow's session.
   
   • Sometimes it's a good idea to practice like you're performing. They're two very different levels of energy, and it's good to know where your stamina lies. Go through the entire movement, if possible, and see how it makes you feel.
3. Make your practice time count. Remember in the beginning of this guide how we talked about not worrying about how much time you put in? It's good to practice every day, but beyond that, it's sort of up to you. After all, 5 hours a day of mindless practice won't do you nearly as much good as 1 hour of mindful, focused practice. So when you're there, focus yourself and aim to not repeat your mistakes. You'll be grateful you did later.
   
   • Mindless practice is what makes people stop because you get nowhere in your progress and it's dull and boring. You won't like it, you'll lose your motivation, you'll cease practicing, and you'll just get worse. Avoid this by keeping your head in the game and you'll be golden. Make it count.
4. Write down your progress. In short, never trust your memory. You'll end up thinking to yourself, "I think yesterday I stopped somewhere around here...and I had an issue with this bit, but I can't really remember what it was." Clearly that's not going to do you much good. Instead, bring a notebook with you and after you're done, write down a summation of the day's practice. Then tomorrow you can pick up exactly where you left off.
   
   • Write down anything that you think will be useful, whether it's a problem you're having or a method you found around the problem you're having that you don't want to forget. You could even log your time and plan out the week's schedule, too.
5. End with some fun time. At the end of each session, you deserve a reward. Spend your last ten minutes or so having fun. Take an easy piece and play it however you like. Turn it into a dirge, speed it up, and see just how different you can make it sound. Play a piece that makes you smile. Odds are you'll notice that it, too, is sounding better and better.
   
   • Practicing something every day becomes a drag before long. This 10 minutes may seem like a bit of a waste, but in the long run, it could keep your spirits up. Ending on a high note will make it that much easier to come back to it tomorrow. And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that.

Tips

• Throw in a few fun pieces for after your hardcore practice. It's fun to play little ditties that are beneath your skill level just to hear beautiful music. It's also a good time to practice technique such as vibrato and dynamics.
• If you are not really into practicing, try to force yourself anyway to practice every day at least once. Playing violin will not go by itself you know! As they say practice makes perfect. You don't have to practice an hour at once, just start with 15 minutes a day, and if you can keep up the good work, you can increase the practice time a bit every week or so.
• Breaking up your practice is helpful. Break your practice sessions into intervals that you can handle and don't practice more than an hour without resting for a few minutes.

Warnings

• It is very important to stop practicing when your hands or arms hurt. It means that your body is not used to this strange position yet. That's why you have to start with small amounts of practice, otherwise it may damage your wrist or your back.

Things You'll Need

• A violin
• Music
• Music stand (recommended)
• Recording device (recommended)

Sources and Citations

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source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1L8HTyX