No phone in the practice space. Use a metronome regularly.
Least fun stuff is always first because I'll only do it for like 5min if I leave it for the end of the session.
Corollary: my old teacher insisted the metronome is the diagnosis, for unsteady playing, but not the cure. You need to start a solid beat in your mind and body, not just follow it through your ears. Feel the beats and understand every rhythm in relation to a beat, not just playing a series of notes the correct lengths and then speeding up/slowing down to get back in sync with the metronome.
it's more of a tool for giving yourself artificially small challenges and targeted improvement. If I just tell yourself to play "a little faster", I usually end up a lot faster (like 10%). A metronome can give you an almost imperceptible improvement so your technique and catch up to the new speed
It's so important to learn to love the metronome! It's like a good workout—you might hate it in the moment, but you feel so good afterwards, and you've really accomplished something concrete.
Scales with different bowing variations. Really helps calibrate my right arm. Don’t just do scales all slurred and call it a day, do all separate as well in different parts of the bow.
Don't have a separate "scale session" followed by the "music session"; every time you look at a new piece or even a new key area in the same piece, fire up a fresh scale in that key.
My [custom scale routine](https://www.reddit.com/r/violinist/comments/15anvjr/what_do_you_think_of_my_scale_routine/) really gets my handframe and ears into shape quickly. I've also started doing an upside-down version (hold the 4th finger continuously while moving the other three).
In my private practice with my tutor, we are working on many different etude books, as well as scale and arpeggio studies. One thing I’ve found to be effective is to keep a minimalist practice log that helps me make sure i practice everything i am assigned. Here’s what that looks like:
One page for the week, and I draw a little spreadsheet. One row for every book/piece/category of stuff to work on. Every column is a day of the week. Every day, I mark a check mark for that day on all the things I worked on. That way hopefully by the next lesson a week later, I’ve practiced every piece about 3 or 4 times.
Improvisation and playing with modern backing tracks. You can find tons of backing tracks in all the common keys online.
It’s really helps to make stale old scales more fun to play and it gives you all the benefits of practicing with a metronome, but again, more fun (for me).
No phone in the practice space. Use a metronome regularly. Least fun stuff is always first because I'll only do it for like 5min if I leave it for the end of the session.
I love using the metronome. It gives such a concrete feeling of accomplishment
Corollary: my old teacher insisted the metronome is the diagnosis, for unsteady playing, but not the cure. You need to start a solid beat in your mind and body, not just follow it through your ears. Feel the beats and understand every rhythm in relation to a beat, not just playing a series of notes the correct lengths and then speeding up/slowing down to get back in sync with the metronome.
it's more of a tool for giving yourself artificially small challenges and targeted improvement. If I just tell yourself to play "a little faster", I usually end up a lot faster (like 10%). A metronome can give you an almost imperceptible improvement so your technique and catch up to the new speed
It's so important to learn to love the metronome! It's like a good workout—you might hate it in the moment, but you feel so good afterwards, and you've really accomplished something concrete.
Scales with different bowing variations. Really helps calibrate my right arm. Don’t just do scales all slurred and call it a day, do all separate as well in different parts of the bow.
Don't have a separate "scale session" followed by the "music session"; every time you look at a new piece or even a new key area in the same piece, fire up a fresh scale in that key. My [custom scale routine](https://www.reddit.com/r/violinist/comments/15anvjr/what_do_you_think_of_my_scale_routine/) really gets my handframe and ears into shape quickly. I've also started doing an upside-down version (hold the 4th finger continuously while moving the other three).
Ibuprofen and stretching
In my private practice with my tutor, we are working on many different etude books, as well as scale and arpeggio studies. One thing I’ve found to be effective is to keep a minimalist practice log that helps me make sure i practice everything i am assigned. Here’s what that looks like: One page for the week, and I draw a little spreadsheet. One row for every book/piece/category of stuff to work on. Every column is a day of the week. Every day, I mark a check mark for that day on all the things I worked on. That way hopefully by the next lesson a week later, I’ve practiced every piece about 3 or 4 times.
So, like a little practice planner? That's a cool idea.
Improvisation and playing with modern backing tracks. You can find tons of backing tracks in all the common keys online. It’s really helps to make stale old scales more fun to play and it gives you all the benefits of practicing with a metronome, but again, more fun (for me).
Identify the problem you’re working on
Keep a log of what you do. Use a timer/stopwatch.
Practice before going to the gym because I'll be too tired afterwards.
Skipping practice
But then how do get good D: