A nice article on practicing from the Bulletproof Musician. Other great artists have expressed similar sentiments. Violinist Nathan Milstein is said to have once asked his teacher Leopold Auer how many hours a day he should be practicing. “If you practice with your fingers, no amount is enough,” was Auer’s response. “If you practice with [...]
Ten Tips to Maximise your Practising via Graham Fitch
With the Olympics very much in the news at the moment, I think of the time and energy the athletes have to commit to each day in their training regimes. We pianists have to train also – countless hours of dedication. We had better know what we are doing, though! Here are a few tips, [...]
How Much Practice is Too Much? | MindShift
Some interesting scientific tidbits on the mind and body while practicing. Over the course of a practice session, the subjects in Ahmed’s study were becoming more efficient in their muscle activity. But that wasn’t the whole story. Energy expenditures continued to decrease even after the decline in muscle activity had stabilized. In fact, Ahmed and [...]
Know the Score: A tip from violinist Min-Jeong Koh
Video: Min-Jeong Koh – Cecilia String Quartet If you play chamber music you need to know more than just your own part. If two of more people get together and simply try to play their own part they will have a slip chance of actually synchronizing their efforts. Min-Jeong Koh (violin) is from the Cecilia String Quartet.
10 Commandments for con men: tips for musicians?
Shaun Usher wrote a post giving a list of commandments for aspiring con men and I thought this is perfect for teaching and/or performing. I’ve listed my favorites but go to his website for the rest. There’s one about sex talk that I certainly would advise against! Be a patient listener (it is this, not [...]
Rubato: a definition and word of advice
Students often ask me when to use rubato so here’s a piece of advice: not too often! Pulse is an essential element to the majority of music we play. Therefore, don’t obscure the rhythmic element of pulse with unneccesay amounts of rubato. Let’s start our discussion with a definition of rubato from Oxford’s Music Dictionary: [...]
Kailee Bialaszewski’s Music Business Management Project
In November of 2011 Kailee Bialaszewski sent me her masters thesis as well as wrote a guest post for the Practicing Musician (http://www.practicingmusician.com/?p=128). The thesis provides a insight into the music business world based on an analysis of the careers of classical guitarists’ Andres Segovia and Julian Bream. Bialaszewski identifies a number of problems related to the relatively small [...]
Practicing Well: Positive Success Ratios
Photo via carterse, on Flickr Problem: Even when students practice efficiently there is still the possibility that they are not practicing well. Here’s an example: Brad practices the most difficult sections of his music during his daily practice session (this is good). He practices the difficult part until he plays it correctly. It takes him [...]
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