| The Difference
Between Play and Practice
Very often students will confuse the
terms play and practice. I think of "playing" as going through
the music one or several times over. "Practice" on the other
hand has a focus. This focus includes:
1. Playing the established warm up
(long tones, lip slurs, scales etc)
2. Playing the music
3. Identifying the problem spots
4. Making exercises out of those
problem spots
5. Work from a slow tempo (speed)
to the required tempo
6. Working out the music from
small sections to larger sections (i.e. 2 measures at a time,
then 2 more measures, the those 4 measures put together)
7. Playing the piece from
beginning to end as a wrap up
8. Using your "second brain" (the
pencil) throughout the process. |