Personal strategies for staying thoughtful and engaged in daily practice

(taken directly from a working Notes doc, please excuse formatting and typos and use/share as you see fit)

December 12, 2023

The trap we too easily fall into time and time again is taking the well worn path of least resistance in our practice sessions. This is especially true for classical musicians when it comes to audition prep, but of course applies to creative practice overall. I’m talking about going at the same exact excerpts from a given list every day, start to finish in the same order, without taking into consideration what might be the best and most efficient or effective approach for that day or time or mood or physical state.

I propose resisting this temptation to follow such a (pardon the harshness here) mindless path over and over. This is obviously not a radical proposition. But I see it happen again and again, with myself, colleagues, students, and creatives of all types. So this is a gentle, no, urgent! reminder to stay engaged and take the path more thoughtful, especially while juggling other gigs, full time work, performances, etc.

Part of this requires collecting an arsenal of tactics we can easily call upon for a more intentional, engaged practice. A series of approaches for each aspect of our practice that addresses issues in real time, encourages a stimulated and curious sense of musicality or creativity, and doesn’t cause fatigue or injury. The following is a list of possible approaches I’ve come up with over the years to keep things fresh for myself, specifically in the context of preparing for an audition or other big performance. It is ever expanding, and I encourage you to use it however you see fit as well as come up with your own. I’d be interested in hearing how creatives in other practices use similar or additional strategies for being thoughtful in their daily work on a particular project.

•Informal recording (in small segments, with your phone or other super non-fussy recording device, done with such regularity that you normalize hearing yourself objectively)

•More formal recording (record a run-through or entire mock audition, simulating a high-stress scenario that you might even get nervous for, again done with enough regularity that you normalize this setting)

•Deep clean intonation (slowly, in digestible chunks, with beautiful tone, making a conscious decision to play with or without a pitch drone and with or without vibrato)

•Begin from somewhere other than the beginning (maybe even decide to omit beginnings entirely for a session or two)

•Only focus on beginnings.

•Only focus on beginnings, endings, and key transitions.

•Practice in a different spot than you normally do. Even facing a different direction. Or being in a different corner of the room. Or sitting down when you normally practice standing, and visa versa.

•Sing a phrase out loud, with absolute unwavering conviction, regardless of how good or terrible (like mine) your voice may be. Play back immediately after.

•If you’ve been doing lots of run throughs, switch focus to short segments of detail work or deep cleaning. If you’ve been doing lots of slow practice and focused deep cleaning, switch gears to play through larger segments in a performance mindset.

•If you don’t typically keep a practice journal, grab some paper and write down your observations periodically during a practice session. Keep it objective and nonjudgmental. Listen and hear actively, being more proactive (hearing ahead, imagining your sound) than reactive. Recording is a great tool in this mode.

•If you don’t typically come up with a practice plan, try it, starting with a day or week.

•If you are typically very methodical with your practice, keep a practice journal, and stick to a prescribed regiment, switch gears for the day and follow your intuition instead of a plan. Experiment with color, dynamic, and phrasing. Be daring. Allow yourself to be tasteless, to over exaggerate. Find the outer boundaries of your playing without judgement, and be open to what you may learn in the process.

•Listen to a few different recordings to get perspective.

•Conduct (I use this term loosely - keep time, musically) a passage while singing or imagining playing.

•Experiment with opposite bowings. If there is a fast passage utilizing separately bowed notes, practice slurring them. If there is a fast slurred passage, practice with separate bows. Get creative with different patterns. Always keep musical shape as the guiding force.

•Imagine you are working with a student on a passage - what would you be listening for, how might you help them overcome challenges that arise.

•Use a timer to set small practice sessions - especially good for time management and days when you notice your mind wandering a lot.

•Be aware of your body and mood and adjust your practice plan for the day accordingly. If your mind and body are fighting a certain kind of repertoire for the day, will be best to come at it from fresh perspective at another time. Even when I’m on a time crunch, I find it’s always more efficient for me to switch gears to a different piece, mode of practice, or break from the instrument entirely, rather than practicing in bad habits or backwards progress by fighting it.

•Mental. Practice. This should really be it’s own topic, however the main points are as follows: study your part (and/or score) while listening to a recording (listening to multiple recordings can be helpful for perspective), OR study while hearing very clearly in your head (obviously only if you are at a point where you know the piece well enough to begin with). This is not passive listening; you should be visualizing the feeling of your bow on the string, it’s contact point and speed, your left hand fingers, the feeling of your shifts, the dynamics in relation to musical shape and phrase, what character is being portrayed, and on and on. Essentially, this is a practice of intense focus, where the physical act of playing is not only visualized, but in fact amplified in the mind.

•Practice your state of mind. That gnarly passage that you’ve practiced 100 different ways but still can’t consistently mail at tempo? My bet is that you’ve a) told yourself a few too many times that you’re going to mess it up before you even get there, b) come to despise the passage because of that, and c) completely forgotten the music intent, the character, behind the notes. I know because I’ve been there. So many times. The trick is to practice a more effective state of mind, interwoven with effective practice of technique. Begin with redefining the musical character of the passage, and try to embody that while practicing it. I’ve gone so far as to draw a smiley face or heart in my music right at the moment my mental state starts to drift negative, or one word that gets me into a more positive state. And I simply do not allow myself to practice that passage in any other mental state. For me, I redefined the famous passage in Don Juan that goes up to the high D by embodying the term “groovy”. Now, I can’t think of it any other way and consequently rarely ever miss.