Practice Techniques Part 1

I’m in the final week of a great online program that Noa Kagayama is presenting on practice techniques called “Performance Psych Essentials.”  He has organized the sessions so that those of us who are educators can interact through the site and share videos and our experiences with both applying these techniques in our own practice and with using the techniques when working with our students. Those who are not educators are in a separate group called “learners.”

I thought I’d share a few practice techniques that have made a huge difference for many of my students, both private students and some in group workshops!

The first one has to do with getting a tune up to speed. I had always just practiced something slowly until it is in my muscle memory well enough to speed up, but there was sometimes a wall at a certain tempo that I couldn’t get past. The point was made that muscle memory might need to be different to move faster, so if you are locking into what works at a slow tempo, it may not translate when you try to take it faster.

So this technique is called “At Tempo Practice” with the option of “Forward Chaining” or “Backward Chaining.”

Before you start this method, it’s important that you first make sure you have established the fingering, bowing, etc. that you are going to use so you don’t have to make those decisions on the fly.

Forward chaining is what I used and taught to a few of my students, and also presented in a harp workshop.

The idea is to set a metronome at the tempo you should ultimately go, and then just practice coming in with the first note on time. Simple, right? Also prepare for the next note. So if you’re playing a harp, you should have the next note placed and ready to play. If you’re on a violin, you should also consider what part of the bow you need to be on in order to play the next note. Make sure you can successfully play on time 10 times in a row before moving on.

Next add another note – it might be on the next beat, or it might be on the next half beat. But also prepare for the next note. Again, be sure to prepare but not play the third note, and again use the “10 times” rule. What that means is you want to do 10 in a row without a mistake. If you make a mistake (play the wrong note, or play out of time) you need to start counting all over again.

Then you continue adding notes until you have a full phrase at tempo.

You can do this from the start of the piece, or just “woodshed” the trouble spots that are keeping you from playing at the correct tempo.

This may sound slow and tedious, but try it out on a tune that you wish you could play faster. You’ll be delighted with the results!

Backward chaining would mean you have to begin with the last note, and then add in the next to the last, and so on. I am not sure this would be as easy to do – I know I had trouble with finding where to come in for each of those, but it might prove to be useful yet!

I’ll talk about a few other practice techniques in the upcoming blogs. If you’re interested in Noa’s courses, please visit his website at: https://bulletproofmusician.com/

He also sends out a free blog post that covers all kinds of performance and practice issues, using scientific studies from other disciplines such as sports, and tying them to music.

If you want to learn more about woodshedding and the “10 times rule,” you might want to check out my workshop: “The Practice of Practicing” which is available as a video replay at: https://verlene.com/workshops.html#pp