Practice Strategies
1. Warm up- Run through your scales and warm ups to get your fingers and ears working together. Concentrate on fundamentals like position and tone quality.
2. Multiple Sessions- Break up your practice time into smaller chunks if a half hour is too long for you to concentrate. Work hard on one excerpt for 15 minutes; go do something else for a little bit; then come back for a second 15-minute session.
3. Excerpting- Take out the tough passages and concentrate on them.
4. Work Backwards- Start with excerpts at the end of a piece and build backwards, adding four or eight measures after each successful run-through.
5. Start Slow- Slow down and make sure you pay attention to each marking and play with accurate rhythm and good tone quality.
6. Rhythm Isolation- Sing/Chant the rhythm of a difficult excerpt, or play just the rhythm of the excerpt on open strings.
7. Use a Piano- If you’re having trouble hearing what a melody should sound like, play the pitches on a piano (either acoustic, electronic, or online [www.musipedia.org]). You could also use Finale, Sibelius, or Notepad to input and listen to excerpts.
8. Pizz/Arco Swap- If a passage is arco, start out learning notes as pizzicato, then use all separate bows, then add any slurs and articulations. If a passage is pizz, use the bow so you can hear each note.
9. Metronome Workup- Use a metronome (either a separate tool, on a keyboard, or online [www.metronomeonline.com]) at a slow tempo and get the rhythm right and the pulse consistent. Then gradually increase the speed of the metronome by four clicks after each successful run-through of the passage.
10. Rhythmic Cells- On extended passages of eighth or sixteenth notes, use different syncopated and dotted rhythmic cells to isolate awkward finger patterns.
11. Intro/Exit Strategy- Once you reach your goal with an excerpt, add two or four measures to the beginning and end and build out.
12. Repetition- Once you get something right, do it right again. Make sure you can repeat your success.