Day 198: that one impossible thing

So there is this one thing that has you (or a student) flummoxed. You’ve been trying and trying to crack this one difficult measure/shift/bow stroke/passage and there is a brick wall between you and successful execution. Obviously I don’t have a magic wand, and I don’t even know what your one impossible thing is. But, here are just a few thoughts:

• It’s all about CLEVER practice. Thoughtful, pragmatic, problem-solving practice. Think outside of the box. Whatever you have been doing hasn’t been working, so try something else, and make it something smarter.
• Try to simplify the problem to its very core. Narrow it down in every way you can think of. Is it a right hand issue or a left hand issue? What is really the problem? Is it a rhythm thing? A pitch thing? Can you narrow it down to 1 or 2 notes (or even better, the space between 2 notes?) If you can’t, that means it’s something else. Maybe it’s about string crossings. (try taking out the left hand)
• If you are the player, pretend to be the teacher. If you are the teacher, put yourself in the player’s shoes.
• Ask around to see what’s working for other folks. We are a vast network, and somebody somewhere has faced this same problem.
• How ever slowly you are working, try slower.

A friend and fellow string instructor suggested this blog entry’s topic, naming a few specific things that somebody might be up against. In honor of Ms. Faidley’s idea, I will pick one of her suggested problems and propose a practice technique: “how do we help a student with a  difficult passage of double-stops?”

Here is my favorite double-stop trick. (I will begin with a nice little intro to it: practice the passage without the bow, plucking the strings. Become very aware about the left hand movements. Then, practice bowing and without the left hand, focusing only on what the bow arm will need to do. Now for the killer trick…) Isolate the double-stop passage to its very hardest part. Practice this part, VERY UNDER TEMPO, with your left hand fingers playing both notes but your bow playing only the upper or lower note at a time. Listen to one line even as you place the fingers for both, then do the other line. (This has to be slow & thoughtful work for it to be any good). Do this work, exactly as described, slowly and carefully.

I think I got that last idea from Simon Fisher’s BASICS. This little practice trick has worked tremendously for me and every friend or student I’ve ever shown it too. (It saved one friend’s tail days before an important recital which she then proceeded to rock, just by the way.)

But the bigger moral is: Work slowly and smartly. All things will become easier.

Day 51: Proceed with caution.

Today i just couldn’t help myself. I played a tiny bit. I played pianissimo e dolce and listened as attentively to my arm as I did to my viola. There was no pain, thankfully, but I’m going to err on the side of caution and keep it to a few very careful minutes a day for a while. (Incidentally, I noticed everything else in my body was calmer than usual too. Rad.)

The injured elbow is on my bow arm, so I can do left hand exercises without much worry. I found some vibrato exercises in Simon Fischer’s Basics that can be done without the bow (#275-278) and went to town. It’s kind of fun trying these new things each day. Two days ago I was discovering new things about melodic lines by singing them and playing them on the piano. Today I’m more conscious of the flexibility of my left hand knuckles than I have been in … um, ever?

And another reminder to anybody out there: take care of yourself. Without that, none of the other stuff matters, does it? It’s like the oxygen mask on the airplane: if you aren’t breathing, how the hell are you gonna help the people around you???

Day 44: Get technical.

Day 43: Get technical.

I’ve known musicians who didn’t really believe in practicing “technique.” I’m not one of them. These musicians say things like, “all music is technical” or “etudes are a waste of time; my repertoire is technically demanding enough.” I say: I have to work at this stuff. It doesn’t come naturally or without serious work. This may not be a matter of disagreement; maybe these folks are just really freaking good at technique. Maybe they are just always in great shape musically. I’ll bet they’re also in perfect physical condition and can eat whatever they want and never work out. JERKS.

I do scales and arpeggios every single day. I do technique-specific exercises often, and when I find one that is especially useful, I put a little flag on the page. I do etudes regularly, because they are challenging and make me a better player and teacher. Systematic etudes, studies that utilize sequences for example (think Ševčík), are especially informative because they reveal weaknesses so clearly. My brain on Ševčík: “easy/easy/easy/easy/easy/easy/WALL.” There you go, that’s where you work. Anyhow, I’m an advocate for technical practice. It’s good for you.

This next part is really technical (no pun intended) and super boring. Don’t read it.

Checking in with my bigger goals: today I did 3 exercises from Simon Fischer’s Basics. #168 is for fast finger lifting- kind of a fun exercise with left hand pizzicato. #122 is varied bowings applied to Kreutzer #2, done at different parts of the bow. I can’t tell if that one is helpful or just tedious busy work. Doing it can’t hurt I suppose? Then I did #197, an exercise in dropping fingers in blocks. I found this one really helpful, because I could immediately feel and hear which fingers didn’t land with the same quickness. (Always 4 after 1 or low 2. I’ll definitely be coming back to this one often.) I chip away at Flesch a little every day. It’s feeling better and more manageable all the time. I have yet to even THINK about trying the 10ths, though.

Day 41: Bag of tricks

This is a big deal. Everybody needs a bag of tricks, a vast and ever-growing arsenal of exercises. We get some of our tricks from teachers and colleagues; others just occur to us during a really good practice. Constantly adding to the bag of tricks keeps practice fun and at the same time makes it more efficient: if you have exactly the perfect exercise for a problem, you know you can immediately address it head on. A good bag of tricks makes us better practicers, better musicians, and better teachers.

One of my favorite resources for “tricks” is a book called Basics by Simon Fischer. It’s a tremendous collection of 300 exercises “for the violin” that I’ve found incredibly useful on viola, and I can imagine would have a lot to offer to a cellist or bass player as well. I love the index in this book; it sends me to exactly the exercise I need for a tricky passage or a student’s stubborn issue. Another one of my projects for this year is to work through every single exercise in Basics… of course I’ll report here on how it goes.