Day 213: what REALLY takes 20 minutes

I work best in short, intense segments of time. My favorite is 20 minutes. I separate these with 5 minutes of doing something non-musical, like washing a few dishes. It makes the segments more potent. This kind of time organization is for really focused, problem-solving work.

So what should be one 20 minute block?

It should be one very small thing. The work of narrowing it down is literally an important part of the work. It may take 4 or 5 minutes just to decide which note or which rest or which moment is the problem. This thought process itself is of import. I worked through this idea with a student tonight, and I’m going to share the specific musical moment because many readers will be familiar with it, but even if you aren’t, I think it translates.

You know the Gavotte at the end of Suzuki book 1? You know THE 8 notes? (I know you do. But just to be clear, I’m talking about the 16th notes in measure  20.) I asked my student which note was the problem; he thoughtfully played each note slowly and correctly chose the c natural. Then he decided it was the approach to this note, and not the departure from it. So then we had two notes, D descending to C. But this is simple, even very fast, so we weren’t there yet. We added the 4th finger E before these two notes, and we were in business. Now it’s been maybe 7 minutes? Now is the very focused, relaxed work of playing through these three notes. We created a tiny mini-etude working up and down the notes like a Philip Glass motive. One finger at a time, we considered the relaxation and accuracy of each finger, including the thumb. We considered the subtle rocking of the 3rd finger on it’s tip. At about 13 minutes, we add the 2 previous notes. We do this when the initial 3 feel easy, and we choose the previous 2 (only) because they add a new complication, and adding the 2 before (the b & d) does not. We now have a 5 note cell, isolated and slow at first, to work out what EXACTLY is going on in this measure. At the end of 20 minutes, we’ve done a great & focused thing. We may not be done with it, but we will have truly progressed with it. After a 5 minute break, I suggest working on a different thing for the next 20 minute segment; come back to these notes later today or tomorrow. This is how I work best, at least.

This is what truly takes up 20 or 25 minutes of great practice. If you do this work in 5 minutes, you aren’t doing it right. We’ve all been there, and we were wrong.

Day 173: economy

Musicians often have to fret about economic matters. It’s incredibly expensive being a musician. Just having and maintaining a good instrument is a FORTUNE.  Private lessons to get us into a good school are expensive, weekly, and never-ending. Then school, and more school, and festivals and competitions and auditions, and more school. Then we have to fight to have a job, and even if we get it, we have to advocate on behalf of that job even existing, for the rest of our lives. I regularly have people try to talk down my fee for a performance or lessons and I have to tell them that I literally can’t afford it. It’s exhausting.

But… I thought today I’d write about a different and happier type of economy: the economy of effort. I had a student come to me with an indication in his music that he thought just had to be a mistranslation: “the left hand shall remain quiet.” Not a mistake, but rather an instruction to work less. A reminder to be a quiet little insect crawling along the fingerboard with minimal effort. Working less will result in less tension, less pain, less stress, and more success. Let’s remember to be economical with our effort, in all that we do.

Day 11: Make practice your puzzle

A little while ago I found myself at a table of musicians, all of us hunched over a frustrating jigsaw puzzle. We were strategic (should we organize the sky pieces by the different shades of blue? perhaps group them by shape?) and worked together. We delegated jobs and experimented with various techniques. Somebody joked that we would look crazy to alien visitors, working feverishly at something so seemingly pointless. It’s true, we would look a bit crazy, but we were having fun. We were dedicated, often continuing for long intervals without much progress, even finding it difficult to walk away from the work. I want to capture this feeling so I can feel it more often in other endeavors, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

So what is it we enjoy about puzzles? I think it’s that even when they are simple, they aren’t repetitive; there is always a challenge. Moreover, our successes are immediately measurable. Sudoku, crosswords, solitaire, … puzzles aren’t tedious because we are problem-solving, and secretly, we kind of enjoy that. I try to make my practice like this, setting small attainable goals and acknowledging each success. As I get better at it, I’ll write more here.

What kind of puzzles do you do, and what do you enjoy about them? Is there something you can take from them and apply to your practice? How can you make your practice more strategic- less like tedious, repetitive exercises and more like a game of chess?

Day 4: Time management

Today, like many days, I found myself with less time to practice than I would like. This is my fault because I had plenty of time, at least when the day started.   …so my very most important piece of advice to anybody who happens upon this blog entry is something that I failed at doing today: GET STARTED EARLY. I made a crucial mistake this morning: I put off starting because I “knew” I had plenty of time between prearranged obligations. The problem is that life happens, and time gets swallowed up unexpectedly.

In a weird way, a day like this can be good once in a while. It forces us to be extra efficient and focused in our practice. I decided not to approach anything new today, but to keep building on what I’ve been doing. I started with a short Trott exercise, and moved to a few scales. Usually I prefer to go through the circle of fifths, but today I knew I didn’t have the time, so I moved to the Flesch double-stops I had been doing these last few days, 3rds and 6ths in C and F. (Good news: they are way better than just two days ago!) I worked through some rep I need ready soon (more on that later) and then my time was up: the doorbell ringing meant my first student was here.

I could have done much better with my time today. I should have started earlier. Tomorrow will be better.