I'm collating any ideas about how to practice - guidelines for how long, what kind of stuff, techniques to tackle difficult corners, mental practise. Any more ideas please pass back...
How long....
little and often
regular - tied into routine
leave your instrument out - just dip in for 10 mins - timer
20min "learning spots" may be most efficient
General ability....
focus on individual hand patterns
interacting patterns (.e.g. scales in left, moving chords in right)
improvisation, playing games with shapes - pushing general coordination
Techniques for difficult corners....
block playing odd shapes (harp specific)
rhythm and accent practise
General rules....
slowly sorts it out!
play it right first time - then play it right 3 times
hands separately to start
small sections - target, achieve, move on
need method / diary to see what you are achieving
Mental practise....
imagining how you want the music to sound, in small detailed sections, in overall sweeps
imaging the movement in fine detail - see hand from 3 different angles
We’ve moved!
7 years ago
2 comments:
My own experience is that after too much playing without a break (the fiddle that is), I get quite a bad carpal pain in my left hand. In fact, I had that last night so had to play with my palm in an awkward place and couldn't finger properly. That was after a few hours of solid playing at home - in fact my finger pads were black from the fingerboard. So I usually try to play a few tunes together, then take a break to do something different (like commenting on a blog!) before picking the instrument up for another couple of tunes.
I'm quite bad at practicing technique for its own sake though, so I just choose some tunes and try to challenge myself to fit whatever technique in - like adding double-stopped notes or over-accentuating the beat - that I want to improve at.
Oh, and sessions! :) I never lead with tunes I'm entirely comfortable with, I always join in with those and lead tunes that I _think_ I can play. That's probably partly beer-related, though it also means I can listen to other people while I'm playing.
I've never really given mental practice a go, and don't really contemplate how I want a tune to sound before I start playing, I'll give that a try! Thanks!
I have to briefly go erk! re carpal pain. You might also want to look at your keyboard angle as well as your fiddle wrist angle in LH.
I think full on playing for any length of time is liable to give anyone pain. I think your maximum safe speed for any repeated movement is determind by your speed of relaxation.
Sometimes I feel like you don't need to practice "technique" but more like put yourself in a state where you can learn from what your body feels really exactly, intuitively. I'll take you through it one day if you want.
I'm going to stick up a post about that body sensing / feedback thing in a while. I've been gathering some more ideas about the process of learning a tune too.
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