I have many students that hate practicing. Some do it anyway and others don’t. I have a few that enjoy practicing, and do it more because of that. To be honest, there isn’t a huge level of different in playing between those that enjoy practice and do it, and those that don’t enjoy it but do it anyway, but the ones that don’t practice much aren’t as good at playing the violin.

It really takes a daily commitment, especially  when you are younger or just starting. This isn’t to say that if you miss a day of practice you forget everything, but if you practice 3 times a week and somebody else practices 6 times a week, that second person will be significantly further along in a week, and more so in a month. I tell new students, as close to everyday, even 5 to 10 minutes a day is all you need to start. It gets hard though, and you say to yourself, well, why bother. I suppose it’s like flossing—doesn’t take long, but kind of annoying and easy to skip, right? And what’s one day?

Then as you get better at the violin, it takes more time. That 10 minutes should become 20, then 30, then so on. Soon you may find yourself taking longer lessons, and ultimately, if you want to really do this right, you should be practicing daily for an hour, 2, 3, or more. That’s when people really start talking about your “talent”, when you are getting up early to practice before school, or when you dedicate weeks of your summer to a music camp, or when you take your violin along on a family trip to practice.

I get students in college who think that they should get an A just for taking lessons. They don’t think that me asking them to practice 3 hours a week is reasonable. (Seriously, I probably have 3 college students total that actually accomplish this.) I was always taught that for every hour in class you should spend 3 out of it. Now, 3 hours a week isn’t actually enough, in my opinion, if you are a music major. Because you should be striving to actually be good on your instrument, and even if you aren’t planning to be a performer, surely you want to be good enough for your community orchestra? and that requires some work.

No one wants to do the work. They also don’t realize that it gets easier, that the more you practice the more fun violin can be, because you are better at it! And that you keep getting better. I find that to be the most interesting: I keep getting better. Maybe I don’t have the fast twitch muscles of my youth or the memorization skills, but I can turn a phrase and I can make my violin sing the way I want it to, and those skills are more valuable.

I’m mostly frustrated. I’ve never been good at getting my students to practice. I ask them to track it, I ask them about their practice, I ask them to plan it out, I give them ideas on how to do it, what to practice. I try charts, graphs, stickers, rewards, etc. I praise them when they have good weeks. I find that ultimately, some will practice, regardless, and others won’t. Getting ready for recitals or contests makes those that already practice more motivated, which is good, but it’s all marginal. So why am I having such a hard time changing people’s practice habits? I think that it’s because, ultimately, it’s up to them. Have I emphasized it enough? Sometimes, occasionally, maybe no. I do try, but it’s possible I’m bringing assumptions to the table.

In any case, whenever I run into bigger issues, I always try to figure out how to do better in the future. This semester I’ve had some issues with a few students that I hadn’t had before, so I’m trying to figure out how to do better. I think for my college students I will really set out a required plan, and tell them their grade each week will depend on it. I will also make sure that they understand what a lesson is, and that it is not an optional class. For new private students, I will continue to try to spell things out more clearly and make sure the parents know the expectations, that practice isn’t something you only do when you have time, that it is something you make time for or otherwise, why are you taking lessons? Remember, more practice actually makes music more fun, because it’s not fun to do things you are bad at.

Before I start, in case you were worried, Mackenzie (my dog) is doing much better! She came home Monday evening and was still a bit swollen in the face, but by last night most of that swelling was down.

Onto the topic of this post, which occurred to me AS I was practicing.

There are always articles being written on practicing. How to practice, how best to practice, practice mistakes to avoid, how not to practice, and more. We are told to practice with a purpose, to have a plan, to have accomplishments and objectives. I posted an article on facebook just yesterday about how to “optimize your practicing.”

Lately, however, I’ve just been making violin practice a thing that I do during the day before I teach. I pull out music I’m trying to learn, music I’d like to learn, etudes to sight-read, music I’m teaching, and I just start practicing.  Sometimes I’ll play a piece I hear on the radio, sometimes I’ll spend a hour on scales. I just do what I feel like and make sure that if there’s a piece I definitely need to work on, that I get to that one enough.

I have made decisions over the past few years to include practice time into my daily schedule. I don’t practice every day, and I take weeks off over vacations, but I no longer overschedule myself with work to the point where weeks go by without proper practice. Once you know how it feels to be playing well, you don’t want to lose it, and in fact, you want to continue to improve.

I’ve been thinking practicing quite a bit. Many of my students don’t practice often enough. And the fact of it is this: it’s generally not that they practice inefficiently, or wrong, or badly. It’s that they simply do not practice regularly. A student who practices regularly will be better than one that does not.

And that’s the attitude I started taking to my own practice in the last year or two. Oh, and did you see what I called it? My own practice. I read a friend’s Facebook status once referring to “his violin practice” and I thought of it just like people refer to their yoga practice. It’s not about goals or accomplishments. It’s about the process. The process of getting out the violin, tuning, and then beginning to play. And doing so regularly.

Here’s my general advice: if you are struggling to get into a practice routine, don’t worry about doing it right or wrong. Simply do it. Start. There is no wrong way to practice, except NOT to practice at all.

Sure, starting at the beginning of your piece and playing through to the end, up to speed, totally ignoring mistakes…might not be the most efficient use of your time. Unless you have the issues of making mistakes and stopping all the time. For every list I read of how not to practice, I can often think of a reason to ask a student to practice that way! (I’m a contrarian, and I detest people giving expert advice which is actually just advice from their personal experience.) So go, get your violin out, and practice.

Or whatever it is. If you want to create a habit: running, eating healthy, being kind to strangers, don’t worry about the best way. Just start doing it regularly. The rest will fall into place.

I figured that it was fitting that the Brahms Piano Quintet was on the radio as I drove home from quartet rehearsal this morning (yay, we are finally back to regular rehearsals!) since we are working on getting booked to perform it in the spring.

It’s the time of year for planning and preparation—lots of practicing and putting things on the schedule, slightly less actually doing them, as I keep writing about here, though from day to day things actually end up feeling quite busy. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on with the pets lately and various vet visits for diabetes, thyroid issues, and now fleas…so that takes up a fair amount of time! I know I don’t always use my time the most wisely, but I know that I am not alone, or there wouldn’t be so many quasi-interesting things to read about on the internet!

So, since I last blogged quite a lot of fun things have happened, and lots of teaching and practicing and rehearsals as well. (One with a didgeridoo player!). I’m holding pretty firm at 37 students right now.

Friday night we went for Mexican food (this is pretty standard, if not Thursday, then Friday, or both) to a place I love called Lilly’s. They have great food, tasty margs, and a little salsa bar with lovely decor. I got a picture of the fiddle player.

Sorry, it’s a little blurry. I didn’t want to be obvious about the picture. Terrible blogger!

I played with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis over the weekend. They rehearsed at the First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood where I have played many times, but I’m always impressed by the stained glass!

Saturday we went to the Symphony and saw Josh Bell play Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. Totally weird piece for somebody to be playing, but it was a very enjoyable performance. This was the first of our subscription series and we liked our seats.

At intermission they were giving out free champagne for a toast by David Robertson. We ran into quite a number of people we knew as well and had a very nice time overall.

After the concert we had a few chocolates that Louie’s mom had brought us from her recent trip to Spain (sadly we were not invited along, ha!).

We almost felt bad eating them! They were, however, delicious.

Sunday ended up being filled with some cat/vet issues and our hopes to go for a short hike were spoiled. That’s okay—this weekend is our backpacking trip and I’m sure it’ll be fine without a practice hike. Luckily all the pets are doing, well….better now! and are fully medicated. Poor guys.

And then Monday I was going to do my long run (9 miles) but my knee was (is) acting up and I decided to rest instead. I hate bailing on long runs especially, but I realized since it was hurting just to bend it walking (who knows what happened) I should rest it. I’m hoping to be back to running Thursday morning but I won’t push it. I know how this goes! It’s the same as how it’s often smart to take a day off of practicing violin when my wrists hurt rather than force through and end up in more pain. That lesson took a long time to learn, but I’ve mostly learned it now…mostly!

And now I’m listening to some music on spotify—listening to a CD I own actually. My old teacher, Bill Preucil, playing with the Cleveland Quartet, Beethoven Op. 59 #1, and I’m feeling like I am such a lousy violinist! I must try to feel inspired rather than depressed 😉

I recently had a birthday.  One of the things I really wanted was a new violin case, so when my mother offered to help me get one, I went to the internet…and found a purple violin case! It’s the same model (basically) that I had before. Initially I had wanted to avoid the model, since the buckle had broken and I felt that it hadn’t really been that long (8 years?) but after reflecting on the cost of the case ($200), the cost of the instrument inside (not saying that here ;)), and the amount of times I opened and closed the buckles each day (several), I decided it was a very cost-effective and necessary investment…for my parents to make. (I would totally have eventually bought one myself, but HEY it’s easier this way right? THANKS MOM AND DAD!)

Isn’t it beautiful? It’s made by Bobelock and is their fiberglass half moon case with puffy cover. It’s really beautiful and I love it. (Matches my stand too 😉 )

I moved all the important stuff over, leaving behind a pile of broken pieces of rosin and a boatload of paper clips.

I’ll be the snazziest one at gigs now and all the cool kids will be jealous of me.