Invincible Violinist

A recent hiking accident left me reeling in pain on the ground. My broken ankle took a deep toll on my violin practice. For many weeks I was basically horizontal; for several months following standing (and even sitting) was uncomfortable at best and often very painful. Any protracted violin practice sessions were impossible. The psychological toll is not to be underestimated. Incapacitation and pain combine to sap your energy, your motivation and any sustainable interest in picking up your instrument.

My recovery has been slow and steady and has afforded me the opportunity to rethink and remake my playing. At this point I can sustain about 30 minutes of practice. That’s basically a warmup plus a few carefully chosen minutes. In a perverse way, it’s a blessing in disguise as my natural tendency is to work and rework endlessly. It’s a common problem; the overly developed work ethic.

The Benefits of a Short Practice Session.

I’ve discovered that less can be more. In a way, the limitations of time can somehow be freeing. Here are a few tips I’ve gleaned:

• Limit yourself to “micro passages.” Discover what you can improve within just a few notes or beats before tackling an entire phrase or passage.
• Ration your attention. You’ll find that its far easier to stay razor focussed when you can limit your attention to seconds and minutes instead of unabated hours.
• Allow yourself noticeably more time around and between phrases, tricky string changes and anything that leaves you unsatisfied. We tend to push too hard across what can be natural and comfortable spaces in our playing.
• Constantly reflect on the object of your attention. Does it feel poised? How can I perform this with greater ease? What happens when I don’t try so hard.
• Be satisfied with solving or improving one or two problems. The rest can wait for next time.
• Clarify your artistic intentions. Use bold contrasts to clarify your choices to yourself and your listener.
• Recognize your biases of interpretation. Are your assumptions based on someone else’s performance? Are you playing on autopilot?

All of these tips come back to the attitude of working patiently, mindfully and with curiosity. It’s about letting go of preconceptions and releasing the grip of your ego. Rethinking your practice is never easy, but in a sense it’s the easiest thing you can do.

The bottom line: you’ve got just a few minutes to “be in the room” with your practice. So why not really be there to enjoy it? I’ll gladly take the beauty of those fully present moments, just for now. That’s all I’ve got. That’s all any musician has.

You probably think of playing the violin as a creative and artistic activity. And so it should be.

Yet practicing the violin is as much about being methodical and organized as it is creative.

If you want to slow your practice results to a crawl, simply spend your practice time with and ad-hoc, touchy-feely-right-brain-only approach. Similarly, robotically repeating a song or musical passage with the hope that it “gets better” falls into this category.

In contrast, the greatest musicians (the players you truly admire) all share a common trait: when it comes to practice, they are consistently well organized and highly flexible.

In fact, the world’s most “talented” violinists have a knack for organizing their work super effectively. They gravitate toward these more efficient working strategies almost by second nature.

For the rest of us mere violin mortals, we can learn from the best in the business by modeling a few simple practice room strategies.

Here is my “top six” list of practice hacks.

1. Divide your practice session into logical categories. In my case there’s a physical/mental warmup section, a technique building module and a repertoire building area (and a couple of others) all wrapped into a single practice session.
2. Journal your work. The extra moments it takes to make notes during your practice session will save countless hours of wasted effort.
3. Monitor your moment by moment mental state. If you find yourself overworking, striving or obsessing, it’s time to take a break and regroup.
4. Use a session To-Do list rather than relying upon your memory to move between the various portions of your practice. I actually use a task management software program on my computer.
5. Utilize proven physical and mental tactics. When I want to improve any element of my playing, I attack it from a variety of differing angles, looking for the most effective approach. Put these tactics on a special page of your practice journal.
6. Frame your work in a context that relates to the the upcoming performance of whatever you’re playing. Said differently: you’re not practicing for the abstract. Create something that will work in the heat of the moment.

Clearly, this list covers a lot of ground. I could write a whole book on each item. Yet, I hope it gives you a flavor for what great practice really looks and feels like in 2019 and beyond.

If you’d like to use these ideas in your own practice, stay tuned!

And: If you’re not already an InvincibleViolinist member, sign up here. I’ll be expounding more on each of these items during the course of the year. As a member, you’ll receive an update whenever I add a new blog.

May 2019 bring you your most joyful and productive violin growth ever!

~ Bill Alpert