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Practicing the Violin

Just One Thing

When you practice or prepare to perform on the violin perhaps the greatest single danger is overwhelm. It’s far too easy to get caught up in perfecting every single thing that not one single thing is measurably improved.

So instead of that pie-in-the-sky agenda you’ve created for yourself, perhaps consider a practice plan that guarantees you will be successful:

Pick one thing that you can make better today. Then go make it better.

Maybe two or three things, if you’re really feeling on top of things. The real trap is taking on so much that at the end of your session, you can’t claim to have truly solved a single problem, or consisitently moved the needle forward anywhere.

I’ve wasted years, stuck in that trap.

So go make one thing better. One passage, one phrase, maybe even one note. Just make sure that you really did make it better. Otherwise, it really doesn’t matter that you just spent four hours in the practice room.