Practice Tips

1. Identify what you need to practice. This could be a specific piece, a set of scales, or something you know you missed in rehearsal.

2. Listen to the piece played by someone you know or a professional musician. This will give you an idea of what the piece should sound like, what kind of feeling the piece gives, and how fast the piece should be. (Look on my Wiki page for a recording or go to You Tube).

3. Don't jump right in to the piece you want to work on; warm up with a series of scales or other warm up exercises that relate to the piece you would like to work on.

4. After getting more familiar with the piece, target the areas that need work. Don't start at the beginning of the piece and start playing until you reach the problem spots, but begin with those areas. Then go back and play the whole piece again once you've fixed the difficult parts.

5. Even if you think you can play the section faster, start slowly. Build up the tempo while paying strict attention to intonation, tone, rhythm, bowings, dynamics, and phrasing. There's no use in practicing something the wrong way.

6. Make sure to play the piece more than once, even if you think you played it right.

7. Make sure you're focusing on your mistakes! Practice what needs to be practiced, not what you already know how to play. When a mistake is made, you must go back a few notes (or better yet, a whole measure) before your mistake and play it over and over again correctly.

8. Build up tempo until you are at "concert" tempo, or the tempo you would play if you were doing a concert. Start by going a little faster than your original tempo, then faster until you are up to tempo.