Clearing Obstacles ~ Practiceopedia by Phillip Johnston

Ella is not having a very happy day. She's been trying to fix a tricky run in her piece, but it's just not getting any better.
"This bit's stupid!" she yells as she flings her book off the music stand. "I'll never get it! I've played it a hundred times already and I've had enough and music lessons are stupid too and I never, never, never, ever want to play the stupid violin again and... and... boo hoo hoo."

Poor Ella. The thing is though, she could probably have saved herself this misery. Not by working harder.

By working differently...

~ 0 ~

We're all taught that if you want to master tough passages, you have to play them over and over and over. That if a section is still not behaving after you've played it 100 times, it's just a sure sign that you really needed to play it 200 times instead. P.S *whispering* (I know I've taught that! he!he!he!)

Sometimes persistence is not the answer - analysis is. Figuring out why your sections are misbehaving in the first place.

If at first you don't succeed, stop and think
It's been said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
If you've already thrown plenty of practice at a passage, and it's not responding, simply doing more practice is not going to get the job done. In fact you're probably just reinforcing whatever was causing the passage not to respond in the first place.

So your very first step has to be to STOP what you're already doing. Catch your breath... and then find out what's really going on.

Analyze, test and then practice
Once you've stopped the practice that wasn't working, clearing obstacles is a three step process:
     STEP 1. Analyze the passage to identify what the obstacle actually is.
     STEP 2. Brainstorm and test possible solutions.
     STEP 3. Cement the solution that delivered the greatest improvement using repetition.
(Remember, cementing is not practicing. Cementing is a final stage practice technique.)


Let's take these one at a time:

1. Analyze the passage:
It's not enough just to say "this bit is hard." What exactly is it that makes it hard? Is it a tricky jump? An awkward register change? A rhythm you can't feel? A chord you can't reach?

Naming the problem is nine-tenths of fixing it - and while the problem remains unidentified, no amount of practice will improve things for you.

2. Test possible solutions:
Once you've named the problem, it's time to brainstorm possible solutions. If it's a rhythm that you can't feel, perhaps counting while you play will help. Perhaps ignoring the notes and tapping it is the way to go. Perhaps listening to the recording might create an "aha!" moment. Or maybe it's worth doubling every note value to make the rhythm friendlier to the eye and ear.

Armed with a list of possible fixes, try them out. See what works, what doesn't, and then...

3. Cement the solution(s) that delivered the greatest improvement
If one of your possible solutions actually helped, it's worth building into your playing.

So if you had a theory perhaps relaxing your hand and dropping your shoulder would make a fatiguing passage easier to deliver, and you were proved right, then you need to practice doing exactly that.

So no matter what you may have been told about posture, if leaning forward makes the passage easier to play, then it makes it easier to play. Lean forward, save yourself the unnecessary practice you would need to do to cope with leaning back.

Start with the usual suspects

In your hunt for obstacles, there are three that between them, account for the vast majority of passages that don't seem to improve with practice. Before you start looking for more complicated causes, take a moment just to rule these out:

     * Being unclear as to what notes or rhythms actually are. It sounds obvious, but it's amazing how often students will start repeat-playing sections that are filled with basic notereading errors - and then wonder why it keeps sounding wrong despite all their "practice"

     * Unworkable fingerings or bowings. Your choice - you can either spend 5 minutes working out a better fingering, or 5 weeks struggling to master the old ineffective one.

     * Insane tempo. Often  the simplest explanation of all - you can't play this bit, because you're trying to play too fast, You dope!

The zero practice result

Removing an obstacle doesn't just cut back the amount of practice the passage needs - sometimes it can actually mean that you don't need to practice the passage at all. After all, if the cause for a passage being difficult has been removed, the passage should no longer be difficult!

If it is still difficult, then there may be more than one obstacle. Go back, take a closer look.

When you can't find the obstacle (or the solution)
Sometimes you can run a microscope over a passage and still can't discover why it's so hard. And sometimes you will have isolated exactly what's so difficult, but haven't a clue what to do about it.

Your teacher can take if from there. (They've had a lot more experience than you at identifying and clearing obstacles, and can work even better if you flag areas for "please help!")
:-)