Exaggerating ~ Practiceopedia - Phillip Johnston

Billy has a long list of changes he's supposed to make to his piece. None of them are especially difficult - the problem is going to be remembering them all.

There's no need for Billy to worry though. There's something he can do to ensure that each requested change becomes impossible to forget.

...although it means that his practice is going to sound a little...

...umm...unusual...

~ 0 ~

Whether you're simply using pencil marks, or color coding, it doesn't take long before your music is covered with reminders:

* Make these staccatos shorter

* Keep this pp genuinely quiet

* Don't forget the double sharp!

*Raise your wrist as you play this

* Change pedal here

* Use three consecutive downbows here

* Take a quick breath between these notes

* Project the melody more

* Keep these semiquavers even

None of these items are necessarily difficult to get right, but remembering the entire list can be a problem.

There's a tip you can use. Although it's going to make your practice sound a little weird, it's going to be very hard to forget these corrections once you're done.

Creating a lasting impression

The aim of this practice session is to exaggerate each of the items on your list to a point where it sounds like you're creating a parody.

So if one of the pencil marks on your score was a reminder to "Observe this accent," then observe it you will... and then some.

If you're a violinist, this means a crunch and a cloud of resin that would set off fire alarms. A saxophonist would blurt that note until their eyes are bugging out and the neighbours start thumping the walls.

A great ugly overplayed accent? It's a strange thing to do. Which is precisely the point:

Because it was strange, you'll remember it.

Our brains are designed to filter out and quickly forget the same old same old. But they're wired to keep strong - and often permanent - impressions of things that are out of the ordinary.

Create your own oddities

Moments of weirdness like that aren't just going to happen when you practice - you need to create them.

The aim of exaggerating is to turn reminders into out-of-the-ordinary behaviour from you, but behaviour that is based directly on whatever the reminder was asking for.

Let's take a look at how this might apply to some of the items in the list at the start of this blog:

"Make these staccatos shorter"

Anybody in the room listening to you play these notes should think they've heard something... but somehow not sure...

This is going to take some effort and experimenting on your part - in the process, you'll cement in your mind the idea that these notes are supposed to be short.

"Don't forget the double sharp!"

This is a little trickier. That double sharp is either ON or OFF, there's no degree of those two states.

But you can accompany playing the double sharp with unusual levels of fanfare of attention. Pause just before the double sharp, choose a crazy voice and enunciate "DOUBLE SHARP!"

Then play it very slowly and deliberately.

Repeat the passage a few times, pausing every time before the double sharp, and using a brand new voice each time to announce its arrival. The worse the impersonations, the better. The louder, the better.

It sounds stupid. It is stupid. That's the point. You'll remember it because it's stupid.

In fact, after just two such voices, it will be almost impossible not to remember that double sharp now. (and your family is going to be very, very worried about you)

"Draw a quick breath between these notes"

On concert/exam day, you'll take a short, discrete breath that is unobtrusive and allows the melody line to continue unbroken.

But today - because you're practising the breath just to remember that it's supposed to be there - you're going to draw the great shuddering gasp of a chain-smoking buffalo :-)

This is exactly the sort of breath you don't want to make on concert/exam day, but right now, see how much noise you can make with it.

And again, repeat the passage a few times.

You won't breath that way on concert/exam day but you will remember that a breath is due at just that moment.

And then dial it back down

All this craziness is designed to help imprint the issues in your mind - and that's all it's designed to do. This is not a blueprint for how to improve passages or perform with conviction.

Once each issue is imprinted, abandon the exaggerations, and back it up with some practice designed to fine tune delivery of each issue. 

The idea is that now you know you're supposed to play in a certain way, you've got to switch your attention to playing that way well. :-)