ITEA Journal Volume 49 Number 2 (Winter 2022)

back to contents Increase or decrease font size: |

---

Pro Tips
Oystein Baadsvik

Practicing Efficiently Be Your Own Teacher

Here is my best advice for practicing. Whether you are a student, an amateur or a pro, these tips will help you learn anything - faster.

I once gave a master class with a gifted student in Taiwan. There were six other students in the room following the class, and at one point we recorded the student's performance of the first movement of the Vaughan Williams tuba concerto while he played with a metronome. After listening to the performance, everybody agreed that a lot of things were good, but in one particular 16th note passage, the student was obviously dragging, slowing down the tempo.

"And what is the solution to that?" I asked him. Silence. "Anyone?" Everyone in the room looked at each other and wondered what kind of magic would be needed to deal with the problem of playing too slow. They were obviously waiting for me, the "master", to say something really smart. Because the solution was so obvious, I denied doing so. After the collective quest for a solution had come to a halt, the youngest student in the room suddenly raised his hand and suggested: "Maybe he should… play it faster?". I could see the older students' slight embarrassment when they got this simple and obvious advice from their younger colleague: If you play too slow - you can fix it by playing faster.

The passage was played again, and after a couple of attempts, the passage was in tempo and sounded fine.

Pretty easy, and not magic at all. Most importantly, the student did it himself, without any input from me.

What do we learn from this example, and why do I even bother writing about such a seemingly simple thing?

Because this example describes a typical and very important challenge both for students and for teachers in music education. My guess is that if you are a teacher yourself, you recognize the situation: You spend lots of time correcting the student on issues that the student could, and should, have fixed themselves. The result is that the student eventually believes that they need a teacher to fix everything. The student becomes dangerously passive and does not develop their own ears. So, what do I think the student should be able to do themselves?

Pretty much everything they are able to hear, and that they can manage to do technically on their instrument. This includes most everyday challenges like keeping tempo, tempo changes, articulations (accents, tenutos, staccatos) as well as dynamics and playing the correct notes. In most cases also intonation.

Learning new fundamental skills such as breathing, playing posture and tonguing, on the other hand, will require a good teacher. In rare cases, the everyday issues are so closely linked to fundamental technical skills where the teacher is needed for guidance. For example, unwanted diminuendos as a result of poor breathing techniques.

You might claim that most students have problems noticing when they drag or rush, and therefore need a teacher to point them out. It is true that it can be difficult to hear your own mistakes while playing, but for most students, it is easy to hear someone else's mistakes. Here is where the microphone and the recording device come in handy. When actively using a recording device, the student is able to spot and deal with most everyday issues. The cost is really not an issue these days. Most cell phones are great recorders for practicing use.

In fact, when judging top-level international solo competitions, it strikes me that many of the candidates simply fail to play what's on the page. For example: making unconscious tempo changes, missing written articulations, dynamics, and even notes that are written in the score. Since most students are capable of recognizing such flaws when they listen to others, this tells me that they simply haven't spent enough time listening to themselves.

To wrap up: You simply don't need a teacher to tell you that you are dragging, or rushing, or missing accents and dynamics. It is just a waste of your (or your parents'!) hard-earned money, and the teacher's time.

For these particular issues, spend your money on a recording device instead and spend your time on listening to yourself and practicing! The bonus is that you develop your ears, your most precious asset as a musician. I sometimes ask students: Do you record yourself? - Yes, of course. - Do you listen to the recording? - No…

This is how I use a recording device to improve my own playing.

Using a Recording Device to Improve

1. Record a passage in the piece. A line, a page, or a movement. Be careful that it is not too long a passage.

2. Listen to the recording and pick a small, isolated issue to focus on. It could be an interval, tempo, articulation, or dynamics. Place a Post-It note next to the spot.

3. FIX THE ISSUE!

4. Record the difficult spot again. Don't waste time recording the parts you already know!

5. Confirm that you can hear the improvement. Seriously! If you don't improve, you are wasting your time.

6. If it sounds good, enjoy the success and jump to the next challenge. If it doesn't, go back to step 3.

The next day, confirm that all fixes are still there. If not, go back to step 3. It is very normal that things you fixed yesterday will take a slight step back the next day. In the long run, it will stick. You thought that you did that crescendo, accent, the steady tempo, or the pianissimo, but you can't hear it on the recording? Chances are that you are not doing it or doing too little. Back to step 3!

Most importantly - don't stop the process before you can ACTUALLY hear that crescendo. And that you can ACTUALLY hear those accents in the right place. And that you can ACTUALLY confirm that you are keeping the tempo.

Record yourself with a metronome to check your tempo. Record yourself with a synthesized accompaniment or a drone tone to check intonation. The latter can be done by typing the piano part into a computer notation program and playing along with that. I have left out the work with interpretation and will get back to that in another article. At the moment, we are simply trying to play what is on the paper.

When you handle all the details combined throughout the piece, cement it by repeating the success 10 times a day for 100 days. Do occasional checks with the recording device every other week to see if you have lost any details. Before you say, "I don't have time for all this", let's take a more detailed look.

Here is an example: Let's say the piece is 5 minutes long. We also assume that it is within your technical reach. That means that you already master all of the basic techniques needed to play the piece. If not, choose an easier piece and continue to improve your technique. You don't want to bang your head against the wall with a piece you can't possibly handle technically. Unless of course it makes you very happy and motivated to do so!

The initial bar-to-bar work with the recording device takes about an hour a day for three weeks. Minus Sundays. The cementing in total takes: 10 repetitions x 5 minutes = 50 minutes a day for three months.

You have now spent around four months in total, with less than one hour a day, and you will know the piece like the back of your own hand. For your own sanity, make sure you play something totally unnecessary just for fun each day in addition to the hard work.

This is a very short time span in the music business. If you are a tuba student wanting to learn the Vaughan Williams concerto for future orchestral auditions, this is an investment for life for a very modest price. It will not cost you a penny. Only time, sweat, and dedication.

Since you will become your own teacher during this time, you should keep in mind that everyone is different. If you know that you are the lazy type, like me, you might need to kick yourself in the butt now and then to keep up the discipline. If you are very self-critical, you should make sure to give yourself a pat on the shoulder when needed.

Why Do We Practice?

You don't practice to fill the practicing hours, nor to make your teacher happy. You practice for a single reason, to become better. Not next year, not next month, but today! There is no reason to wait. You are supposed to play with better dynamics in that hard passage now than you did yesterday. You are supposed to keep the tempo at letter G in the third movement better now than you were an hour ago. When working on that tough accent bar, you are supposed to hit more accents now than five minutes ago. Even the tiniest of improvements is a victory. If you just play a single crescendo better than you did a minute ago it is a victory.

And I cannot stress it enough: whether you think that you do the accent, the crescendo, or keep the tempo is totally irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what the audience can actually hear. That is why you need to record yourself and listen from the outside.

The bad news: You must take responsibility for your own development. You have fewer excuses for not playing what is on the paper. You cannot practice without ears and brains. You will need to clear your schedule and make time for practicing. In addition, at first glance, this might seem like a slow learning method.

The good news: Learning a piece of music is not magic. Not only can you handle most everyday issues yourself, in fact - you are the only one who can. You develop the crucial art of listening. It is fun to notice an immediate improvement, and this is the absolute fastest method if you seriously want to learn a piece of music.

The Imagination

I find that all musicians have a fairly clear image of what they can do technically, but more importantly and sadly, what they cannot do. They have defined themselves to be on a certain step of the skill ladder so to speak. When giving master classes, I often find that the students can play on a much higher level than they thought they could. I often ask the student who their musical idol is. A trombonist might say Christian Lindberg. Well, how would Mr. Lindberg have played this phrase, I ask them. Suddenly, the student plays much better than before, lifting the trombone, plays out to the audience and shaping phrases. All because they now have a clear image in their head of how they want it to sound.

But immediately afterwards, the student falls back to their old level again. It is almost as if some people prefer to stay on a lower step. Maybe out of convenience or fear of the pressure that comes with higher expectations.

When practicing, it is almost impossible to reach a higher step on the ladder than you can imagine yourself. So, in order to reach far, you must start with your imagination. You must create an inner image of yourself on a higher level than you are now. Your ideal image of your own playing. A goal to reach for. If your attitude is "we will see what happens", it is very difficult to go far. If you say to yourself "this is what I want to happen", you have a much greater chance of success. This is true in the long-term planning as well as in the minute-to-minute practicing

A Daily Routine

Here is how I structure my practicing.

If I have one hour available, I will use 5 minutes for warm up, practice basics for 20 minutes, take a short 5-minute rest, and then practice repertoire for the remaining 30 minutes. Obviously, if I have a hard piece to learn, I might shift more of the time over to this.

Here are a few sample schedules. I recommend creating a binder for each of these and picking the one you have time for on that particular day.

One hour

0:00 - 0:05 Warm up

0:05 - 0:25 Basics 1

0:25 - 0:30 Break

0:30 - 1:00 Solos/orchestra parts

Two hours

0:00 - 0:10 Warm up

0:10 - 0:25 Basics 1

0:25 - 0:30 Break

0:30 - 0:55 Basics 2

0:55 - 1:00 Break

1:00 - 1:25 Solos/orchestra parts 1

1:25 - 1:30 Break

1:30 - 2:00 Solos/orchestra parts 2

Four hours

0:00 - 0:25 Warm up

0:25 - 0:30 Break

0:30 - 0:55 Basics 1

0:55 - 1:00 Break

1:00 - 1:25 Basics 2

1:25 - 1:30 Break

1:30 - 1:55 Basics 3

1:55 - 2:00 Break

2:00 - 2:25 Solos/orchestra parts 1

2:25 - 2:30 Break

2:30 - 2:55 Solos/orchestra parts 2

2:55 - 3:00 Break

3:00 - 3:25 Solos/orchestra parts 3

3:25 - 3:30 Break

3:30 - 4:00 Fun and warm down!

---

back to top
back to table of contents

Advertisement

Latest Journal

ITEC 2023

Advertisement

ITEA News Headlines