You know what you want to improve in your violin playing. You’ve set goals. You’ve made an achievable plan of action. But there are still things that can get in your way! Distraction is probably #1. Today I want to talk to you about focused practice. How can you create focus in your violin practice?
How will you improve focus during practice?
It’s so easy to get distracted!
- Your violin won’t sound right today and you spend your entire practice session just trying to find a reason for this.
- Whatever you’re working on starts to bog you down and you turn to something simple to play for fun instead.
- “Oh hey! That string of notes almost sounded like that one tune by ___” …and then you start trying to play that tune by ear.
The list goes on and on! Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have fun and enjoy your violin. You should!! Absolutely. What I am saying, is that you’ve chosen a few set goals that matter to you. These are a priority. Your time with your violin might be limited. Do the work first, play later! Play for fun as a reward for putting some work in.
What’s your biggest distraction when you pick up your violin? How do you plan to improve your practice focus this week?
What is your ideal practice setting?
Where do you like to go when you’re ready to “get things done!”? Think about where you work best, on any type of work.
- Coffee shop?
- Quiet corner of the house?
- The park?
- Your desk?
- Dinning table?
What is it about that environment that helps you focus and really get your work done? Can you bring a piece of that to the practice room? If your ideal work environment is a coffee shop, maybe you could drink a cup of coffee while practicing. Maybe it’s the coffee aroma that helps you focus; try lighting a coffee scented candle in your practice room. If you resort to the park, maybe you can bring a few houseplants into your practice environment. Get creative and make a practice haven unique to you!
How do you deal with frustration?
As you work through your practice sessions, your bound to run into frustration. Maybe you keep making the same mistakes. You start questioning your progress. You wonder if you will ever reach your goals.
What do you do when these thoughts creep in? How do you respond? Are you able to recover the remainder of your practice session or does it go downhill from here?
Next time you feel frustrated in your practice, try one or more of the following:
- Step away from practice for a few minutes to do something else
- Remind yourself where and/or why you started playing and how far you’ve come.
- Consider if it’s actually some other stress in your life that’s triggering the frustration.
- Switch things up and practice something entirely different instead… avoid that particular frustration but keep working.
Do you have clutter in your practice?
Practice time is limited. Not only because of your schedule, but also because of focused brain power. We must distinguish the difference between practicing and playing. Practice is where the work happens. Playing is what we do for fun, a reward for having practiced. In order to truly practice longer, we can work up our endurance and attention span, but most of the time, 30-60 minutes is ideal practice time, depending on your level.
You want to use your focused practice time to work on moving forward with your goals. Is there anything you can remove from your practice (not playing, PRACTICE) in order to focus solely on your violin goals?
- Are you practicing anything without a specific goal in mind for that material?
- Is your practice environment clear of “life” (snacks, bills, to-do lists, etc.)?
- What about mental distractions? “Can my neighbors/family hear me?”
Save your “fun” pieces for violin playing, not violin practice. Do the work first! Having a set practice time and duration will help your mind relax about other responsibilities because you have already decided to give this time to Violin and you will know you can deal with that stuff at other times. If you think of something during practice, write a quick note so you don’t forget and dive right back in. Silencing your phone during practice might be a good idea as well. And then lastly, find your ideal practice location, or settle with things you can’t change so that people overhearing you won’t bother you.
How do you Prioritize Your Practice?
Depending what you having going on, your top priorities in your practice will change. If you have an upcoming performance, lesson, rehearsal, or audition, you’re going to want to move that higher up on the priorities…but should you?
If you are balancing and planning your practices well, by the time one of these events comes along, you should be feeling pretty comfortable with the material you prepared. You will go far by maintaining a well rounded practice.
I’ve talked before about the importance of mixing things up in your practice. Your best practice happens towards the beginning of your practice time, as well as the first few minutes on a given task. I find it useful to mentally plan through my order of practice at the beginning of each session. I put my music in order, and decide where the work needs to happen that day within each piece or exercise, taking into account how much time I have available to work.
- What throws your practice off balance?
- How can you plan to avoid the upset in your routine?
- Is it better for you to maintain a rigid practice routine or keep things really flexible?
My practice can be thrown off by me not wanting to disturb mom and being afraid I’m being too loud and she can hear me. Also, I get frustrated by my bad bowing and lose my concentration.
To get past the fear of disturbing mom, I close my door and use a mute. However, if I am practicing on the “E” string, I still get nervous. I’m not sure how to get past that one. With the bowing, I need to practice slowly and mindfully, taking a few deep breaths and bow more slowly for a bit.
I need a bit of flexibility in my practice, but know what I plan to work on to meet my goals.
Focus: I, too, silence my phone. My music room is MINE, well, maybe the cats’ and dogs’ too?. I try to tune out everything else that is going on in the house. It can be difficult, but I also do the Cycle, an Alexander Technique that is taught by Jennifer Roig-Francoli, to keep myself present ❣️
I get thrown off balance by pain and people in the house.
I try to avoid upset in my routine by ignoring everyone and everything else ❣️
My routine has to be flexible; there are 5 of us with many obligations.
My ideal setting would be with a teacher ❣️
I deal with frustration by walking away from it, doing the Cycle, and coming back later to it later on.
There is no clutter: the exact opposite. Plenty to work on but not enough resources to move me forward properly in terms of technique.
I always give priority to music that fits how I feel and to upcoming performances.
Focus: I, too, silence my phone. My music room is MINE, well, maybe the cats’ and dogs’ too?. I try to tune out everything else that is going on in the house. It can be difficult, but I also do the Cycle, an Alexander Technique that is taught by Jennifer Roig-Francoli, to keep myself present ❣️ Sometimes I have to walk away and come back to it.
I get thrown off balance by pain and people in the house while I play.
To avoid disruption, I try ignoring everyone and everything else… doesn’t always work, though. At other times, though, I can play no matter what else is going on.
My routine needs to be flexible. There are 5 of us with many obligations.
My ideal setting would be with a teacher❣️
Frustration: I put it away and come back later, after doing the Cycle.
Clutter: the exact opposite. Plenty to work on, but not enough resources to use.
Priority is always given to pieces that are appropriate to my mood and to upcoming performances.
What throws your practice off balance?
•If I get to obsessed with one particular section of my material I can end up spinning my wheels uselessly. Sometimes on occasion an oddly busy work week with lots of after hours museum events can force me into an unfamiliar practice rhythm.
How can you plan to avoid the upset in your routine?
•I try very hard to plan out my practice sessions so I know what I want to work on, and can set forth a clear path that sets me up to achieve some small goals and maintain a forward momentum. I also find that setting timers helps to keep me from getting bogged down on one particular thing. I can choose to revisit that area later in practice, after all the work is finished.
Is it better for you to maintain a rigid practice routine or keep things really flexible?
•I find myself to be more productive if I keep to an established routine in my practice. But I do find it useful to vary the order in which I work on material.
For the question on how I could improve focus towards my goal without getting sidetracked. I honestly couldn’t say what i’d want to change I try to always keep in mind what I am doing and what I am aiming for with everything I play. I have music adhd or something too. There’s something to be learned from everything.
And I’ve never been told to play anything so I just float around and experience as many variations of hand frames… movements … patterns as I can.
As far as frustration goes I can’t say I’ve experienced it towards the violin. Every moment has been a joy of progress and development. Maybe if I had some type of responsibility to improve it could give reason to stress.
As far as my ideal practice setting, anywhere no one can hear me ? though I’ve always imagined what it would be like to practice with someone else lol.
No clutter, I am.
No agenda, I do.