Practical Practicing

Here are some practical ways to apply what we know about learning and myelination in the practice room. I am still working on formatting, so if something is not quite right, check out the PDF...

Practice Variations

Practice Variations - PDF

Rhythm Mix-Up

To master difficult runs, play 4 note groupings with rhythms from box #2 of the ‘Rhythm Division’ sheet. By ‘pausing’ on one of four notes (the e.) , you allow your brain time to think ahead, while still practicing three notes in quick succession. After moving through all four rhythms, every note will have been practiced quickly (and slowly). Now you’re ready to play the run… as a run!

Finger-Bow Beat Exchange

Turn on your metronome. Hear your finger ‘plop’ into place on the first beat, bow the note on the second. It’s harder than it looks! (Rhythm is disregarded in this variation.)

Bow Rhythms

Play only the rhythm of the bow – on open strings without fingering. Slurs are key to the rhythm of the bow.

Straight Bowing

Remove slurs, hooks, etc. Play every note as it comes with a new bow. Focus on fingering and rhythm

Three Point Bow Relay

Play a section using only the lower half of your bow… only the middle… and finally, only the tip. Think Elbow and pinky (of your bow arm). Bow stoppers are helpful for this one.

Bow Flip

Play a passage with your bow flipped around – bow hold on the tip, frog in the air. Think bow hand forefinger, pinky and even speed.

Terrace Dynamics

With a practice mute on, play a chunk pp, then ff. Take the practice mute off and play the same chunk pp and ff. Without the practice mute, dynamics should be smoother and clearer (and more dramatic!). Now return to the marked dynamics of the music – exaggerate any changes between p and f. It should now be easier to switch between the two.

Practicing - The Myelin Way

Now we know how our brain learns and makes skills – by growing myelin through repetition. White matter and myelin are all very interesting, but now what? We need a practical application – how to apply what we know about myelin to our practice routines. Here are the practice guidelines I give my students: How to Practice – The Myelin Way.

(There is a link to a printable PDF at the end of this post… making a practice binder to keep handouts and music in can be a practical way to keep everything you have learned in one place.)

 Practicing – the Myelin Way

1.      Chunk It

Pick chunks of your music instead of playing straight through – 8 measures/2 phrases, TOPS. Remember - we are growing skills, not testing endurance.

2.      SLOWLY

“If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly.” ~Itzhak Perlman

Get out the metronome and set it to mind numbing; turn it up after 3-4 repetitions of correctness.

Only turn the metronome up by one click at a time. You could be done after reaching 15 correct repetitions – or challenge yourself to 15 reps… all at different speeds! (Meaning, only count one of the reps from each metronome marking…)

3.      Repetitively -15X

“Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill.” ~ Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

Keep track of how many times you play a passage/chunk – abacus beads, slide pennies across the music stand, ect. Fifteen times is the magic number – soon you will get to 10,000.

Remember, only the correct repetitions count towards your daily 15.

4.      With a Twist

Use practice variations to zero in on technique and keep your focus. Check the ‘Practice Variations’ sheet for ideas – like Rhythm Mix Up and Finger-Bow Beat Exchange.

5.      Consistency

5-6 days a week. “Practice only on the days you eat.” ~ Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

      (Notice, “5-6 days a week” …. we aren’t looking for burn-out)

50min on, 10min off ~ Itzhak Perlman     

This is some the best advise I’ve been given – let the fog clear!

Practice time can be spread out through the day – it doesn’t have to be done all at once.

Practice length is something to work up to; your teacher will help you gauge how long you should be practicing. Generally, we start with 15 min and work up in 5 min increments. For young students, that sometimes means 5 minutes, three times a day. Know your attention span.

6.      Self Awareness and Tools

Chunking repetitively and slowly can only accomplish so much. Self awareness is the ingredient that will ultimately turn practicing into the myelin and skills we want; only with self awareness are we able to adjust our playing and make sure the nerve we want to get myelinated – does!

Luckily, we now have some wonderful modern tools to help us develop our self awareness (yep, that must be grown too!). Most of these are now resources that can be obtained for free as an app online.

·         Metronome  -  You might think you are keeping a steady beat – until this gets turned on!

·         Tampura Box/Drone  -  This Indian instrument sounds different to our western ears, but is a wonderful intonation tool. Let it drone while playing scales and diatonic melodic sections of your repertoire.

·         Video recorder  -  Record short sections of your practice and immediately watch them. Mark your music with things you notice and then go back and fix them. There will be things you had no idea you were doing.

·         Tuner  -  Useful for tuning our instruments, as well as our ears. While playing scales SLOWLY, adjust each pitch to the tuner. This should only be done with scales – questionable pitches from repertoire selections can be checked with a tuner, but don’t play through passages matching the tuner (there is a complicated explanation for this – ask your teacher about overtones if you are curious). Listen for the tiny changes in ‘sound wobble’ patterns.

·         Mirror  -  Find a mirror to practice in front of. Watch yourself play and check things like: posture, bow hold and placement, straight bowing, straight wrists, etc. All those things teachers like to talk about in your lesson!

Happy Myelinating!

For a printable version of this guide, click: PDF - Practicing the Myelin Way

Practice, Practice, Practice! Growing skills is part of life – and Music.

Practicing is inseparably coupled with playing an instrument, but why? Somehow, we need to develop the skills to get the sound we want out of that instrument – so we can both enjoy our instruments and so the dog will stop howling at our attempts! But why does it have to be through practicing? “I played it right once… last week…” Sound familiar?

The goal of practicing is not to ‘play it right’, but to build skills – to teach our brain what to do. Fingers don’t play music. Our brain plays music with our fingers. That is a skill.

The human cortex is one of the most fascinating features of human anatomy. If white matter is less than intriguing to you, keep going. Maybe my sheer delight will be contagious. 

The cortex is home to language, abstract thought, movement and a host of other skills that fill our everyday lives.[1] But these cortex-tual skills are not inherent or automatic; they must grow.[2]

I would like you to meet Myelin. She is the stuff skills are made of.

Myelin works with nerves to create skills. Every time a nerve in our brain ‘fires’, myelin grows around that nerve. That is why the neuron looks like tree rings are growing around it – the myelin is growing around the nerve every time it fires. The myelin blanket makes the nerve stronger and faster.

Everything we do starts with a nerve synapses. In order for us to make a sound (verbalize) or walk down the street (movement), the cortex must stimulate an action potential in a nerve, telling our bodies what to do. The same thing must happen for us to hear a bird sing, or to see a sunset – only the stimulation for these action potentials come from a stimulus outside our bodies. Whether the stimulus comes from our own determination or the bird singing on the lawn, myelin is there to wrap the nerve and make it stronger.

Where myelin grows, a skill is being created. The skill to walk is born every time a toddler takes another step – the walking nerves are getting myelinated. The skill to speak, read, write, ride a bike, sing and play the piano are all born with the myelination of neurons. Yes, even the skill of hearing smaller and more precise sounds can be myelinated.

But myelin only grows when the nerve fires, and then only a tiny bit. To make the nerve stronger and faster, the nerve must be fired over and over (repetition, repetition!).  After many repetitions of an action, the myelin becomes thick enough to act as ‘electrical insulation[3].’ The thicker the myelin sheath, the stronger and faster the skill.

This means incredible things for our practicing! Since we fire our ‘music nerves’ when we practice, we can build the skills we need by playing repetitively and growing myelin. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki knew how important repetition was when he wrote, “Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill.[4]”

Now growing myelin can mean growing some awesome skills. But that also means we can grow some pretty awful habits. If we practice correctly, the ‘right’ nerve gets myelinated; if we practice incorrectly – maybe with sloppy technique or rhythm that clashes with the synchrony of the universe – that nerve gets myelinated. Now the wrong nerve is stronger and faster than the nerve that plays beautiful music. Which nerve do you think will win? 

Practicing correctly can be a big challenge; how can we possibly keep from accidentally myelinating the wrong nerves? Itzhak Perlman has the answer to that: practice slowly. “If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly.” By practicing slowly – sometimes painfully slow – we give our fingers and brain enough time to find the right nerve. A myelinated nerve forgets very slowly.  (You can hear Mr. Perlman talk about practicing here )

So it's true: only perfect practice makes perfect. And now you know why.

Let’s go practice! … I mean, myelinate!

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[1] Doman, Glen. ‘How to Teach your Baby to be Physically Superb.’ Better Baby Press, 1988.

[2] Coyle, D. ‘The Talent Code.’ New York, NY; Bandon House, 2009.

[3] Coyle, D. ‘The Talent Code.’ New York, NY; Bandon House, 2009.

[4] Suzuki, Shinichi. ‘Nurtured by Love.’