The Harmony of Daily Practice A Lecture for Students, Teachers, and Parents by Dr. Miroslav Lončar

The Harmony of Daily Practice Intriguing title Goals of the presentation: To give some ideas about practicing more efficiently; and how teachers, students, and parents can collaborate effectively in this important aspect of learning

The Harmony of Daily Practice Let’s analyze each part of the title: Harmony – Merriam Webster definition: A pleasing arrangement of parts (Discord: lack of concord, disagreement, inharmonious combination, variance) Harmonious practice will consist of several parts that can be arranged in a pleasing way for better results Daily: After a while, we start loosing our skills and start forgetting things. In order to make progress, the previous learning experience needs to be fresh in our brain and fingers After a few days, we have to re-learn what we already knew, we regress let’s say a students intents to practice six hours a week Unbalance in practicing can create anxiety, frustration, physical problems, tension, and injuries All serious musicians practice daily.   1. Bad: 2. Good: 3. Best: Days 1,2 3,4 no practice, days 5, 6 three hours a day 2 hours every other day An hour each day

The Harmony of Daily Practice How much to practice: Year of Study Hours/Week Minutes/Day 1 10 2 20 3 30 4 40 5 50 6 60

What Is Practice? Practice is a combination of activities that we engage in to reach a certain goal: learn a line of music, memorize a section, play a piece expressively, play without mistakes... All aspects of playing the guitar need to be practiced: Sitting position Technique Projection  Practicing without a regard for one of the following elements will produce undesirable effects and will foster bad habits: -sitting position -tone quality (nails) -rhythmic accuracy (counting) and steady tempo (metronome) -projection (know your dynamic scope) -expression Practice pronouncing the title of the composition and the name of the composer (ask teacher!) How to practice a piece: Two simple, important rules: 1. Slow, 2. Small units Create a productive pressure on yourself Bruce Holzman: “Some practice until they get it right, some practice until they can’t get it wrong

Creating Harmony A harmonious practice session will consist of several parts, (makes the time go by really fast) How to arrange a practice session: 1. Stretching 2. Warming up 3. Technique: right hand techniques, they are the building blocks of our pieces: free-stroke (arpeggios) rest stroke (scales) Left-hand Techniques: Connecting press-release for relaxed playing Finger independence Slurs Barring 4. Repertoire/Interpretation Analyzing the piece Pre-reading (visualizing--athletes) Slow practicing of a section–- a measure, a 2-measure phrase, a 4-measure phrase Building bigger blocks 5. Performance Some common mistakes in practicing: Playing too fast for the level of learning Attempting to play a difficult piece without going through the important steps of learning it as outlined above. Playing wrong (Practice makes --- permanent ) Not going back to the written music frequently

How to practice Daily Ideally, we should practice the same amount of time each day If it is not possible to reach the desired amount of daily practice time in one block, one should try to: Break it up in smaller sessions, use free time to practice Use traveling time, waiting time, TV time, bed time--for various types of practicing Practice different things (analysis, visualization, mock playing, practicing the technique on your body) If you don’t succeed one day, there is always another day

Who Are the Actors? Teacher Student Parent

The Role of Teachers and Parents Teach students the value of practice Teach students how to practice Incorporate practicing techniques in the lesson—practice with student Assign music that is appropriate for the level and enjoyable to play — ensure a success Give frequent feedback, Talk to the parents Organize performances where students can practice performing Provide information about opportunities Parents: Create a conducive practicing environment (room, instrument) Help the student work out a daily practice schedule, encourage the student to practice Reward practicing (?) Talk to the teacher on a regular basis (how involved?) Develop your own interest in guitar, be a passionate listener

Role of the Student Students: Develop a discipline of practice Learn to practice slowly Take the responsibility for a given assignment Be honest with yourself Be your own critic! Listen to guitar music! Listen to classical music!

Practicing for a Performance Practice for a performance by performing! Take advantage of many types of performances: home performance, studio performances, shared performances, solo performances, ensemble performances, competitions, recordings, live broadcasts, public places Each situation is different and needs to be practiced because it feels different An important performance should not be a first performance –( How I prepared for an important performance) Difference in approach between learning a piece and practicing for a performance Why do we perform? Practice to express yourself through your playing   Why sometimes performances don’t go well even if performer knows the music well? Mainly because of a feeling of unfamiliarity with the situation, the main one being in front of other people– not having a point of reference Fitness for a performance does not last long – performing needs to be recurrent When to start performing? How do you know that you know a piece well? Practice to recover! “I hope” is a recipe for a disaster (“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail”)

Questions and Answers, Discussion mloncar1@verizon.net Thank you!