I managed to get about 60-70 minutes of practice in today. Gotta love weekends. Only thing is, those 60-70 minutes were broken into short intervals throughout the day. Six or seven short intervals.
One thing I became good at as an adult student years ago was micro-practicing. I don't know if that's a real term, but it's the one I use. Basically, it's the ability to take the 10 minutes you have available for practice, and make the best of every millisecond in those 10 minutes.
After a half-dozen micro-practice sessions, I feel almost as if I'd gotten an intense hour in. Of course, that's just a feeling. But experience has shown that the practice sessions are worthwhile, and that the improvement happens anyway.
The key is in focus and planning. Plan to focus on a very, very small bite during those ten minute: a half a measure, the transition from one chord to another, a scale run. Today's micro-practices focused on several things:
1. The Eb-minor contrary-motion scale. I'd decided yesterday that I would focus on this one first thing. I started by simply playing the scale. As soon as I got to the place where I always mess up, I isolated that section. (Generally, I get muddled in the second half of the contrary motion, where my hands are moving back toward each other). So I stared at the two ends of the piano and worked my way in, drilling the area--just a two- or three-note sequence. Once I had that, I tried a group of five notes, then six. Then a whole octave, several times. And that was it. The ten minutes were up.
2. In the Bach, I looked at this measure near the end of the piece, specifically the motion from the E-natural to the big chord. Once that became smoother, I worked to the end of the measure.
3. In the Schubert, I spent a couple of micro-practices on a measure toward the end (sorry, I don't have measure numbers in front of me). One focused on crossing from one bar to the next, the E-flat to the diminished chord. Another focused on block chords in the second measure. Another focused on several measures prior. And another focused on the transition to the scale runs near the very end.
4. In the Chopin, I focused on playing it through and keeping the LH soft. That's it.
So it was a good day for practicing, even if I never got to dive in and lose myself. I didn't make very much in the way of beautiful music. Most of my practicing will happen like this, I'm afraid. There is too much going on, and it's rare to find a whole hour, or even a half-hour, for quiet focus on music.
One thing I became good at as an adult student years ago was micro-practicing. I don't know if that's a real term, but it's the one I use. Basically, it's the ability to take the 10 minutes you have available for practice, and make the best of every millisecond in those 10 minutes.
After a half-dozen micro-practice sessions, I feel almost as if I'd gotten an intense hour in. Of course, that's just a feeling. But experience has shown that the practice sessions are worthwhile, and that the improvement happens anyway.
The key is in focus and planning. Plan to focus on a very, very small bite during those ten minute: a half a measure, the transition from one chord to another, a scale run. Today's micro-practices focused on several things:
1. The Eb-minor contrary-motion scale. I'd decided yesterday that I would focus on this one first thing. I started by simply playing the scale. As soon as I got to the place where I always mess up, I isolated that section. (Generally, I get muddled in the second half of the contrary motion, where my hands are moving back toward each other). So I stared at the two ends of the piano and worked my way in, drilling the area--just a two- or three-note sequence. Once I had that, I tried a group of five notes, then six. Then a whole octave, several times. And that was it. The ten minutes were up.
2. In the Bach, I looked at this measure near the end of the piece, specifically the motion from the E-natural to the big chord. Once that became smoother, I worked to the end of the measure.
3. In the Schubert, I spent a couple of micro-practices on a measure toward the end (sorry, I don't have measure numbers in front of me). One focused on crossing from one bar to the next, the E-flat to the diminished chord. Another focused on block chords in the second measure. Another focused on several measures prior. And another focused on the transition to the scale runs near the very end.
4. In the Chopin, I focused on playing it through and keeping the LH soft. That's it.
So it was a good day for practicing, even if I never got to dive in and lose myself. I didn't make very much in the way of beautiful music. Most of my practicing will happen like this, I'm afraid. There is too much going on, and it's rare to find a whole hour, or even a half-hour, for quiet focus on music.
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