Be pro-active when you practice!
In a typical practice session, do you and your student find yourselves starting each practice with playing through your working piece? Many people do it this way, trying out the piece to see where it stands since the day before's practice session. Then, when a mistake occurs... that becomes the place to start practicing several repetitions in a row to correct the mistake and to train the correct notes (or intonation, or fingering, or bowing, etc.) I call this reactive practicing. One spends one's time fixing things and fixing notes in the music. As you may know, fixing mistakes takes a lot more practice than learning something correctly the first time.
In the Suzuki approach, we espouse pro-active practicing. Suzuki teachers are highly trained in the repertoire of the Suzuki Books. Our role has been to introduce techniques before they are needed. Our process is in multiple layers. The first layer is learning the notes and executing the piece with correct notes, intonation, bowings, a steady tempo, etc. The second layer is developing a higher level of musicality by more sophisticated techniques like using pedal or vibrato, shifting for different positions to create different color, phrasing with rubato. Our third layer is perfecting all of these so that it is effortless and where the focus is on projecting the feeling of a piece, creating atmosphere or storytelling through the music. This is why we review our pieces so that we can go deeper into our pieces and reach this third level of artistry and personal expression through music.
On the day to day practicing, the Suzuki teacher assigns practice "spots" in the music to be played multiple times in a row. These short segments are usually technical in nature and should be mastered before playing the piece through. To be a pro-active practicer, one should always start with the practice spots. Students who are more experienced should know where their "own" practice spots are. Places that they know need to be practiced slowly and carefully with many repetitions. Playing through a piece expecting these places to be "fixed" can happen after consistent daily practice of the practice spots occurs first. This enables a smooth execution of the piece with no mistakes. The critical elements to making pro-active practicing successful are 1) listen incessantly to the recording of the piece. One should know how it sounds in minute detail, and 2) playing through the piece at a reduced tempo until the student is playing at level three.
As we go into the summer -- this is our last Friday Upbeat for the school year -- my advice to all students is to play all your learned pieces. If they are rusty, think about reviewing the practice spots your teacher gave you when you first learned the piece. These will all come back quickly if already practiced before. For pianists, review hands alone. Remember that our goal is to get to self-expression and enjoyment through music. What better way than to play all our pieces, even the easier ones, beautifully and expressively? A second valuable summer activity is listening to your recordings. All of them! LISTEN TO OTHER MUSIC, TOO. And thirdly, practice your sight reading. Try different method books and see how you can apply your musicianship skills. Can you sing the melody line using solfege syllables? Can you identify the chords in the piece? Does a melody line outline a triad, an inversion, or an arpeggio? What key is it in? Is it in major or minor? Does it change in the middle?
By leaving the new Suzuki repertoire for the lesson time with your Suzuki teacher, you will be continuing to learn how to pro-actively practice a piece. We suggest that students only work on the pieces assigned by their teacher in the Suzuki books and not go ahead in the Suzuki repertoire without lessons. If a student is not taking summer lessons, use this time to explore other styles of music, improvise, or compose. This creative time is important for students as much as the Suzuki lessons. Going to concerts, hearing music live and in person will be especially meaningful as we emerge from the pandemic.
I hope everyone has a great summer! I may be seeing many of you at our concert this Sunday, June 27, 2021 from 6 pm to 8 pm with our cello students, followed by two groups of violins at the Hyde Community Center's outdoor music stage. Be well and make music!
Sachiko Isihara
Executive Director