The old adage “practice makes perfect” might not be wholly true when it comes to violin practice, but practice certainly does make you a better player. If you want to become better you need to practice.
Violin practice should be great fun and not a pain, but it must be productive too. Simply playing a bunch of tunes you know by heart is not truly practice, though it could be fun. To get the most out of your practice time you must try and keep 1 or 2 points under consideration.
Find an area to practice where you won't be distracted. Finding a room without a television, net access, for example. Is a great start, and letting the answering machine pick up any telephone calls will help. Be certain that you have what you need readily to hand. Clearly, things such as your violin and bow, a music stand and sheet music for any tunes you would like to work on, but less glaringly, a metronome and a recorder of some form (audio only or auvio/video). A bottle of water or other drink is optional.
Violin practice is best done with quality instead of quantity. You do not need to practice for hours each day, but you must try to practice at least three or 4 times per week. Spending hours on violin practice in each session can essentially be counter productive. You do not learn well if you're too knackered or annoyed. You'll learn better by spacing out sessions. Repetition is a good thing. The more you work on the same thing the better you will get at it – although not all at the same time. Violin practice works best over time. Rather than working on one section of a piece for hours at a time, you will find you have better results if you work on the section for a minute or two, and then switch to something else. Perhaps revisiting it again later in your practice session, but even better let it sink in and try it again in your next practice session. I've found that I will be working on a piece and just get annoyed in an effort to get it right and then the next day it all slots into place almost effortlessly.
If you're learning a whole new piece, break it down into sections. Break it into logical sections 4 or eight bars at a time and then move on rather than attempting the entire thing immediately. Listed to a recording of somebody else playing the same tune. Listen for the accents and flavour the other player adds to the tune. Don't just try and play music as it is written, add your own interpretation. You can play all the same note, but play them differently – it's a sophisticated excellence, but you can actually hear the difference.
A good way to approach violin practice is to start with a warm up of some kind. Some quick scales, arpeggios or exercises are good to begin with. I find I've got a couple of arpeggio exercises that I have a tendency to run thru extremely swiftly at the beginning of any practice session. I then run thru a tune or 2 that I know by heart before buckling down to learn new stuff. I typically practice just for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, but I do incline to pick up an instrument more than one throughout the day.
To inspire yourself to practice violin, keep your instrument near you and out of the case. Keep it near your desk or couch. You can pick up a cheap stand for your violin that will permit you to keep it close to hand and safe from damage. You may not pick it up for a full practice session, but you may find it handy for a quick mini practice when time authorizes.
Remember when you do practice violin, make it good fun. If you are beat or simply don’t feel like it – put it off. Don’t force yourself to practice violin if you do not enjoy it. You will not learn well if it feels like work. Work on your violin practice, do not work at it.
Greg Weir is a fiddle (violin) player from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Greg runs the Violin Price website, a web resource for people interested in learning, playing or collecting violins. Visit http://violinprice.org/ for more information on violins, violin value and violin and fiddle music.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6777584