Jessica Wyatt gives advice about practise that matches the advice given in the The Talent Code.

Like Coyle she says practise is about mindfulness.

She advises:

• Play the piece through to get an overview of the technical and musical challenges presented by it
• Identify and isolate the difficult bars of the piece
• Play these bars on their own, slowly if necessary,  become aware of the problems and work out solutions to these problems (e.g. bowings, shifts, fingerings)
• Once you have worked out the solutions to the problems, play the difficult bars until you are satisfied that they are improving (this may take a long time in the case of very difficult music!)
• Play the bars in context again, making sure that the join between the difficult bars and the others is practised thoroughly
• Play the piece through again, this time being aware of the difficult bars and (hopefully) their improvement
• Repeat the process regularly!

Viola Jigsaw Puzzle Click here to complete the jigsaw of the day. Jessica gives this advice because, as she says, there are no shortcuts to learning a musical instrument. By following these strategies you will find that “it is the quality, not the quantity, of practice that really matters!”

Resources:

• Coyle,D. (2009) The Talent Code. Bantam.
• Coyle,D. The Little Book of Talent
• Wyatt,J (2013) A Viola Player Writes.