Tag: practice

The LMusA Diploma Journey – Update #7 – Taking The Pressure Off

Nicole NealLeave a comment

Morning (or evening depending on where you are) folks!

Well, I’ve come to the realisation that this journey of progressing towards the LMusA is going to take a little longer than I’d anticipated at the start of this year. And that’s fine. I’m not under any time constraints with this – there’s no “must do” here, there’s no tangible, external reason for undertaking this. No outside force saying “you must do this, before you can do this” or anything like that. It’s purely an internal reason. That’s to say this is really largely about the journey for me and seeing how far I can take my playing. And that internal reasoning, in the past, has caused more pressure than an external driver! I can be a real pain in the backside to my own self sometimes! Or used to, I should say.

I have absolutely no doubt that I can achieve the LMusA. I say that without an ounce of arrogance and quite seriously. It’s just a matter of time. Well, that’s not quite correct. It’s a matter of putting in the right amount of quality practice with my chosen repertoire pieces to really get to know them, understand them, feel them, subsume them into my psyche. This does, of course, have a time element associated with it.

Like most of you (probably, I’m making assumptions here of course), dear reader, I too have a “normal” life, a non-guitar life. At the start of this year I actually ceased teaching and freelancing to focus on an exciting employment opportunity. So as well as working towards my own guitar goals and playing development, I’m also working a 40 hours (minimum) managerial level job that takes me around the country, with all the exciting and sometimes stressful challenges that go along with that. Plus, you know, family life, keeping fit and healthy, having time out for myself, looking after the dog, painting my apartment, looking for a new house to move to for a bit of a tree-change and all of that!

So as important and a significant part of my life as playing classical guitar is, I’ve realised, however, one has to be flexible with these things. If you want to set a strict timeline for yourself and you find that a really good driver for yourself personally, go for it and all power to you! For myself though, over the last few years I’ve realised I thrive and develop and actually play at my best when I take some of the pressure off of myself. In this instance this is a time pressure. I’ve released the pressure valve by saying ” you know Nicole, you know when you’ll be ready. Keep working whenever you can, in that focussed manner and we’ll get there. No rush. No due date”.

I’ve found that when I get the time to practice, which I still aim to do most days of the week in some form or other, I’m super focussed on what I’m doing. I’ve also found my output (for want of a better term) is almost fast-tracked relative to the time I put in – I’m focusing on quality practice, sorting out niggles. I’m focussing on beautiful sound, and a clarity in my sound. I’m focussing on clarity of direction.  As a result of releasing the pressure from myself, I’m having a lot of fun with it, it’s adding a new dimension to my playing, and my playing is better than ever!

Dear readers –  What are your drivers? Do you need to release any pressure or tension – actual, perceived, physical, mental? And if so, where?  Some food for thought……

 

A 30 Minute Guitar Practice Schedule

Nicole Neal1 Comment

Following on from this Monday’s post on getting back into practice after a wee break, I thought I’d share an outline of a 30 minute practice session that I might typically run through when coming back after a break. I don’t normally really watch the clock whilst practicing, but I’ve provided a bit of a time break down as a guide for that 30 minute session – potentially helpful for those of you who are somewhat time restricted. Also, I’m not saying this is the way to go about your practice, and I’d certainly vary this depending on what I was working on or working towards. Nonetheless I thought it may be useful to share as a point of reference.

Before you get stuck into your practice there are a couple of things you need to do:

* Get your nails filed, buffed and ready to make a beautiful tone. If you’ve not played in a few days this is something you definitely need to do.

* Get your “stuff” sorted out and ready – sheet music sorted out, guitar rest or foot stool in position,guitar tuned up.

Soundhole B&W

And now you’re ready for practice time. Here goes!

* Gentle warm-up with open string reflex return exercises, focussing on your sound and the movement required to make that sound – 2 minutes

* Then get things moving a little more with some scales and arpeggios, various right hand fingerings – 3 minutes

* Technical exercises – I’ll often pick some relatively gentle technical exercises if I’ve not played for a few days. I might typically pick the range of exercises for Grade 4, 5 or 6, for example, in the AMEB Technical Workbook – 5 minutes

* Take the latest piece you’ve been working from and give it a gentle, 2/3 speed play through from the top. Note where the stumbling blocks or trickier elements are as you play through – 5 to 10 minutes

* Pick one of those stumbling blocks and really think about and examine what it is that’s causing the stumbling block or trickiness. It may not necessarily always be all that obvious. Is it a left hand movement issue? Is the right hand fingering secure? Is it a lack of clarity in the melodic line? Is it a lack of understanding and clarity in the harmony? Really stick with this one issue and see if you can (a) puzzle out what’s going on (you may need some guidance from your teacher) and (b) stick with it until you can get things working at say half speed – 10 – 15 minutes  If you get this one stumbling block sorted within a couple of minutes or so you can always then move onto the next one!

You can then think of your next practice session as being a continuation of this process, not a fresh start as it were. Test out where those stumbling blocks (or hopefully ex stumbling blocks) are at a slower tempo than your desired, work on them again if necessary. Then pick out the next one to work on and so on and so forth each practice session.

You’ll find that the 30 minutes goes by pretty quickly, but undertaking your practice in this way or in a similar fashion – focusing on your sound, and focusing on the things that you really need to practice, rather than just running through pieces, will really pay dividends in your playing.