Category: Practice Techniques

Variable Practice – Making Lessons and Performances Easier

Variable Practice helps make your lessons and performances easier. Does your music seem harder for the lesson? I can’t count how many times per week a student says, “I had that perfect yesterday!” I always say that I believe them because it happens to me, too.

This is the science behind why you make more mistakes in your lessons or performances. They also have a way to fix it – Variable Practice!

Here are some additional ideas to do variable practice:
1. Staccato
2. Legato
3. Swing it
4. Arpeggiate the chords (piano only)
5. Do opposite dynamics than what are written
6. Move/Add Breath Marks
7. Practice in a different room (not with a standing instrument like a piano)

I know that I’ve been away from the blog for awhile due to some health issues. They’re wrapping up really soon so I can be more consistent in my writing. I saw this information come across my desk and I just had to share it with you!

Soaking the Pan – A Practice Technique

Soaking the Pan is a clever name that one of my students and I came up with together. It’s a pretty common technique that most people do already without thinking about it, but I’ll describe it, step by step, just in case it’s a process that doesn’t come natural to you.

How Did We Come Up with the Name “Soaking the Pan”?

You know how when you’re doing the dishes and there’s the crusty pan that had the entrée in it? You will probably need to soak the pan, possibly overnight, but you want to get a good crack at it and see if you can get it cleaned up tonight so you have less work later.

So, before you even start cleaning up the dishes, you fill up that crusty, filthy pan with water. Usually by the time you’re done with all of the dishes, that pan cleans up easy as pie. Minimal scrubbing needed.

This is an analogy of what we can do when practicing music. Here’s a step-by-step description.

The Steps

  1. Identify the tough parts. You may have already been doing this by marking parts that you want to work through later, but you can usually identify them with the amount of black or jumps in that area.
  2. Play through the tough parts. You can run some small section practice techniques during this time, but just playing through helps, too.
  3. Play the whole piece. The tough parts aren’t so tough anymore.

Conclusion

I’ve been using the soaking the pan practice technique ever since I can remember. It’s always been very natural to me. I decided to write about it, anyway, because not everyone thinks the way that I do. I hope it helps!