Have you ever had trouble just thinking about getting your instrument unpacked to start practicing during a break?? Well, to be fair- yes, a break should be A BREAK- but at the same time what a great opportunity to get some fantastic focused work done without distractions from our school or work life.
I’m on a winter break right now from my teaching responsibilities at the conservatory and every time I start thinking that I really should be practicing I rationalize that, well, why should I practice?- I’m on vacation! Well, it’s not like I’m at some exotic beach or mountain get-away somewhere without my instrument. I’m actually at home. So, I finally figured out what to do to get started. 🙂
I got myself a nice snack – chocolate and peanuts (for protein of course) and that gave me some much needed energy to go to my studio and take the viola out. What a miracle! I had a fantastic practice!
Also, rather than just go to my viola without a plan, there were some passages of repertoire that I’ve been struggling with more than other passages so after my warm up of slow scales, open strings, etc. I went straight to those tricky places and targeted the work. Watching in the mirror of course helped immensely to see what was going on. And as you know, recording almost always helps a lot. The only issue with recording is that you need to actually review the recording instead of being afraid of listening to/watching it. And, you need to ignore the sound quality and lack of dynamic range unless you’re working with super high quality microphones. And then, don’t forget to analyze everything in incredibly slow motion at first.
But in any case- I think the key to get motivated to practicing well is a good snack that gets you going (doesn’t necessarily have to have caffeine in it!) and targeting your practice. Then when you’re done you feel so good! 🙂
