Lesson 46 - Effective practise regime

Today we addressed the most pressing issue I have been facing for the past few weeks - an effective practise regime.

With so many exercises, scales and techniques covered up to this point, I found it increasingly difficult to focus on those that will benefit me the most without going through all hundreds of variations of all the major and minor scales per each practise session and still manage the pieces to play at the very end sufficiently.

Instead I try to find parts where I struggle with most on a particular piece and try to find corresponding exercises to tackle the issue. To very little effect it seems, as unfortunately, my lack of scope means I pick the most basic of basics that do very little to no improvements to my technique where previously, I would just play the dastardly phrase over and over and over again in varying tempos and bows until I felt I was satisfied with the progress. Of course this also meant I killed what musical connection I had with the piece; which seemed to disappear exponentially each time.

And so, after a nice long play through of Bunting's Bowing Regime on D Minor Harmonic, Deryn went through all the issues I have been facing and recommended accompanying exercises for each of them. From dexterity of the fingers on the left hand to the tricky position slurs for improving intonation to technical studies of the bowing arm and last but not least, all corresponding exercises for playing the pieces at a good, solid standard even the composers can be satisfied with - well, one hopes!