Silence
 Photo courtesy of Pardesi |
"Silence?"
"A practice method?"
"You must be mad!"
Well actually no. Unfortunately there are not enough thoughtful silences in the practice room. Just because you are making noise does not mean you are getting better!
This practice method is basically very simple. You need to have equal amounts of playing and silence.
To do this you will need to make sure you spend a lot of time thinking between playing. It will feel to you as though you are wasting your practice time but you are not.
This additional silent thinking time is when you should be:
- asking what was wrong with your previous attempt
- focusing on what you will try to improve in the next section you play
- being clear about your target for the practice session
- staying on course and not getting side tracked by an issue not on your list
Remember do not start to play again until you are absolutely clear about what you will achieve from this next piece of practice.
We want to help you practice better. Click here to receive regular advice or here for help on your current problems.
Comments
Re: Silence
I really like this! My piano teacher in college taught me that the silences in music are just (if not more) important than the tones---"don't rush through the silences". I remind my current piano students of this. Thanks for the reminder !!!
Re: Silence
hi,
With all do respect, but I don't think that's what is meant in the article here. From what I understand, it's about 'thinking what you want' before you play. In that case you'll have a goal and a direction on what you want to achieve and compare your thoughts with the result of your playing.
Or second: analyze your last result: what went wrong and why?
It could be of course that 'by accident' you get a brilliant result, but from my experience 'accidents of that kind' are very rare.
Not that the comment you gave isn't true of course...
Post new comment