Music Practice Tips

In cooking, parboiling is where you cook something for a very short time on a high heat, and then setting it aside before cooking a bit more just before serving. This useful cooking technique can be an extremely efficient technique that can yield amazing results.

There are two ways that we can apply this technique to our practice - wholly, that is relating to a whole piece, and sectionally.

Wholly

The idea with this technique is to work intensively on one piece for a short period of time (about a week), and then let it rest for another period of time. This focuses your mind on some intensive work on the piece, and then gives your mind a rest, and allows it to digest what you’ve just worked on. This is a great way to get pieces ready to concert level quickly - the intensive work will bring the playing level up, and you won’t mind taking a bit of time off afterwards because you know you’ve already done the intensive work on it.

Sectionally

This is where you take just a small section and work on it for a short period of time. I used this method yesterday on a passage in my Bach Partita. There was a couple of bars on the last page that I was having trouble with. In my practice, I spent 20 minutes on one bar getting that right, and then another 20 minutes on the last few bars of the piece, and then another 20 minutes on a small section in the middle of that page. That’s one way of doing it - working intensively on small sections that you know you have trouble with, and bringing the level of those passages up. But remember to take a break after you’ve finished working on them. You will have put intense concentration into these practice sessions, so let your mind have a break. I usually go for a bit of a walk - even if it’s just around the house, something to get my mind out of the practice room.

Have you tried parboiling your practice? Can you think of other ways to parboil your practice? Or can you think of other cooking related terms that we can relate to our practice?