Music Practice Tips

I’ve talked about the importance of etudes, but let’s face it, they can be a bit boring. And often, they won’t have any relevance to the pieces that we’re working on. While that may be a good thing (preparing you for future pieces), we need to have a way to focus our practice so that our etudes and studies are helping the pieces we are currently working on.

The easiest way would be to have an etude that’s ready that you can just pick up, learn and it’s focussing on that issue that’s related directly to the piece. Thing is, often we won’t know what the etude is that we need to find, and the teacher might not know either. And even if we do find it, it might not be exactly the issue that we’re looking for.

So instead, compose your own etudes. Take an issue, isolate it (it could be a shift, or a certain passage of fingerings, or long sustained notes), and then write an etude that focuses solely on that issue. Take it into different keys, different strings, different registers, but try and make sure the issue stays as together as possible. For example, if you’re practicing a shift on a violin, try it on different strings, but don’t shift into different positions, as it will change the distance that you need to travel. These etudes don’t need to be pages long, but just enough to help you practice that issue. It could be 20 bars, it could be a page. The length is up to you, but it’s what’s going to help you focus your practice.

These etudes don’t need to be fancy. You can add in joining passages if you want, but remember the KISS strategy - Keep It Simple, Stupid. It can be written on a scrap of manuscript paper, or printed out on a computer if you want. I’d suggest printing it out on a computer, there’s plenty of free programs available, or if you want to invest in Sibelius or Finale that’s also good. You can then name what issue it’s working on (possibly even the piece it relates to) and file it away. Then if you come back to that piece later, you’ve got a whole heap of etudes either for yourself to work on, or to give to your students.

Have you written any etudes for yourself, or perhaps for your students? For what pieces?