FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Friday, April 28, 2006
Regular practise makes perfect possible...
Sometimes it just doesn't seem possible to fit a good, satisfying instrumental practise session into your day and, with our lives getting increasingly busy with more and more activities to squeeze into that single day, it really isn't suprising. Many aspiring musicians work full time, have homes and families to organise as well as a hectic social life so finding time to sit down and go through exam pieces or practise scales etc can be very difficult - believe me, I know!
But, thanks to the wonders of evolution and natural selection, the human body is an incredibly flexible tool that can learn in so many different ways. Regular practise sessions of 10 minutes in length can be enough to imprint the necessary calculations and neural routes into our brain, and enough to train our muscles to respond appropriately, and ultimately to make the sometimes arduous task of learning an instrument much easier and more enjoyable than if these short snippets of our day are not dedicated to this pursuit.
Surely, practise can be a frustrating thing : I am learning to play clarinet again at the moment and the grade 5 piece I'm currently trying to get the hang of (Mozart's Divertimento No. 3) has some sections where the fingering pattern feels unnatural to me, possibly as a result of my activities as a pianist / guitar player. But, I feel confident that I will chip away at these physical and mental barriers with sustained, regular rehearsal of the movements required in my fingers. I certainly find it easier after a couple of days uninterrupted practise than when I leave a weekend or so without touching the instrument. It seems that the time it takes to become a better player can be long but any lengthy gaps between practises set me back hugely, increasing this period and making the whole process unnecessarily frustrating.
I'm speaking from experience here : practise regularly (preferably daily), even if just for a short while. It'll make life a lot easier and the experience of playing an instrument much more fun in the long run!
But, thanks to the wonders of evolution and natural selection, the human body is an incredibly flexible tool that can learn in so many different ways. Regular practise sessions of 10 minutes in length can be enough to imprint the necessary calculations and neural routes into our brain, and enough to train our muscles to respond appropriately, and ultimately to make the sometimes arduous task of learning an instrument much easier and more enjoyable than if these short snippets of our day are not dedicated to this pursuit.
Surely, practise can be a frustrating thing : I am learning to play clarinet again at the moment and the grade 5 piece I'm currently trying to get the hang of (Mozart's Divertimento No. 3) has some sections where the fingering pattern feels unnatural to me, possibly as a result of my activities as a pianist / guitar player. But, I feel confident that I will chip away at these physical and mental barriers with sustained, regular rehearsal of the movements required in my fingers. I certainly find it easier after a couple of days uninterrupted practise than when I leave a weekend or so without touching the instrument. It seems that the time it takes to become a better player can be long but any lengthy gaps between practises set me back hugely, increasing this period and making the whole process unnecessarily frustrating.
I'm speaking from experience here : practise regularly (preferably daily), even if just for a short while. It'll make life a lot easier and the experience of playing an instrument much more fun in the long run!
