Violin Lessons in Albuquerque, NM

Instruments: Guitar Violin Viola

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
Practicing effectively has been a highlight and a challenge in my career so far! In my experience, effective practice happens when you set goals, clear your mind and your physical space of distractions, and allow yourself to learn something new. Having a growth mindset while you practice is absolutely paramount in finding success in your practice sessions. In m opinion, there are three types of practice that should each be covered regularly and equally: Celebratory, repetition, and performance practice. Celebratory practice means playing something you love or something you are proud of! Enjoy what you have worked hard on, and congratulate yourself on meeting your goals. Repetition practice can involve scales, arpeggios, etudes, repertoire rehearsal frames, or anything that involves repeating a process for mastery. Becoming good at anything requires repeating a sequence over and over until your muscles remember exactly what to do. Repetition practice is successful when small processes are taken out of context, mastered, and then reinserted. Make sure never to bite off more than you can chew! And finally, performance practice is for ensuring that you are in the right mindset during your practice in order to ensure performance success. This can include simply visualizing yourself performing for other people while you practice, or borrowing someone's attention for a few minutes while you play for them! Performance practice is very helpful when you are playing a piece or two for a recital. Lastly, be sure you maintain a positive attitude during your practice sessions! Don't let your mind wander into 'what if's', 'I wish', or 'if only', because it will distract from what you are going to accomplish in just 30 minutes of efficient practice.

What does a normal practice session look like for you?
My practice typically starts with 20- 30 minutes of technique building, like scales and arpeggios. I use repetition for shifting and micro-tuning. After I warm up, I spend a minute or two meditating and establishing a few goals for my practice. This typically involves selecting a few frames or chunks of my repertoire and using repetition techniques to master the techniques necessary to accomplish the sound I want. Before I start in on my goals, I first go back to a frame I practiced the previous day to celebrate and assess how well I worked on it! Sometimes it requires briefly brushing up on it, or adding the frame to one of my goals for the day. Each frame I go over for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time. This allows me to keep from over-practicing or disrupting my flow. Brain breaks during practice are often a must for people! I use them all the time! At the end of practicing that frame for 20 minutes, I like to 'perform' the small frame either for myself or someone around me. I visualize myself playing the part for an audience and focus my energy on playing it the way I would like to perform it. Recording this part of my practice is my favorite thing to do! I constantly assess and adjust to my sound as I play, and it gives me a great place to start when I find myself falling into what I call 'zombie practicing'. I repeat this process for several hours, with breaks in-between the 20 minute frames as I need them.

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