Practice Method: Start at the End
Category: Practice and Performance
If you have been practicing an instrument for any significant period of time, you may be able to relate to my experience. When I sit down to practice a new song, I usually start at the beginning, and practice a single phrase. If the phrase is difficult, I may repeat it many times before I am happy and move on. Once I get to the end of a section, I will practice the section in full, repeating any phrases that cause difficulty. By the time I get past a new section, I can hear cheese calling my name from the fridge, and the call of cheese is the call I cannot ignore.
There is one critical flaw in this method, can you guess what it is? (Hint: It is not cheese-related bowel gridlock, although that is a worrisome problem.) Rather, when I practice from beginning to end, I often find that my finishes are lacking fluency and pizzazz. Quite simply, my endings aren’t practiced nearly as many times as my beginnings!
To combat the erratic-ending syndrome, one could employ the following technique: Start elsewhere. As complex as it may seem, it is actually quite simple. When you intend to do laborious phrase-by-phrase practicing, don’t always start at the beginning. Start at the end; start in the middle; just start ELSEWHERE. Work your way from the end to the beginning of the last section, or from the middle to the end of the next section.
Of course, don’t always start at the end, or you might catch the erratic-beginning syndrome, which is just as bad – probably worse than the erratic-ending syndrome. The key is to mix it up. Speaking of mixing it up, I hear some gouda calling my name…
photo credit: PetitPlat – Stephanie Kilgast (in dolly mood)
Posted on October 18th, 2011 by sharlene
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