Four Hours

Practice studio. Prison cell.

Tomato. Tomahto.

There’s really no difference.

Just kidding! I obviously love practicing my violin, because it’s something I do a lot. There’s no way to be a musician without at least sort of, kind of, occasionally enjoying being in a practice room. No one always enjoys it, but there’s a certain therapeutic and numbly addicting quality to it.

So, what do I do for 4 hours? It seems like a long time to spend alone in an 8 x 8 square foot room with no entertainment but a piece of music and an instrument, yet when the time is over, I (usually) feel happy and content and ready to do it again the next morning.

So here’s exactly how it goes down.

 This is a pretty typical practice room. Conservatories have about 50-100 of these little rooms. They usually contain:

• a music stand
• a chair
• an upright piano
• a full-length mirror
• a window (if you’re lucky!)

 The practice rooms at U of Maryland are lovely because they all have windows that open. That means fresh air whenever I want it! Of course, it’s a problem if I open my window and the horn player practicing next to me opens his practice room window, too.

Guess which instrument wins that battle?

It’s best to break the time into small chunks. Like any large task, it’s pretty easy when it’s swallowed in small bits. I’m sort of a schedule freak, so I usually know exactly how many minutes I’ll spend on each task.

Just for an example, here’s what I did today:

Morning Individual Practice (2-ish hours)
7:30-7:50 Rode exercise #16 (Rode is a book of 24 caprices, and #16 focuses on shifting – I’m not very good at shifting right now, so I’m doing a lot of left hand work this summer)
7:50-8:05 I was in “the zone” with Rode, so I kept practicing this for another 15 minutes
8:05-8:10 short walk outside of my practice room, down the hallway, to the drinking fountain, not because I was thirsty but because I just needed a break.
8:10-8:25 Sevcik shifting exercises. This is a book of shifting exercises. It’s 59 different shifting patterns on each string. There are 4 strings on the violin, so that’s a total of 234 exercises. BUT it’s actually not boring at all, because I have to make it perfectly in tune, with a beautiful tone and beautiful vibrato and beautiful dynamics. I usually only do half of an of an exercise in 15 minutes.
8:25-8:55 Mendelssohn Quartet Op. 13. My quartet (2 violins, viola, cello) here at NOI is performing this on Friday, and even though we rehearse as a group each day, I had to work on my own part by myself. I worked on the first movement (listen to it right here!) for 30 minutes, focusing on

1. a couple problem parts that I played slowly, then faster and faster until they were up to speed
2. some intonation problems
3. phrasing (for example, I have a theme than returns 4 times – my coach asked me to make them all sound different…I get to decide what they should sound like each time)