5 Sayings for Practicing
1. The more you play, the better you get.
I have seen some very fine players with terrible-looking technique, or at least technique I wouldn’t recommend, because it usually leads to impaired sound or unnecessary muscle strain. So how did they get to be so good? Because they love it, and they play a lot. They’ve figured out how to adapt to the way they play, and make it work for them.
On the other hand, someone who plays perfectly but doesn’t play very often isn’t going to get much better. Often, this includes people who are afraid of making mistakes or developing a bad habit. Focusing on possible mistakes is like being afraid a mosquito is about to bite you — super distracting from what you’re actually doing, even if no bite has even happened yet, and an overblown shock when it does! As to worry about bad habits, it’s best to start recognizing them and start addressing them, rather than fear them. If bad habits couldn’t be fixed, there would be no such thing as a teacher.
2. The more mindfully you play, the faster you get better.
Playing a lot results in improvement as you become more conversant with your instrument and music, but the more mindful you are as you play, the faster you’ll improve. “Mindful” can mean many things -- body awareness, efficient movement to do what you want without wasted effort, bowing awareness for the sake of rhythm and feel, and awareness of finger patterns.
Being mindful also means approaching a problem from many angles rather than mindlessly drilling over and over. Multiple approaches entertain and stimulate your brain whereas drilling something deadens it, sort of like cramming for a test. We’ll talk in other posts about proven methods for better learning
Learning to play fiddle is like solving puzzles — the more ways you look at a puzzle, the better you come to understand it, and the more easily things fall into place.
3. It’s not the time that counts, but the consistency.
If you find a time in your daily schedule to play, even if only a few minutes, this consistency will make your instrument a routine part of your day. It keeps your hand in. You get comfortable playing. You get curious about whether you can play something better than the previous day. And when you do have more time to spend, you’re ready to make the most of it.
I often suggest that beginners only try to play 5 minutes at a time, once or more each day. There are always things you do each day without a thought about whether you should – make fiddle one of them. Some people find that hanging the fiddle and bow on a wall hook makes it easier to take it down and play more. Did you know that when the famous cellist Yo Yo Ma was a kid, his parents wouldn’t let him play more than 15 minutes a day? It was not long before he was desperate to play more.
4. It’s not how many minutes, but how much you care.
What really distinguishes a good learner and a good performer is how much they care about what they do. We all respond to someone who honestly cares about what they’re doing. Caring leads to depth of expression and clarity of technique, because caring means seeking quality, trying to play your best. It’s very different from just following instructions, seeking praise, or avoiding mistakes. If you care, you’ll get there. (That might be a good saying in itself!)
5. If you like it, play it again; if you don’t like it, don’t play it the first time!
Most fiddlers play each part of a tune twice, and the whole tune at least twice. Check the tune out the first time, see how it goes, and then get into it even stronger the second time. Those who play only once through are barely giving it a chance, and may even sound like they’re trying to get it over with, or hoping to quit while they’re ahead! Relax, enjoy the music, get into the rhythmic groove, the lilt of the tune, play mindfully, pay attention, and enjoy the scenery!
Then again, if you don’t like the tune, why play it? There are so many out there for you to enjoy. Often you’ll get a gut feeling about whether you really like a tune, especially when you hear someone else play it. It might be a good tune but not a good time for you to learn it.
Sometimes it’s best to give a tune a chance before judging. People often like a tune better once they’re able to play it, and you could be in a funny mood, or may misunderstand the tune. I once read through an old music book and found about four tunes in a row that I thought were boring. A year later, I couldn’t find those tunes again. The first time, I just didn’t realize how good they were!