What is the best way to practice?

Question

What do u do to practice?
how do you practice scales?
I need to know my scales in 3 octaves by march what is the best way to do it??
how can you practice effectively?
I play the cello if that helps... I also played the piano for 7 years

Answer 1

1) What do you do to practice?

Have a set time to practice and stick with it. Also, I've learned from experienc that, it has to be YOU that wants to practice. Not your parents forcing you to. Because when you want to practice, you get yourself motivated.



2)How do you practice scales?/I need to know my scales....

I use the chain tecqnique. This will hopefully answer questions 2 and 3. Let's take C major into example. You'll start by doing: C D. C D. CD. No mistakes? Good. Then, C D E. C D E. C D E. See where I'm going with this? You add a note each time after playing each set three times. No mistakes, you continue. If you do make a mistake, you go back and do that set three more times. Grueling, yes. But it does get the pattern under your fingers. Now, once you get one octave, play it three times. If it's perfect, then you start again with the second octave.



4) How do you practice effectively?

Practice efficiently. Only rehearse parts that you have trouble with. There's no point in playing things that you're wonderful at. The point of practicing IS to get better right? So if you only do the easy/ parts you already know, you're not advancing as a player.



Hope that helps!

Answer 2

I never practise scales except for exams. Hate their guts. They don't really help either unless you play a lot of Classical pieces such as Haydn's C major cello concerto. Particularly the 1st movement.



Cello scales have a general similarity in fingering. For each scale, know when you have to move down the fingerboard (in this instance I mean towards the bridge) and when you have to move up and to the next string. As with the piano, but less so, the flat keys and the sharp keys tend to have similar fingering. (Eg. Eb and Bb major have same starting fingering, as do Ab and Db major, as well as D and A major, and lastly E and B major.)The last octave of any scale tends to have a fingering of 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, the last note being on a 3.



If you're taking an exam/going for an audition, do not worry if you forget the fingering, just use any fingering that comes to your mind. In the case of exams, you will only be penalized for bumpy scales/poor intonation.



Going slow has to be mentioned here. This applies more to pieces. You will not achieve much if you practise fast all the time. Let's say there's a difficult passage and you practise it up to speed 50 times, and play all 50 times slightly garbled. It is better to play slowly 25 times first so you can get it perfectly the next 25 times at actual speed.



Hope I helped.

Answer 3

My practice routine, as a wind player, is as follows:



1. Slow, long-tone warm ups to get the muscles loosened and in working condition.



2. Scales- slow to fast. diationic and in thirds. Followed by arpeggios.



3. Hardest sections of music (I bracket them in rehearsal to help me remember where I need to work). Work from slow to fast. Use a metronome!!!



4. Play something for the fun of it.



5. Warm down with another dose of scales and long tones.



If you think of your practice routine in a way similar to preparing for a sport, that can sometimes help. Warm ups and warm downs are important, but you need to work your mechanics and the nuts and bolts of your music for the majority of the practice time. Vary your practice session material enough to keep yourself interested, but also make sure that you practice individual parts (scales, maybe) enough so that you are proficient. Above all, have fun! Why else are we here? :)