Practice Time
When is your "prime time"? If you feel refreshed in the morning, early morning practice may be for you. If you feel your energy peak in the afternoon or at night, practice then. Divide your practice time into two segments instead of having one long practice session.
Don't cancel a lesson simply because of lack of practice. Lesson time can be devoted to music theory, technique, music literature, music history, etc. The teacher's time is not wasted if the student hasn't practiced.
If a continuing problem with practicing arises, please tell your instructor immediately. He/she has many suggestions or recommendations for books and articles that will help. Do not interpret a lapse in interest as a permanent situation. A musician's progress is never a straight, rising line. It has many a plateau, which is part of human nature.
Maintain a positive attitude about your playing and progress. Use music study as a refreshing break from homework or chores. Hang in there! Music can be a life-long hobby or career with enormous payoffs, and develops the mind in ways other studies cannot.
Practice Location
When you practice your violin, find a quiet room where you won't be disturbed. Leave the violin and bow out during the week. Find a safe place where you can leave the case open during the week with the violin and bow sitting inside set up and ready to play. The hardest part of getting down to practice is often opening up the case, rosining the bow, putting the shoulder rest on, etc. If the instrument is already set up, then all you’ll have to do is pick up the violin and start playing.
Music Accessories
Gather together all of the practice materials you'll need before you practice. Have your pencil ready to note difficult passages and fingerings. Invest in a metronome, a sturdy music stand, and appropriate lighting. It is best to stand when you practice but if you must sit then use a chair that isn't too soft.
Length of Practice Session
How long you practice every day is irrelevant. How much you accomplish when you practice is what counts. Practice with purpose or focus. Strive for quality practice, not quantity mediocre results.
Productive Practice Sessions:
Warm-up. Each practice session should begin by strengthening your fingers through scales, exercises, arpeggios, or trills.
Practice with Purpose. Have one or more focused goals each time you practice. At the beginning of practice sessions, ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish today? As you practice, your focus may change as you continue to analyze your playing with questions such as: "Am I playing in tune? Is the rhythm correct? What parts of the piece need work?"
Problem-solving. One of the most effective ways to make a piece sound better is to pinpoint the difficult passages in the piece and then work on one small section at a time. Don’t reinforce mistakes by repeating them! Identify what the problem is, then determine how you will fix it.
Play the notes of a problem spot very slowly, one note at a time, until you are playing with the proper rhythm, fingering, and notes. Once it sounds correct, play that small section over and over, gradually picking up speed until that segment of music is up to tempo. It's always simpler to begin at a slow tempo and increase your speed rather than go back and correct new errors.
Musicality. Are you expressing yourself through your music, or are you mechanically repeating notes from a printed page? Musicality, the ability to interpret a piece with feeling, is what distinguishes the performance of a fine musician from that of an automated, boring performer. Memorizing a piece also may assist you in achieving freedom of expression. Once you know a piece so well that you are "free" from the music, you may find it easier to interpret music on your own.
Reward. At the end of each practice session, it's always fun to sit back, relax, and enjoy playing straight through the piece. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment hearing changes you’ve made in the full context of the piece.
Note to parents:
Print Error in Repertoire For Revised Editions Suzuki Violin School
Book 1: No errors in repertoire
Book 2: Handel Bourree: slur missing in measure 17, third beat - C and B eighth notes
Boccherini Minuet: wrong note measure 7, second beat - C# not B
Book 3: Bach Bourree: in Bourree II, indicated measure numbers 14, 18 and 21 should be 13, 17 and 21
Changes in Repertoire For Revised Editions Suzuki Violin School
Book 1: Twinkle Variations:
Variation D is now the reinstated triplet variation
Variation E is now the sixteenths variation
May Song: now no repeat
Happy Farmer: measures 9 & 15, first two beats - bowing is a slur, not a dotted hooked bow
Book 2: Musette: piece begins up-bow measure 10, fourth beat - G and F# eighth notes are slurred
Hunters Chorus: measures 16 & 19, second beat - now separate eighth notes, no hooked bows
Lully Gavotte: measures 6 & 40, second beat - bowing is two up-bow staccatos, not separate bows measures 8 & 42, first beat - half note down-bow and retake for next down-bow on beat two
Beethoven Minuet: measures 25 & 28, second group three connected eighth notes - now slurred, not up-bow staccato
Boccherini Minuet: measure 20 - no second ending for Minuet section
Book 3: Martini Gavotte: beginning measure 72, second beat, and continuing through measure 80, first half note-slurs now connecting all notes per beat, no separate bows
Bach Minuet:
Minuet I and Minuet II designation
Minuet I, measures 1 - 16 - now repeated
Minuet II, measures 1 - 16 - now repeated
Minuet II, measure 15, second and third beats - now connected portato up-bows
Minuet II, measures 17 - 32 - now repeated
Minuet II, measure 32 - new D.C. Minuet I al Fine
Humoresque: recommendations for third position throughout measure 40 - only third position fingering measure 56 - suggestion for harmonic
Becker Gavotte: measures 26 & 42, second beat - both eighth notes now up-bow
measure 50 - now D.S. al Fine
Gavottes in D Major:
Gavotte I and Gavotte II designation
Gavotte I now begins up bow
Gavotte I, measures 9 & 25, second beat - now two up-bow quarter notes
Gavotte I, measure 20, second beat - note is now C# (with 3rd finger) not A
Gavotte II, measures 7 & 9 - all notes separate bow
Gavotte II, measure 14, first beat - all eight notes slurred
Gavotte II, measures 12, second beat & measure 13 - last eighth note in slur now dotted
Gavotte II, measure 14, second beat & measure 15 - all notes separate bow
Gavotte II, measure 15 - start up-bow
Gavotte II, measures 19 & 20 - last quarter note tied to first quarter note (Ds), added
trill on tied D, and up-bow on second quarter note C#
Gavotte II, measure 20 second beat & measure 21 first beat - last eighth note in slur now dotted
Gavotte II, measure 23 - all notes separate bow
Gavotte II, measure 27, second beat - all eighth notes slurred
Gavotte II, measure 28 - first beat quarter notes separate & second beat eighth notes up-bow
Gavotte II, measure 29 - starts down-bow, all notes separate bow
Gavotte II, measure 30 - first beat starts down-bow & second beat up-bow
Gavotte II, measure 31 - start up-bow
Bach Bourree:
Bourree I, measures 1, 3, 9, 17 & Bourree II, measures 9, 13 - first beat eighth notes, up-bow slur & second beat quarter notes, separate bow
Bourree I, measure 22 - last eighth note is now C not D
Bourree I, measure 23, second half both beats - separate bow
Bourree II, measures 2, 4, 20 - now E naturals not E flats
Bourree II, measures 7 & 23, second beat - all eighth notes slurred
Bourree II, measures 8 & 24 - now down-bow
Bourree II, measure 8 - no C on first beat, now only B flat
Bourree II, measure 12, first beat - now suggested grace note D to C#, not written eighth notes
Book 4: Work has been completed on the revised Volume 4, and the puplisher anticipates a print deadline during Fall 2008. Besides some suggested fingerings in position for the Seitz Concerto mvts., there are no substantial changes in repertoire in the entire Volume other than those listed below.
New piece between Vivaldi Am 3rd mvt and Bach Double:
Perpetual Motion from Little Suite No.6 by Karl Bohm: for now use the Carl Fisher Edition.
Bach Double 2nd violin:
Measure 12 - third beat, now B-natural not B-flat
Measures 29 & 84 - first beat sixteenth notes separate, no slur; second beat first three sixteenth notes slurred down-bow, last sixteenth note separate up-bow