favourite practice technique

[accordian]

whats your favourite practice technique mine is looking in a mirror and trying to do bass jumps and then keeps doing the motion that feels right and turn around from it and continue.

 

[jozz]

my absolute favourtie is laying in bed and visualizing myself playing a sheet of music, and then doing it

so far with mixed results :ugeek:

 

[JeffJetton]

Playing a very small, focused problem area many, many times, very, very slowly (perhaps with a metronome to help rein the tempo in).

It is almost creepy how well this works. {}

 

[Corinto]

This is a good book to start with.

Interesting book with solid advice, most stuff we already know but tend to forget too easily. “Just messing around actually is not practicing, so this book confirms that just messing around is exactly just messing around. Practice also differs from performance. True practice is structured, goal-oriented and measurable.

Go to Amazon UK and you can have a preview of the table of contents, the first chapter and part of the second chapter.
And lots of reviews on Amazon US.

This book was recommended here, on another thread, a few weeks ago.

Of course, ymmv.

 

[accordian]

FirstLearnToPractice.png

This is a good book to start with.

Interesting book with solid advice, most stuff we already know but tend to forget too easily. “Just messing around actually is not practicing, so this book confirms that just messing around is exactly just messing around. Practice also differs from performance. True practice is structured, goal-oriented and measurable.

Go to Amazon UK and you can have a preview of the table of contents, the first chapter and part of the second chapter.
And lots of reviews on Amazon US.

This book was recommended here, on another thread, a few weeks ago.

Of course, ymmv.

this might sound
a bit stupid of me
but in the book
I read the preview
and where it says
about goals and
not getting anywhere
could you please summarise
it as I didnt understand it.

thanks.

when reading the book
it felt like one of those
adverts do you practice
for 20 hours a day and not
get anywhere? then I have
the book for you lol

 

[accordian]

Playing a very small, focused problem area many, many times, very, very slowly (perhaps with a metronome to help rein the tempo in).

It is almost creepy how well this works. {}

just tried this
and today is
the second day
of focused practice
lets see how
we go.

I heard somewhere
that you need to put
a lot of effort in and
tire yourself and then
you learn in your sleep
, this sound
familiar?

 

[george garside]

what Jeff said about practicing tricky bits separately to which I would aadd ''little and often'' rather than setting aside time for a realy long practice session which can at best be non productive and at worst put you off altogether!

george

 

[JeffJetton]

Good point, George.

IMO, the number of correct repetitions is more important than sheer time.

That is, instead of saying "I'm going to practice this song for an hour", think of it as "I'm going to keep working on these four measures until I can play them absolutely perfectly three times in a row at a slow tempo." Then, the next day, try it a bit faster (or try more measures, or shoot for more perfect times in a row). Make a fun game/challenge out of it!

 

[JeffJetton]

I heard somewhere
that you need to put
a lot of effort in and
tire yourself and then
you learn in your sleep
, this sound
familiar?

I dont know about the tiring yourself out part, but I do find that I do a lot of learning in my sleep.

Really, whats happening is that the neural pathways that have been stimulated during practice are getting reinforced while you sleep. It goes back to that paving a superhighway metaphor Ive mentioned before.

Which is why its important to try to practice the music as accurately as you can, even if that means you have to play very small sections and/or play them very slowly. You cant just play the thing over and over again with mistakes. You want to send a very clear message to your brain about which pathways to pave later that night!

 

[accordian]

I heard somewhere
that you need to put
a lot of effort in and
tire yourself and then
you learn in your sleep
, this sound
familiar?

I dont know about the tiring yourself out part, but I do find that I do a lot of learning in my sleep.

Really, whats happening is that the neural pathways that have been stimulated during practice are getting reinforced while you sleep. It goes back to that paving a superhighway metaphor Ive mentioned before.

Which is why its important to try to practice the music as accurately as you can, even if that means you have to play very small sections and/or play them very slowly. You cant just play the thing over and over again with mistakes. You want to send a very clear message to your brain about which pathways to pave later that night!

so question from this
if im practicing in a
mirror as said and im
playing it correct every
time by relying on it rather
than muscle memory
eg. i I look in a mirror and
go down 2 and then up 3 etc.
rather than trying to do it naturally
(muscle memory) would this
still work

I ask just as a question to theory as in
theory you are still doing
repetitions and they are
correct

thanks

 

[Geronimo]

so question from this
if im practicing in a
mirror as said and im
playing it correct every
time by relying on it rather
than muscle memory
eg. i I look in a mirror and
go down 2 and then up 3 etc.
rather than trying to do it naturally
(muscle memory) would this
still work

Well, the unknown in this scenario is you, and the only one able to do experiments on you is you.

 

[george garside]

If you need to look in a mirror to be able to eg move up 3, down 2 or whatever you need to spend more time practising scales and scale based exercises as being able to play without peering at a mirror is an essential part of being able to play the box! Concentrate on learning to play the instrument and once that is mastered learning new tunes becomes a lot easier!

george

 

[accordian]

If you need to look in a mirror to be able to eg move up 3, down 2 or whatever you need to spend more time practising scales and scale based exercises as being able to play without peering at a mirror is an essential part of being able to play the box! Concentrate on learning to play the instrument and once that is mastered learning new tunes becomes a lot easier!

george

nah thats
fairly easy
I just meant to
test the theory

 

[Geronimo]

If you need to look in a mirror to be able to eg move up 3, down 2 or whatever you need to spend more time practising scales and scale based exercises as being able to play without peering at a mirror is an essential part of being able to play the box! Concentrate on learning to play the instrument and once that is mastered learning new tunes becomes a lot easier!

george

nah thats
fairly easy
I just meant to
test the theory

This is not StackExchange for Mathematics. People here exchange experiences rather than prove theories. You cannot prove experiences. You can trust them in order to sort out a path for yourself, but you still will have to go every step of that path yourself and there is absolutely no guarantee that its a better path for you than others could be. Its very unlikely that it is, but it is also rather unlikely that youll be completely on the wrong track.

 

[JeffJetton]

if im practicing in a
mirror as said and im
playing it correct every
time by relying on it rather
than muscle memory
eg. i I look in a mirror and
go down 2 and then up 3 etc.
rather than trying to do it naturally
(muscle memory) would this
still work

If your goal is to get really good at playing accordion with a mirror in front of you, then I guess that would work great!

But if you want to be able to play without a mirror, I suspect you might have better luck practicing without a mirror.

Although all of this is an experiment of one, so who knows? {}

 

[george garside]

I'm with Jeff on this one!

However I have no problem with beginners using a mirror to get the hang of the bass or maybe to sort out tricky jumps etc. This is, to me, fundamentally different to playing/learning the treble with ''mirror assist'' as there is no other way of ''seeing'' the bass while you have the box properly attached to your person.

Some would argue that so doing results in a back to front image of the bass in the memory and that may well be but its not important as it is obviously a workable image and you are not going to see whats going on at that end with direct vision unless you have eyeballs that will pop out on sticks and articulate !

george

 

[Geronimo]

However I have no problem with beginners using a mirror to get the hang of the bass or maybe to sort out tricky jumps etc. This is, to me, fundamentally different to playing/learning the treble with mirror assist as there is no other way of seeing the bass while you have the box properly attached to your person.

So? I dont run while looking at my feet either. I dont really have any visuals for either bass or treble play and dont think that mapping your play through some visual is by any means advantageous. The relation to the buttons is a tactile one to me.

 

[accordian]

However I have no problem with beginners using a mirror to get the hang of the bass or maybe to sort out tricky jumps etc. This is, to me, fundamentally different to playing/learning the treble with mirror assist as there is no other way of seeing the bass while you have the box properly attached to your person.

So? I dont run while looking at my feet either. I dont really have any visuals for either bass or treble play and dont think that mapping your play through some visual is by any means advantageous. The relation to the buttons is a tactile one to me.

well its not so
much the visual
part its the theory
of when learning
bass jumps

if I do it in a mirror
and put effort into
doing by muscl
then I can do it
while turning away
but continuously
doing the jump
I can do it.

but in theory muscle
memory is doing some
thing again and again
but i I do it again and
again by only doing it
visually and not focusing
would it still work as its
following the theory of
doing it again and
again

just wondered not
for me as I think
my mirror method
works.

just interested

 

[Geronimo]

Look, you are not going to accept anybody else's opinion anyway. Just do what you want to be doing, and tell yourself any theory you want to be telling yourself. It doesn't become more or less valid by airing it.

 

[accordian]

Look, you are not going to accept anybody elses opinion anyway. Just do what you want to be doing, and tell yourself any theory you want to be telling yourself. It doesnt become more or less valid by airing it.

I was only askin
of peoples preffered
methods I put the
post in teaching and
learning as im not asking
for advice but what im talking
about sorta goes in that area

and if it seems like im
not taking anyones advice
forgive me.

I dont want to make
it seem that way.

thanks