Practice in Isolation
It’s no question that the circumstances in the past several months have changed a lot of how we’re getting things done. Many people are working from home for the first time, and for some, while also having to provide their own childcare during the day. Things can get pretty hectic having to manage a household’s separate virtual meetings, lessons, and gatherings. Although the world seems to be opening up again, some ways that this has affected our students’ practicing will stay with us.
What We’re Missing
In our studio, it’s been 12 weeks since we had a group class. This isn’t super unusual for us; even in normal years we don’t have group classes over the three months of summer. So many would think this isn’t that different, nothing in their practices needs to change. However, during normal years, students are still playing along with their teachers in their lessons, where they passively practice ensemble playing without having to think about it. When we have lessons virtually, that’s no longer an option!
Students are no longer practicing the subtle skills of following a leader, or playing in a group. How often do we think about everything that goes into something that seems so simple normally? Let’s take a closer look at that to better understand what students are missing out on.
In order to follow a leader or play in a group, a student has to:
keep the leader’s tempo in mind, and be ready to make an adjustment at any time
listen to themselves and the other players, comparing the pitches and making adjustments when necessary
keep up with the others, and push on through any mistakes they make
watch and listen for cues about changes in dynamics or tempo
listen for stylistic choices, such as staccato bows or the length of a fermata, and match what the leader/group is doing
Now one of the skills we want to develop is good solo playing, but especially for less experienced students who need help playing with a steady tempo or playing with consistent intonation, that’s a lot to miss out on for such a long time. Our solo playing and ensemble playing will start to suffer the longer we go without.
What Can We Do
This post isn’t to convince everyone that it’s impossible to practice these skills while we’re separated. Luckily, there are some things we can do in our home practice to continue developing the most important skills while we wait for in-person lessons and group classes to resume.
Play-ins
The first option is to participate in virtual play-ins whenever possible. It’s a little extra time to set aside, but it’s well worth the investment. Students get to see their classmates, they get to play along with others, and they get to do all this in a low-stakes environment because only the leader’s microphone can be on.
If you’re really dedicated, you can even set up your own play-in with other students. It doesn’t have to be super official, or last for a long time in order for there to be benefits!
Practice with Suzuki recordings
One requirement at our studio is that everyone has the Suzuki recordings that came with their book, so hopefully practicing with the Suzuki recordings is an easy addition to any practice time.
If you have a loud enough speaker, playing along with a recording is a great way to help students practice keeping a steady tempo and good intonation. If you don’t have a loud enough speaker, practicing with headphones or earbuds is also a great option. If possible, the player should keep one ear uncovered so they can hear themselves playing clearly.
Some parents have also had a lot of success with bluetooth earbuds, one for the parent and one for the student, and nobody has to worry about accidentally pulling any wires.
Practicing along with the Suzuki recordings is a great way to practice the phrasings and style that we use in our studios, and we already know it’s a great reference point for students’ ears.
Practice with YouTube recordings
Sometimes it can be really helpful to be able to watch someone and play along with them. YouTube is filled with recordings of violinists playing the Suzuki repertoire, although finding other instruments playing the music can be more difficult.
Playing along with a video, where the student can see all the normal cues they would look for in a leader, can be great help in maintaining those following skills we talked about earlier. It can also be a nice change of pace in some practices, to get to watch some videos while they play.
The advantage to YouTube is that you can go in and adjust the tempo right there in the settings. If a video is too fast, set it at .75 or .5 speed and try playing along with it that way. For the pieces in the earlier Suzuki books, there are also a wide variety of videos that play at different tempos, so you don’t have to go into the settings if you don’t want to.
The disadvantage of YouTube is that you’re not guaranteed great quality playing the way you are with the Suzuki recordings, so it pays to watch the video ahead of time to make sure that there are no intonation problems, or style choices that are different from what you’ve practiced with your teacher.
Practice with someone else
Some of our students have the major advantage of living with someone else who plays music. Whether it’s a sibling who’s also studying Suzuki, a sibling who studies an instrument through school, or a parent who plays, many families have the option of making music together.
The biggest obstacle is usually that everyone doesn’t know the same songs, but luckily, we’re going to be here all summer! There’s time for family members to learn a song or two they can play together, and it can be a nice change of pace from the usual practice tasks.
Adding these ideas into your home practice isn’t all-or-nothing; if you do one of them a couple times, then you’re better off than where you started! If you have the time and ability to incorporate more than one idea, or incorporate one idea regularly, then that’ll help even more.
We’d love to hear what ideas you’ve used in your practice. Leave us a comment below to let us know your experiences with these practice ideas!