Marina
Oud Junkie
Posts: 615
Registered: 9-1-2005
Location: Bosnia
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Mood: Enthusiastic
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Practicing violin same as oud
Advice from the Maestro
Old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. But according to Itzhak Perlman, that’s exactly the wrong way to get to
Juilliard or other competitive schools.
"Whenever a student asks me for my autograph," he claims, "I don’t say, ‘Best wishes.’ I say, ‘Practice slowly!’ Practicing is really the
main component in achieving something very satisfying when you play any stringed instrument, but the problem with practice is sometimes people put in
the time, they’ve practiced four hours, five hours a day, and can’t understand why it isn’t getting any better.
"It comes down to listening. What are you listening for when you practice? Here’s my favorite example of how not to practice: You have a couple of
notes that are out of tune, and you repeat them over and over for 20 minutes and it’s not working, and while you were doing that the bow was going
in all bad directions, because you weren’t paying attention to your bow because you were only paying attention to your left hand. So your left hand
is not working well yet, and you’ve practiced for 20 minutes with the bow wrong. So now you have to undo that, but you’re not paying attention to
the intonation, so you’ve practiced for 20 minutes out of tune.
"So just reduce it to small increments, two or three bars, and try to get hold of everything at the same time. It’s difficult to concentrate on
everything, so reduce it to one bar. You can accomplish a lot more in less time. Practicing slowly is extremely important. Then you can figure out
what’s going on; nothing escapes you.
"Sheer time is not necessarily good; what’s good is the quality of the practicing. If somebody’s really serious, five hours a day is almost too
much; no more than that. After five hours, the body doesn’t absorb any more. And when you practice, it’s got to be 50-minute hours, with ten
minutes of rest."
No matter how well you may play alone in your bedroom, you can still fall apart in an audition, but only a good audition will get you into a good
school. What to do? "Being nervous is what you really have to prepare for," Perlman says. "Try to make up some events so you can induce nervousness
and learn how to deal with it. Invite some friends over, and play your audition for them.
"People say, ‘How can you not be nervous?’ I say, you don’t get rid of nerves; nerves are always there. The thing to do is be familiar with
them–know your enemy. You have to learn what happens when you’re nervous. Everybody has different reactions; some people shake, some play faster,
some feel they’re losing control. So it’s really, really important to induce nerves and prepare for them."
—J.R.
Excerpted from Strings magazine, August/September 2004, No. 121.
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Sunshy
Oud Lover
Posts: 20
Registered: 9-12-2007
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Mood: No Mood
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Nice advice. Practice makes permanent--not perfect.
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samzayed
Oud Junkie
Posts: 485
Registered: 11-1-2003
Location: Chicago, IL
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Mood: Mashee el hal
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When I went to Simon Shaheen's retreat in 2005, I got the best advice from William Shaheen (Simon's brother): "Slow is fast" That's along the same
line as what was said above. Take it slow, you'll learn it faster!
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