100 days of practice - week two
Mid-week thoughts
I wanted to mention that in my eyes, the time I spend not practicing is as important as my time spent practicing. For example, today I did what I often do - walk through the park and some particularly nice residential areas to go to the gym. I go in the middle of the day because a) glasgow only has about 7 hours of daylight right now so my best bet of seeing the sun is in the middle of the day, and b) I slump in the afternoon SO hard, and can hijack that a little by working out when my brain is taking a break. Today, as an extra treat, I bought some nuts and dates from the nearest Tesco, snacks to keep in my locker for a boost when I need it. These kinds of practices are, I think, one of my strengths, and have endless positive effects on my mental and physical health, and therefore my practice. They’re non-negotiables- I work extremely hard to ensure that these aren’t compromised when the workload increases. What are your non-negotiable, non-work practices?
A big thought this week was time based practice goals. I caught myself this week getting frustrated my practice time is sitting around 1-3 hours, and wondering how to increase this. I can’t find more time without sacrificing something more important, sleep, eating, social time, gym, etc. So I questioned where this came from - do I really need to practice more? Is there music I’m not learning as well as I’d like? am I not improving? Am I letting anyone (teacher, quartet, orchestra, myself) down? The answer to these is generally no. I tend to obsess over numbers, I like to see evidence of my success. So I want to be hitting 5+ hours of practice, which is a completely arbitrary number I decided in my head that subconsciously I equate to “hard work”. I mentioned this to me teacher, who reminded me it doesn’t matter how many hours you do if they are focussed and productive.
Monday - day 6
First day of term. Got proper back into taking notes while I practice - I wrote “get things out of head! Not so scary when you write them down”
Tuesday - day 7!
Listened back to an old chamber coaching and remembered how valuable that is as a practice tool - reminder to self to get back into listening to lessons and taking notes.
Evening reflection - got super grumpy about having to do work by the evening. Pushed through for an extra 10 mins of analysing the chords in my quartet music, but felt pretty defeated. Feeling frustrated that after such a tiring day I only did 2 hours of practice. Feeling like I’m not working hard enough and too tired - usually a sign I am actually pushing myself too hard.
Some wins to focus on - I did my improv today! And harmonic analysis. Two things I often find scary and daunting. My quartet rehearsals went well because I was well prepared.
Wednesday - day 8
Total time - does it matter!? How do you even quantify what counts as practice and what doesn’t? Is this reflection practice?
Today was a really good day for practice. I felt super inspired and creative and things started clicking. I was well prepared for my lesson (hear that, past self who was worried about that?) and got great feedback from my teacher.
The real highlight was meeting with the cellist of my quartet to practice classical improvisation exercises and some quartet rep together - which turned into 1 1/2 hours of improvising, chatting, practicing, laughing, and general good vibes. Reminded me why I do music :’). These moments are THE most important for me. The literal whole point.
Thursday - day 9
Started late because I slept in. Warmed up and tackled some chamber music and orchestra rep - trying to stay on top of this. Was pretty unfocused so went to the gym and when I got back spent an hour and a half doing some research about Hindemith and listening to my lesson (I record them all so I can listen back and take notes when I have a clearer mind - then I can also hear my own playing and reflect).
Also had two quartet rehearsals so big tiring day, which leads to…
Friday - day 10
Hard hard day. Had a coaching with a teacher who does classical improv exercises with us - and made us demonstrate the exercise I’ve been practicing - singing an improvised line and plucking a bass line on the viola. I really struggled with this and had one of those experiences where you just get more and more in your head - while trying not to and stay calm - but feeling a bit shit.
BUT! I went for a walk, went to a beautiful baroque concert with Rachel Podger playing some Brandenburg with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which was a nice space for me to have a little cry, went home and plucked on viola while Clarke played guitar alomg to some of our fave songs - which reminded me that
A) music can be fun and playful
B) I have undeniably gotten better at learning by ear - I am so much better at playing along to things and even improvising !!
THEN I went to my lovely beautiful cross genre class (7pm class on a Friday) which is like entering this different dimension where a bunch of students from different departments learn tunes by ear and we think about colour and shape and harmony and melody and it’s like a music meditation that always grounds me. So anyway I finished the day feeling much better and happier. Did NO classical practice but so much other types of playing and listening and thinking.
Saturday - day 11
For the weekend I asked “what’s the least amount of practice I can do?” Rather than the most. Decided an hour each day - enough to keep things in motion, not so much I sacrifice rest and an easy mind.
Spent most of the day going for a walk by Loch Lomond, but did my hour in the afternoon. The walk made me feel less stressed and away from it all but then reality hit again in the evening - got super stressed about a very busy upcoming week. I did yoga to chill out again and committed to a relaxing evening.
Sunday - day 12
I often take a day off from practice on a Sunday but felt I couldn’t afford it today. I start every morning by journaling and today found as I wrote that although the week coming up is very busy, it’s nothing I haven’t done before, and I actually am really good at being busy. The week is filled with playing with the Scottish Ensemble for our mentorship week and quartet rehearsals - the things I came to do my Master’s to do - and stress turned to excitement.
Did more than an hour practice, and signed up to play in performance class tomorrow. Planning to use that as a simulation for a not-ideal performance. Last minute, a little underprepared, during a busy and stressful time, but it’s not a real performance so all that is at stake is my ego!
in conclusion
This was a week for re-calibrating and balancing. First week back at school, navigating a new season. I really enjoyed reading back my notes and seeing how thoughtful I was about keeping myself sane and healthy while finding things tough. This coming week all my normal routine goes out the window for long days of rehearsals, with only an hour each day for practice. See you next week for reflections on how that goes! Love ya <3
(P.s thanks to all of those who are reading these and for telling me you enjoy them - it means so so much)
