Very few time for practice
I'm intermediate self-taught (level 8 on the Tonebase scheme). Used to have like 2 to 3h for daily practive (15 to 20h weekly), but know I've had to reduce this schedulo to less than an hour a day (30~45min) until May.
How can I make the most out of this restricted time ?
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I am reading a fantastic book: Molly Gebrain's "Learn Faster, Perform Better". It is very helpful in dispelling common practice strategies than have been disproven by research in neurology. Perhaps that book would be helpful to you.
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Filipe,
I second Roger Ward’s advice about Molly Gebrain’s book; it’s VERY good! She explains many approaches that are good for making the most of your time. One example- several short practice sessions of 40 minutes with breaks of 20 minutes in between is far better for learning than doing 2-3 hours of practice in one block with no breaks. DEFINITELY get the book! Maybe Tonebase could get in touch with Molly and see if she could do some content on the site. Additionally, it would make for a great Tonebase book club reading.
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Timothy This is a great idea! I recently read the book and it's a must-read.
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Timothy I will take a look for sure, thks
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I am in a similar situation and I just restrict my repertoire to a few pieces. I also do just the one scale and its associated arpeggios etc. Plus the delightful Tonebase extension exercises with Sara Davis Buechner. It's hard though when there is so much good material out there
. I imagine it's good also to minimise the time jumping from one thing to another, which I am not very good at ...-
gregprochlin the point is just that, to manouver pieces and exercises and choose the most prolific ones. I've restricted pieces to Bach (mainly the two voice inventions) and some exercises from Jonas Alberto like that one of extensions (also some I had invented my own). I also learned some Clementi's Gradus Ad Parnasum wich are great exercises. Also to develop reading I'm using Shuman book of the young.
So this had been my limited program (Bach inventions, some Jonas exercises, Clementis Gradus, Schuman's young for reading).
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To have an effective practice, focus on practicising the few bars or phrases that you are not good at instead of going through the whole piece a few times. This will save time and effective practice.
