My Weekly Practice Review – Jan. 9, 2022

Here’s a weekly review of what I practiced.

 

If you want to do your own review, use these questions as a guide. Write down your answers in a journal, word file, spreadsheet, or the new Practice Journal Feature on FiddleHed.

Questions for weekly review

  • How many minutes a day did you practice this week? How many days?
  • What tunes did you work on this week?
  • What techniques did you work on this week? (Scales, bowing, ear-training, etc.)
  • What went well?
  • What could use improvement?
  • What did you notice about the process of practice?
  • What things will you work on next week?

If you feel like it, post what you did on the Share Your Practice Forum.


How much did you practice?

  • I practiced every day, 30-120 minutes

What tunes did you work on this week?

  • Kafi Raga, I learned phrases from this lesson:

  • Cuckoo Bird

  • The Jazz Fiddler

  • Paddy Fahey’s
  • Improv, original pieces
    • Fiddle Journeys: I Knew That Would Happen
    • Improvise with another artist’s recording, Harmala: Fall – Rise

What techniques did you work on this week? (Scales, bowing, ear-training, etc.)

  • Minor Pentatonic Scales
  • Blues Scale with natural 7th
  • G Minor Pentatonic
    • Melodic Variation 1-2-3
  • G Dorian
    • Octave double stops scale
  • B Flat Dorian
    • Shifting up the neck to second position as needed
  • F Dorian and F minor pentatonic
    • trouble working out Melodic Variation 1-2-3-1 with Slur 3 pattern on pentatonic
    • Octave double stops scale
    • Higher positions
  • Melodic Variation 1-2-1 >> Mordents

What went well?

  • Figured out The Jazz Fiddler.
  • Updated the way I take notes on practice.

What could use improvement?

  • Flow on the jazz fiddler.
  • Play earlier in the day.
  • Take more breaks for the body.

What did you notice about the quality or process of practice?

  • Some days the quality was better than others
    • Last night I did 30m maintenance practice at 11:30pm.
    • My personal challenge is to carve out practice time during the day when I have more energy and clarity.
    • A student named Tara D. does 3-10 short sessions a day, some as short as 5 minutes. I’m going to try to break up all the computer work with
  • I made short recordings (less than one minute).
    • These are easier to listen to afterwards.
    • Listen to them
      • right away
      • weekly review
      • monthly review
    • Quicker feedback loop
    • Also some longer recordings to explore ideas.

What things will you work on next week?

  • Process
    • Short practice sessions during the day
  • Take another lesson on Kafi raga
  • Review
    • B Flat Dorian, B Flat Dorian
  • New
    • New Kafi lessons
    • Learn another blues fiddle tune by the Mississippi Sheiks: Still I’m Travelling On or Jake Leg Blues

I hope this inspires you to do your own weekly review. Let’s start strong in 2022!!!

 

PS: Let me know if there’s something I did that you really want to learn.

Leave a Reply

3 responses to “My Weekly Practice Review – Jan. 9, 2022

  1. I practice when i get time, since i renewed for this year, i am starting as a beginner through all songs and lessons to learn as much as i can.
    I do not understand how to mark lessons as completed when i finish one. thank you for your concern.Mel Fowler.

    1. Hi Mel, Thanks for this question. When your on one of the module lessons, close to the bottom of the page are some drop down options highlighted in grey. Click on “Your Course Progress”. Within that, (3 titles down) you’ll see in bold: “Total Course Progress” and under that title you can click on the highlighted area that says “Mark as Complete”.
      Let us know how that goes for you if you’d like!