Earl Scruggs wrote a banjo book and in it, he shows how to do an exercise and then says, “Repeat a thousand times”. It may sound funny (and it is) but it’s true. You may think you know something, but you can always go further. You may think you’ve practiced something enough and are ready for the next thing, but you may need to practice it another 982 times.
It makes perfect sense to me. You play something until it’s completely a part of you. It becomes an unconscious activity like walking. Then you can do little things to make your walk more enjoyable and interesting.
Perhaps after 500 times you’ve mastered that little phrase. Then you can play it 500 more times and use it to practice other things you are working on: bowing, variations, etc.
But that doesn’t sound like fun!
It’s my mission to make practicing scales and exercises more enjoyable for you so that you will do it more regularly.
Some things to do to make this fun:
- Practice with drones and beats.
- Practice the same thing different ways by adding variation.
- Transpose to a different key.
- Work at your edge.
- Make a project out of it.
If you want to learn more about how to play with drones, just take the Drone Practice lesson from the How To Practice Fiddling course. Lesson four is on drone practice. And here’s a practice lesson on How To Play With A Beat.
Sometimes it’s fun to turn something into a project. Maybe your project is to work towards recording a challenging tune. Or recording an album. Or playing as many tunes as you can with the word whiskey in the title.
An easy way to play an exercise 1000 times:
Play it for five minutes a day, two weeks in a row.
For those of you who want to check my math, here’s how I figured this out:
If you play a one-bar phrase (in 4/4 time) 72 times a day, then you can reach the goal of playing it 1000 times in two weeks of solid practice (1008 times).
14 days x 72 repetitions per day = 1008 repetitions
I discovered that I didn’t like having to count that high while practicing. It wasn’t fun and seemed to distract and defocus me from the task at hand. I wanted to just be able to set a timer and then play the challenging phrase.
So I set a timer for one minute and then started to play the phrase. After one minute, I counted twenty-four repetitions. I reasoned that 90 beats per minute would be a good average tempo; I’d probably do the phrase faster and slower. So, in order to play it 72 times a day:
72 times per day/24 times per minute = 3 minutes per day for 14 days
But this number would be incorrect if your average tempo is something slower like 70 bpm. It also does not take into account the little pauses you have in your practice. So I like to round up generously from three to five minutes. This way you err on the side of practicing too much over too little in your quest to play that thing 1000 times.
If you are practicing a two-bar piece (the length of a quarter in a fiddle tune), then you’d need to increase the number of minutes per day or the number of weeks you practice it. So if you want to practice the last quarter of Arkansas Traveller (two-bar phrase) a thousand times, you could either play it ten minutes a day for two weeks in a row, or five minutes a day for four weeks in a row.
If you play something over and over again, something strange and magical will happen. You will stop thinking and start to play. You’ll start to channel music rather than forcing it out of your instrument.
PS: Don’t forget to use a timer!
Further reading and study
Here are some free posts and lessons that will help you to make practice fun and productive.
Three Phases of Learning a Tune
Make Friends With Your Doubt
Just completed day 4 of my 5 min challenge.
It is so weird, the bars look simple enough but they were catching me out every time when I tried to play the piece quickly, which is why I chose them. I am so glad I did choose them, as they are still tricky to get right even after all the practice I have done.
I have found myself trying to analyse why I find them difficult and trying different ways of playing each bit eg leave one finger down whilst playing on the other string to help when I come back to it, also moving my elbow up when coming across to the A string form the E.
I have even watched myself in the mirror and found that I was tilting my bow back so wasn’t playing on the flat bow ie less hair pulling the string. It wasn’t relevant to the fingering but I hadn’t realized I was doing it.
Some of the problems I have include making the notes sound nice, not touching other strings inadvertently and keeping my finger (positioned on the D string) clear of the A string when I’m rocking from G (on D string) to open A.
It is amazing how much you start thinking about a few simple notes when you are playing them over and over again!
I really hope I can complete this challenge as it can only be good for my playing I’m sure. I have also found myself noticing other single bars in other music I’m practicing. I am sighing as I think I could usefully use this approach on a lot more bars than just the couple I have chosen…I have a feeling that once I have done this challenge I will be following it up with another similar challenge. There could be no end to this!
Just did my first 5 mins on two bars and it was quite illuminating. In fact I ended up breaking it down into half a bar at a time for some of the time. Astonishingly, I can’t wait to do another 5 minutes on it! (but I am going to save it for later as a treat to myself! haha)
..and I have even written down the plan (marking it as a 2 week challenge until 13 November) and listed the planned sessions ready to tick off – just about to make my first tick – yaaay! Thank you Jason and especially for Fiddlehed.
Hey Ajs. Glad you tried this and thanks for the comment. It’s such a simple but powerful idea. I’m glad you were able to break through to the point that you ENJOYED playing one thing a lot. Best to you…
crikey – that sounds really interesting – I think I might give it a go. I am trying to play “The Peelers away with my daughter” with a local folk workshop type of group I have just joined (they meet monthly). I struggle playing at the speed I need, especially in a couple of the bars (in fact two lots of two bars) – so I’m going to just play those 4 bars over and over – for 10 mins a day – split into two 5 min sessions possibly as it might e too much otherwise (I’ll see how it goes).
That will be on top of my other practicing. Fingers crossed and my struggle with them might become a thing of the past within 2 weeks!
Thank you for the suggestion. I will let you know in 2 weeks time. Wish me luck 🙂
PS I’m going to diarise my practicing as well I think, which is another of your really fabulous tips. So I should see these sets of 5 mins ticked off each day for the next two weeks at least. What a challenge, and it’s not even new year!