5-for-30 Practice Challenge Kickoff

Overview

This is the kickoff for the 5-for-30 Practice Challenge. We set the one goal for the month: play every day. Then we set three smaller goals to give the month a shape. Then we warmed up and practiced together.

By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

  • Name your dream goal, your goal for this month, and your process goal
  • Break any goal into small pieces you can practice today
  • Run a simple warm-up: breath, open strings, rhythms, slurs, and a scale over a drone
  • Learn a chunk of a tune with call and response, then loop it
  • Transfer a practice idea from an example tune to your own tune

 

Chapters

  • 0:00 The one goal: play every day
  • 1:15 Dream goals
  • 5:04 Short-term goals
  • 8:05 Process goals
  • 18:12 How the month works
  • 19:45 Warm-up: breath, rhythms, slurs
  • 25:24 D scale over a drone
  • 34:09 Call and response (Wildwood Flower)
  • 39:19 Practice on your own
  • 40:41 Wrap-up and homework
  • 43:00 Q&A: vibrato
  • 44:00 A look inside Play Every Day
  • 47:36 Q&A: shoulder aches

Workshop Notes

Learning Steps

The one goal: play every day

It sounds easy. It is sneaky hard. Most of us drift away from playing without noticing. It has happened to me more than once.

So the goal is small on purpose. Five minutes counts. On a day you don’t feel like it, think “five minutes” and pick up the fiddle. You will usually play longer. If you don’t, it still counts.

Try this: decide now when your five minutes will happen tomorrow.

Three goals to give the month a shape

Take these with a grain of salt. They are here to keep you going. They are not a test.

  • Dream goal. About two years out. Play in a jam. Lead a tune at a session. Play for your family.
  • Short-term goal. Something you can improve this month. Memorize one tune. Clean up your string crossings. Get vibrato working on one bar.
  • Process goal. Something you do every day to practice better. Play slowly. Loop the hard bit. Use a drone or a metronome.

If your goal has an “and” in it, it is two goals. Pick the one you want more. Do the other one next month.

Try this: write all three down. Then write down the tune you’re bringing, and the days you already know you’ll miss.

Any goal breaks into small pieces

Want better double stops? Start with the open strings. Play D twice, A twice, then both together.

Want to learn a tune? Don’t play the whole thing. Take one small chunk. Play it until you can loop it. That is one practice session, and it is enough.

Memorizing works the same way. It’s like eating a hamburger. You take it bite by bite.

Notice this: the small piece is something you can do today. The big goal is not.

Process goals you can start today

  • Play cleaner. Stop and rock. Play a note, fully stop, cross to the next string, then play. Shrink the gap over time. It works for the left hand too.
  • Use a metronome. Set it near 60. Play single notes until it feels boring. Then four notes, then a scale, then one chunk of a tune. Lock in first. Speed up later.
  • Straight bow. Use a mirror or your phone’s selfie camera. Keep the bow parallel to the bridge.
  • Reading notation. Learn a chunk by ear first. Then play it while you look at the sheet music.
  • Vibrato. Start with one bar. The second finger is the easiest. Practice the motion silently while you watch TV. Nobody gets annoyed that way.

Try this: pick one and keep it for a week.

The warm-up

We started with zen fiddle. Hold the fiddle. Close your eyes. Breathe. Notice any tension in your body. Playing takes your body, not only your brain.

Then we built up slowly on the D string:

  • Slow quarter notes on open D
  • A rhythm: hoedown (long, short, short), then triplets
  • A slur: two notes in one bow, then four. Leave a small gap between bows to keep it clean.
  • The D major scale over a D drone

Then everyone took the scale and worked on their own thing: a slur pattern, dynamics, fourth finger, accents on two and four.

Notice this: scales are little Petri dishes. You can grow whatever you’re working on in them.

Learn a chunk, then transfer it

We used the first bit of Wildwood Flower as an example.

  • Call and response. Hear a few notes. Play them back.
  • Chain the notes into one chunk.
  • Play the chunk in a slow loop.
  • Take a break and play it on your own.
  • Come back and slowly speed it up.

The example tune is only an example. The point is your tune. Take one idea from this session and do it to a chunk of the tune you’re working on. That is how it sticks.

Try this: play your chunk with the hoedown rhythm, then with triplets, then with a slur.

Questions from the chat

“I forget how a tune starts the next day. How do you remember?” Listen to the tune a few times a day, away from your fiddle. Memorize only the first few notes. Do something else. Then test yourself. Once you have that first piece, the rest tends to follow. There’s a whole lesson on this: Never Forget A Fiddle Tune Again.

“Is it good to keep my tuner on while I play?” Find your first few notes with the tuner, then look away. Staring at it while you play becomes a crutch. A drone is a better helper.

“I didn’t understand the slurring thing.” A slur is more than one note in a single bow. Play open D and first finger in one down-bow. Don’t loop it yet. Just do down-bows. Then just up-bows. Then join them with a little pause between.

“My shoulders ache after ten minutes. Is that normal?” Lots of players feel this. Take breaks. Go back to holding the fiddle and breathing without playing. Stand up and move once in a while.

Further Learning

Your homework: film thirty seconds of the thing you want to improve. It doesn’t have to be good. Keep it. In a month you’ll play the same thing again and compare.

Next up is Workshop 1. We learn the A part of The Ash Grove and put looping, chunking and memorizing to work. Until then, play five minutes a day and cross it off.

Related Lessons

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