So I used to do my hours of practice without much attention to the order of the pieces being practiced. I tended to end suddenly, with really intense pieces with dramatic endings (like this: youtu.be/wijnBhSNTf8?t=5m58s where after I hit that high note at 6:13 I'd get up, put my stuff away and, you know, run to class). Often I'd be sore for the rest of the day and unable to practice as much because of it.
In order to avoid this I've taken to doing those intense pieces second-to-last, and then finishing with a slow piece (usually it's this one: youtube.com/watch?v=SVyza9jzw18). I've noticed some improvement, but not much.
Is it the choice of piece? I mean, it is still kind of intense, just slow. And I'm aware this isn't ideal, so are there better cool-down techniques I can do in the cramped practice rooms at my college?
Adam Ortiz
Do some kettlebell swings and turkish get ups. Cross training with basic strength moves will improve your general physicality. Everything will become easier.
Brandon Baker
I'll definitely be looking into getting a kettleball after today
Is there anything I can do in the practice room after practicing, though?
Evan Hernandez
Horn player here, not sure how much of this carries over to strings, but the main thing I notice in OP is that you mention only practicing pieces. I would advice to put a lot more emphasis on long notes and slow practicing. For a trumpet player, a typical hour of practice will be 30 mins of long notes, 15 minutes of scales and intervals and then 15 minutes of actual playing from chart.
Also, don't practice the whole piece. Find the passage that you have most trouble with and study it at half tempo (horn players will also put it an octave down if the notes are high). When you nail it slowly (and low), play it at the actual speed and height just once or twice to make sure you got it. If not, back to half tempo.
Lastly, don't focus too much on strength, it's coördination you want. Of course having a fit body will help you stay relaxed, but over-developed muscles actually have a hard time performing subtle movements. Actually, if you get sore from playing, relaxing your posture might be more important than improving your strength. Hope this helps!
Camden King
samefag Also, if it's really only a cooldown you are looking for: long notes again.
Jaxon Hill
It's not as though I don't do that (though I probably don't do as much of it as I should), just that my practices would always tend to steadily rise in activity, and then have such a dramatic finale without any cool-down at all.
I hadn't considered doing that sort of long note practice for the cool-down, though, thanks.
>Actually, if you get sore from playing, relaxing your posture might be more important than improving your strength. Yep, I get told this all the time and yet I still have trouble catching myself doing this.
Jordan Perry
>Yep, I get told this all the time and yet I still have trouble catching myself doing this.
In that case, perhaps just start doing evening practice with only long notes and scales. Find out where in your body the soreness from morning practice is felt most and try different ways of holding your instrument sparing those joints and muscles. For example, support the cello using only your left thumb, bring your shoulders waaaay down, hold the bow ith only your thumb and index finger. Try playing with minimal effort without worriying about speed and pitch too much.
Jonathan Murphy
I will, then.
Didn't expect Veeky Forums to give me such solid cello advice
Nathaniel Lewis
Piano fag here. How are you approaching the actual playing? What is your finger to forearm ratio for actually placing a note on the fingerboard? I'm just going on what you've written but it sounds like your fingers are very isolated.
Cooper Young
tfw you realize /fit is a sect of undercover classical musicians.
Christian Diaz
Double bassist here, know your limits, such as don't fly into the fucking rococco variations first thing in the morning, start with slower things and intonation training then start to move into faster things. Also, I notice if I am playing quickly and start to get sore, it is less the brute physicality of the playing, but more of me getting very tense due to not knowing the piece well enough. For example make sure you are actually subdividing and not just feeling it.
Also, stretch away from your instrument, hold one hand out in front of you and grab your finger tips with your other hand and bend it back towards you. I find this helps quite a bit. Usually the only time I am in enough actual straight pain to where I need to not practice for a while is if I stub my damn finger because dip shittery. Hope this helped. Also long tones and hold the bow principally with index and middle fingers. (I play french bow mainly, not german)
Caleb Bell
>hold one hand out in front of you and grab your finger tips with your other hand and bend it back towards you Ah, yes, I've seen my private teacher doing something similar. I'll try this as well.
>What is your finger to forearm ratio for actually placing a note on the fingerboard? >it sounds like your fingers are very isolated. I guess you're asking me about hand posture? I don't quite get what you mean, though.
Jace Richardson
It means either you're a twink skeleton whose arms couldn't even handle swinging around a stick for a few minutes or you have shit form that hurts your joints. Veeky Forums violinfag here. I have no problem practicing pieces such as Biber's 1681 sonatas and Vivaldi's La Stravaganza for 3 hours non-stop. I've been lifting and hitting shoulders and arms regularly for 4 years and I'm the fastest player in the orchestra club. You know now what you should do.
Isaac Fisher
Veeky Forums pianofag reporting in. I've been playing for 20 years but only started learning to read sheet music this year. how much should i practice for max sight reading gains? i've been doing about 30 minutes a day using sightreadingfactory.com.
Austin Sanders
>I guess you're asking me about hand posture? I don't quite get what you mean, though.
Yeah it's pretty difficult to explain without a video or something.
So basically, your wrist is the bridge between your finger and arm. If you let it just hang by your side, as if you were standing normally, your hand will be properly aligned with the rest of your arm.
So copy that to the fingerboard. Your wrist will move up and down a bit, obviously. It's not completely static, but it really wants to stay in that mid range. If it goes too high or low, it breaks the connection to the arm.
Also, your forearm will turn slightly left and right. It's really only just a little bit. If you watch great players, they all do this, probably without realising. This rotation + aligned wrist will get the energy to the fingers with maximum efficiency.
Then the fingers just have to lightly press. They are really not strong enough to do all the work on their own, so you need to give them the support.
Leo James
That would be about optimum. It's best to do it only a little every day until you get a better handle on it. You'll know when you need to increase because it will become easy.
Czerny exercises are good for sight reading because they all make a lot of sense as far as piano goes, so maybe look there when you're done with the website.
Kayden Morales
Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I've been doing all that, or at least trying to do all that, except >Also, your forearm will turn slightly left and right Never heard about this before, but it makes sense. Thanks
Carter Baker
>tfw I'm a composer and no one will play my music Just give me a 48 person choir :(
Wyatt White
>hour long practice >30 minutes of long tones
Jose Garcia
your tone quality improves very quickly by doing them
