Hey guys! It’s been a crazy summer, what with vacations, tours, summer classes and a lot of other miscellaneous stuff. In the middle of all this, I’m trying to stay as consistent as I can with my violin Practice, so that when symphony rehearsals start again I’m ready.

(Note: I’m playing this piece for my 2018 audition – super excited!)

I’ve finally developed a Practice Routine that works particularly well for me. Here’s how it goes.

1. Scales
   1.  Review and practice 3-Oct scales. Focus on intonation and shifting.
2.  Review
   1. When I entered Suzuki Book 2 about a year ago, my teacher provided me with a simple practice chart that outlines a consistent review of material through Book 4, without reviewing everything every day. It looks quite similar to this one:\
   2. Because I just graduated from Book 2, I also work on the last four pieces, regardless of whether or not they’re assigned to me that day.
3. Practice current pieces
   1. This differs from lesson to lesson, but, currently, is the first three pieces in Book 3. I’ll continue to go through Book 3 up to the point I’m at every practice section until I finish, when I’ll add it to my review chart.
4.  Listen to the CD!
   1. My teacher is very firm about listening to the compact disk or an online recording of past and current pieces as often as possible. This gives you a superior model to strive for and improves your playing ear.

When rehearsals start again later next month, I’ll be adding 15-20 minutes to my practice section, at least at the beginning of the semester, to learn and memorize my orchestra pieces.

All in all, my practice ends up take somewhere from 25-30 minutes per day, and I’m very satisfied at the end.

Thanks for reading, folks! I’ll work on getting my posts out here more frequently (good-but-slightly-impossible-goal, right? :D).

See you around!