Practicing got harder

[lloccmttocs]

Ok, So I've always been big on practicing, usually packing in about 2 or 3 hours a day at least even with school. 3 out of my 4 orchestras ended and the last one doesn't have too difficult music, I mean its a little difficult at times depending on the tempo but not too bad. But now my teacher wants me to play the Dragonetti piece, but that's not the problem. He wants me to only do that for my practicing and give it my 100%. Now I can get by without practicing the orchestra stuff too much, just looking over it, but for some reason this concept of 100% on one piece is really hard to keep concentrated and keep that 2-3 hours. I know someones going to say "It's not about how long you practice.. yada yada yada" but is it good practice to simply work 100% on a movement? No exercises or etudes or scales (I still do these but he says they are all in the piece) my big problem is that practicing isn't as fun when I'm playing the same 40 measures which take about 2 minutes when played right, and I'm done practicing in a half hour, but I force myself to keep going. I often find myself looking at the clock more too. any comments?

[jfv]

Dude, you are obsessing over this number thing,
just relax and do your best

[sibass89]

Break up your practice time. You don't want to knock everything out all at once. Practice a little in the morning, then in the afternoon again, and later in the evening. Also, don't worry about the numbers just worry about being happy with the amount of progress you've made that day.

I used to be like this, no I'm angry that there aren't enough hours for me to practice because of the amount of music I have to learn. Just keep practicing and practice slowly!

[Cory Palmer]

Use rhythm and bowing variations in your practicing. It can keep a practice session more engaging and it will help you learn the music faster.

[thedbassist]

I think you are partially right, you should practice scales and etudes for warmups, they help warm up your left and right hand. Also, you need some type of variety so things will not become stale and stagnant, and to keep things interesting and your enthusiasm up. Just thought I'd give you my two cents .

[mcnaire2004]

Well, if you break the Dragonetti down, and get each part increadibly perfect every day before moving on you'll use up more time than you think.

[G-force]

Originally Posted by lloccmttocs

my big problem is that practicing isn't as fun when I'm playing the same 40 measures which take about 2 minutes when played right, and I'm done practicing in a half hour, but I force myself to keep going. I often find myself looking at the clock more too. any comments?

First of all, bravo that you practice and actually thiunk about these things. Listen to Sibabass. He is on the money. I have a couple of things to add to this.
First. Practicing does not need to be fun all the time. Performing should be fun. If that is your goal. If practicing is your goal than do what you ant as long as it is fun. UNderstand. Olympians don't think training is fun all the time. Probably not even 50 % of the time. But standing on the platform with the medal is or for us playing a wonderful concert nearly flawlessly.
I would listen to you teachers but find out for yourself. For if we do only what we know then we get no better than before.

OK nice weekend

[Ludwig]

Use the piece in different ways: Practice the scale beloging to the piece, practice the jumps in different ways, use different fingerings, practice the bow patterns without fingering,...
During playing the piece, don't just play, concentrate on different aspects like intonation, tempo, articulation, beautiful tone, volume changes, ....
Try to learn to play the piece without the sheet notation, try to memorise and understand the patterns in it, try to understand the music and the correlation to possible other voices (if not a solo piece), ...
To really master a piece and be able to play it without sheet notation in the best possible way takes lots of time. There are good books on praticing, try to read one of those to get better pointers then are possible in a short mail (I like the one of Gerhard Mantel from Schott's Musik, a Cello player and music professor, but that is in German and I don't know if a english version is available).

[mcnaire2004]

Originally Posted by lloccmttocs

No exercises or etudes or scales (I still do these but he says they are all in the piece)

Yea, it is true, they are. That is basically what the Dragonetti is. Though it is very musical.

Originally Posted by lloccmttocs

my big problem is that practicing isn't as fun when I'm playing the same 40 measures which take about 2 minutes when played right, and I'm done practicing in a half hour, but I force myself to keep going.

Well, it sounds like you are just running through it over and over. This is little help to you (or anyone).

What you should do is go through each couple of measures incredibly slow. The kind of slow that makes you want to break your bow. Work on the proper dynamic (hard to do real slow), crispness (don't know if that is a word), fingering, and make sure the bow is level with proper weight. If you break everything down slowly note by note, doing this over and over again on the same stuff. I'm sure that is several hours of work (even on one movement). Break it down, even if you think you can already play it.

[Alex Scott]

Video taping and recording myself always gives me plenty of practice ideas.