Double Bass On Quality of Practice (or, Deliberate Practice)

[ThomClaire]

I've posted this in the Invalid Link Removed subreddit a couple of times, so I'll repost it here too. It's not complete, because some of the exercises I do are exercises that came out of a teacher's book that he hasn't published and I don't want to step on toes about that, and also because they would require a fair amount of explanation. I got this set of exercises from the aforementioned teacher and don't take any credit for them.

1.) long tones, d string, 60bpm. 4 beats, 6 beats, 8 beats, 10 beats. don't change lengths until you're happy with your bow changes.

2.) string crossing exercise. 60 bpm. changing between G-D, then D-A, then A-E, then E-A, then A-D, then D-G, every eighth note. 4 Quarters to a bow, then 2 quarters to a bow, then 1 Quarter, then separate 8th notes. try to play these as close to the bridge as possible, don't fear that gritty sound, learn to make it better.

3.) one finger scale on G string, 2 octaves. 60 bpm. 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 (up the first octave g, then back down).

4.) Vomits on g string (or D string for extra challenge). Quarters or 8ths at 60 bpm. 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-1.

After this, pick a scale (or, unlike me, do it the smart way and have planned out what scale you're doing that day), and use Boardwalkin' - by Hal Robinson. After that, use your favourite set of bowing variations on that scale.

That's what I go through before i do meaningful work. I find not only doing it, but doing it every time, helps focus me a lot. It also helps me build good technique into my daily practicing and reminds me to keep it in my daily work.

eerbrev

That looks really great. I wish I could see the unpublished stuff (oh well)!

As a beginner, I am trying to focus a lot on pure technique, especially bow mechanics. I also enjoy this kind of work a lot, so I think, for me, it is more productive than learning technique through excerpts, where I am having to think about a lot more.

Here's my practice journal thing for this week:

1. E maj. scale (qn = 72bpm)
a. play half notes
b. half notes very soft and quiet, smooth
c. same as b. but playing with 1 finger of choice off of the bow (instruction from teacher)
d. focus on having a very loose bow grip (still playing Emaj.)
e. play with quarter notes
f. spiccato
2. Concept of bowing (zimmerman), pattern 1; write down all problems/naunces (I haven't played any of this yet, so I don't know how it's going to go)
3. Simandl - position VII - 1 exercise per day; first, en = 60bpm, then qn = 52bpm, 72, 80, 92.

I think this is pretty well rounded, and also based on what I've been able to concentrate on. Because of that, I think I will be able to successfully have a very deliberate practice.


Heifetzbass - my teacher is not really telling me *how* to practice, which I think is important, but he is doing an okay job at showing me ways to tackle a problem. The only issue here is, sometimes I cannot identify the problem. I do wish my teacher was as serious as I am about all of this, but he is by no means a professional instructor.

Bostonprop - I definitely agree 100% and thanks for the suggestions!

 

[ThomClaire]

I had a teacher tell me that there isn't much merit to playing something so slow that it's within your ability to just execute it perfectly. Deliberate practice for me has evolved into being extremely critical and honest about the sound coming out of my instrument. If I am playing a note out of tune, was it because of a note before or after? Was it because of a problem with my finger or my hand position or arm weight? Likewise if my tone suffers on a note, is it because of a poorly angled now? Too much speed, or weight?
By attacking the reasons behind shortcomings in my playing in a relaxed and unemotional way, I try to correct them specifically in that piece. I don't assume fixing my up bow sfz in one piece means it will be fixed elsewhere. .

What about the idea of reinforcing playing a note out of tune? We can do this by practicing a phrase, wherein there is a note that we are playing out of tune. Sure, you can identify what is causing that, but what do you do to fix it? One of those supposed solutions is slowing it down to a speed where you play that note in tune, and learning the physical side of that by repitition. Do you do this? If not what do you do to fix the problem once it is identified?

I personally think deliberate practice is mostly concerned with identifying the cause of an out of tune note (or any other problem), but how to efficiently fix that problem doesn't seem to be addressed so much.

 

[Anonymatt]

I'll tell you what, page 43 of the Simandl book is really making me get my deliberate practice on.

 

[Dbass926]

When you've determined a single note is problematic, you can isolate playing the note alone, then adding notes around it. Often a "problem spot" is just two or three notes. Practicing out of context on those spots is more efficient than repeating a phrase with a questionable note in it. You can often get to the bottom of why a note doesn't happen the way you intend it by approaching it in a detached and unemotional way.

 

[Andrew McGregor]

Efficiently fixing intonation is about two things... one, learning to hear the correct pitch mentally, ahead of actually playing it, and two learning the feel of where the note is in that context. You do the two together, by very slowly doing a few notes either side with a tuner (fast-responding strobe tuners are great for this) and getting the intonation exactly right like that, while concentrating on the pitch and the feel together so you learn to associate them.

 

[MartinBorgen]

I think another good question would be, how much time (in proportion to repertoire, not in minutes) should be spent practicing technique alone? I'm finding so many great technical exercises and practice that I could easily spend an hour and a half of concentrated and focused technical practice, but I'm afraid I will neglect the musicality of it all, as well as solo/orch. rep.

For me, at least, I would say that musicality comes by itself. And I should trust in my ability to play things musically, it's going to be there when I need it, practise exercises instead.

I've tried over and over as the years have passed to try and keep a practice log, or some sort of written progress report or something, and I'm always unsuccessful. It's just never been helpful to me, save in one case: notating how much time I ACTUALLY spend practicing, and not how many hours I spend in the practice room. The two times are related, but not the same. I'm sure that this isn't a foreign concept to you guys, but for the benefit of anyone passing by in future, i mean that unless you're doing meaningful work in your head or with bow in hand, you're not practicing. Playing your favourite excerpt for fun isn't practicing, checking your text messages isn't practicing, looking at the cute girl in the practice room across the hall is also not practicing.
eerbrev

I'm sure we music stuents (like you and me), as well as music teachers know this. If I say "I've practised for four hours", I do not mean I was playing these in depth exercises for four hours straight - I mean I was with my bass in the practise room for four hours with a few coffee-breaks. I think all of us mean it in this way, and hence we are all using the same standard. Of course, trying to improve efficiency is great, but the common unit "hours of pracise" includes lots of non-practising.

 

[Zojo]

Deliberate practice is a great goal. But it basically means "Do the most effective thing at all times". There are tons of posts on this forum debating what are the best things.

Don't kid yourself that you can simply chose to be optimally effective at all times by following a simple procedure. Most people can't. That's why there are winners and losers. Great teachers are the ones who help you to achieve this optimization of your time.

 

[martin durkin]

Yes, for me page 43-44 Simandl is still a major challenge, and has caused me to go back a few pages to the enharmonic stuff, the bmaj, f# etc, which I tended to rush through without really taking it in, so I could move through the book quicker and get into the bowing studies etc! I've realised now that my practice time does need to be more focused. I may go back to my diary planned practice system which I used a few years when there were fewer hours in my day, so the hours needed to be used productively!