Practicing Successfully: A Masterclass in the Musical Art

By Elizabeth A. H. Green

Has this ever happened to you? You begin to practice your [insert instrument of choice], and just when you reach a sixteenth-note passage, you are stopped cold. You repeat the offending section over and over to no avail--until your frustration causes you to quit in disgust.It need not be so! In Practicing Successfully, legendary music educator Elizabeth A. H. Green draws upon her decades of experience instructing students of all levels to break down the practicing regimen into a logical learning sequence.GIA Publications, Inc., is proud to bring to light this remarkable, timeless book Elizabeth Green completed in the last days of her life. This manuscript tragically remained undiscovered for many years.Green does not promise that practice will be easy, but with time, patience, and smart application of the suggested techniques, progress will come. She writes, "Ultimate success depends upon one immutable, inescapable, and well-publicized fact: the musician has to practice--successfully or not."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gia Publications
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781622773275

Book preview

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PART ONE:

THE PRACTICING

CHAPTER ONE

Defeating Monotony with the Rhythmic Motif

Practicing becomes one of life’s most frustrating experiences when the hours pile up without positive results. Unproductive practice time can be attributed to several rather common causes:

The performer’s mind is not entirely focused upon the activity.

The practicing is too, too, too fast, allowing mistakes to happen. A cycle of mistake correction, repeated a number of times during the practice hour, is habit forming.

Good basic practice habits have not been taught early enough in the learning process.

There is a certain art to effective practicing, and there are fundamental principles to be understood and applied. Practicing can take many forms, but the activity itself begins with drudgery, slowly passes through stages of depression, moves to hopefulness and genuine interest, and finally comes to inspired commitment, a daily