Update on Practice Log... August 2016

A few weeks ago I finally decided that some sort of log would help me practice - so I came up with a simple system of a list - with check marks each day if I actually practiced it.  This turned out to be great for...

• making sure I was working on everything I really wanted to work on - it became painfully obvious when I missed a few days, or more, of things I didn't enjoy that much (like sight reading, to name my No. 1 personal bugbear).
• making myself stop to think about what I wanted to practice and how to practice it, particularly if it involved breaking down a technique into smaller parts.  Like for tremolo, listing all the different options for finger sequence or emphasis.

However, what it wasn't so good at was giving me distinct goals for each task and tracking progress.  Hmmm.   I'm thinking some refinement is in order.  Now I'm still not going to start tracking this in spreadsheets and analyzing statistical variation (I'd  never hear the last of it if my husband found me doing that!) but I have slightly modified my minimal method.  In addition to the list of practice items I now have added a second, shorter list of larger goals for the week.  For instance, this week I listed - do tremolo on second string with walking bass at 120,  play first 2 lines of "promise" in time but at a slow tempo with metronome ( note tempo reached),  figure out fingerings and frets for G3 "Granada,"  finish C major section (V position) in sight reading book.  

Already this seems to be keeping me better focused, and hopefully by the end of the week I will actually have a benchmark in each of these areas.  The downside is that I seem to have forgotten to fill out the checkmarks since I did this... However I'm hoping it may not be necessary.  Having a general goals list seems to be keeping me on track, and the process of figuring out the practice items and writing them down at the beginning of the week informs how I actually practice.  Time will tell...

I've finally got it! Time to speed it up :) Wait -maybe not so fast....

I know I've been told this a hundred times.  Go slowly at first.  Don't try to go so fast!  Slow down!  I thought I'd got it.  But why was I still having trouble with mistakes once I got up towards tempo?  I only rarely seemed to get through it without a mistake, and the mistakes weren''t always in the same place either.  And however many times I practiced it,  those mistakes just wouldn't disappear. " I have to try harder or concentrate better," I thought.

Then the other day I was doing a workshop on flatpicking (don't ask) and as an aside the teacher said, make sure you can do this perfectly 10 times before you increase the speed.  Ten times?  Really?  That got me thinking....  what do I normally do?  Yes I practice it slowly, then when I've finally got it I ramp up the speed, and at the increased tempo mistakes invariably happen.  What do I do then? I keep practicing it at the increased speed to eliminate those mistakes... but they are remarkably persistent...

But wait, how well established was it  at the slower speed? - I maybe did it right once or twice before moving up.  Not 10 times, or even 3 or 4 times.   In fact it seems likely I  have been increasing the speed before getting things solid at the lower tempo, so those mistakes that hadn't truly been eliminated returned with a vengeance at the higher speed.  And then I practiced them!  Duh.  Perhaps this is why I have such a hard time eliminating mistakes.  So here's my new resolution:  practice things slowly until I can do them perfectly 10x. In a row. Only then will I ramp it up.  I seriously hope 10x is overkill because I'm not a patient person, but maybe this is what I've been missing.  It's worth a try anyway :)