Hello,
I have come across this article which I have found very useful and I wanted to share it with you all

http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-man...d-you-practice/

people always say: you should practice 'mindfully', but then you ask yourself...what 'exactly' is 'mindfully'
well, this article goes into describing exactly what is meant by that and I realised that thankfully I have started doing just that lately in my practice, so maybe after 4 and a half years of learning violin I have finally learnt how to practice 'mindfully' AT B****Y LAST!

(the previous 4 years I always thought I did 'mindful' practice, I only just now discovered that I was only 'thinking' about what I was playing and whether I was making any mistakes or not but NOT REALLY doing the THOROUGH mindful practice this article is explaining!!)

That's a brilliant article. That's going in my teaching DipABRSM file too as it is just such a great explanation of good practice habits.

Good! glad it helped

Excellent article Jojo - I will try and incorporate these suggestions into my practice.

That is such an excellent article. Thanks Jojo.

Good article, and useful site - thanks!

Yes, good article thanks I think I've been lucky with my teacher, who talks about this kind of focus a lot.
There is also an article touching on mindfulness in a music context in yesterdays Guardian (the film and music bit). here http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/1...editation-music

Same here. It can drive me nuts at the time when he asking me things like "Ok - so how can you get that note to sound the way you want?" But afterwards - it makes practicing on my own much easier, and more efficient.

, thanks jojo!

I've been reading quite a lot on practising recently because I know I haven't been practising "well" and this condenses a lot of the best thoughts into one short article. Worth sharing elsewhere on the Forum!

Must remember to nose around the Strings threads more often!

By all means, DO put the link up in another part of the forums Katica, go ahead

Done.

ah - I realise you posted the original- thanks jojo, this is a brilliant article.

Great article mojojojo. Shall be putting it into practice so to speak

This is great, jojo, and enshrines all I've been trying to help myself achieve in practice.
Yes, I do find that 2 hours is about the max I can practice effectively in one sitting. However, practice makes even more sense when I break it up into 1 hour - 1 and 1/2 hour slots.
I've been doing this kind of practice for my pieces, but I think I can do even better with some of the guy's suggestions.
I need to start implementing it with my scales however!

Excellent article Jo Jo, thanks for posting. I am a huge fan of working smarter not harder in principle, just wish I could put it into practice more often!


Since then have sent the link to several other parents who have children who are driving them mad with their practice routines (or lack of!).

Excellent!

Great stuff!

Great article!

I wonder how this applies to multiple instruments (I've asked this on the article site too). For example, should we try and fit practicing 2 instruments into the 2 hours, or can we do 2 hours on one, take a break, and then do 2 hours on another?