Chamber Strings - 7th Rehearsal

Yay for metronomes! Although many of you were not as thrilled as I was with my discovery of the world's loudest metronome, I hope that you recognized how easily and quickly it focused our rhythm practice. Please refer to the post on metronomes to find some online. We worked on Winter for bowings and Allegretto for the divisions in 6/8, and it would really help us out if there was individual time spent with metronome work on these pieces.

Before you begin playing, set a goal for yourself. Do you want to be able to play the practiced excerpt in tempo by the end of your practice session? Do you want to be able to play the excerpt 5 bpm (beats per minute) faster than you started? 10? 20? Make sure your goals are appropriate for the amount of time you have. There is no use trying to cram with practicing a musical instrument -- it just doesn't work. Consider that you have just over 7 weeks before our concert, keeping in mind that I'd like our program to be performance-ready at least 2 weeks before that time. How does this help you to structure your goals? When do you think you would like to be personally ready to perform in public?

Use the metronome, a mirror, and any other tools suggested in the Secrets of Perfect Practicing to help you.

Don't know what tempo to start at? Here are some metronome suggestions:

1. Click to Get Faster Use this method by finding the tempo that is the slowest possible tempo at which you can maintain a subdivision. Play it perfectly: bowings, dynamics, etc. When it is perfect, click the metronome one mark faster. Play it perfectly at this new tempo. Continue to click until you have achieved your desired speed.

2. Click to Get Slower Sometimes the slow tempo is harder than the fast one because it requires more silent subdivisions and divisions of the macrobeat and it demands greater bow control. Set the metronome to a tempo in which you can play all the notes, bowings, and dynamics comfortably. Play it perfectly. Click the metronome one mark slower. Play it perfectly at this new tempo. Continue to click until you have achieved your desired speed.

3. Click for Variety & Checking your Work Bored clicking one at a time? To achieve faster tempos, begin with the "Click to Get Faster" method, but instead of advancing by one click of the metronome each time, advance by 3 clicks. Play it perfectly at the new tempo. Check your work by clicking back one (only one!). Play it perfectly at this tempo. When it sounds good, click it up 3 more (now you're at 5 clicks above your starting tempo). Be careful with this method! Tempo increases much faster, and it can be easier to forget valuable technique this way!

4. Click with a Base Tempo. Choose a base tempo. This should be a tempo that is comfortable for you to play everything correctly, but ultimately outside of the goal (if your goal is to be slower, the base tempo should move along at a faster pace; if your goal is to be faster, make your base tempo slow enough for you to feel all the subdivisions). Each time, click up a few notches on the metronome (exact number tbd by you), and always return to play your base tempo in between. You can choose to climb up one click by one click, or you can skip a couple in between...always returning to your base.

5. Click with a Goal Tempo. This is exactly the opposite as "Click with a Base Tempo." Begin by playing -- as best you can -- the ultimate goal tempo. This tempo can be the one given to you by your teacher, the one printed in the music, or one you've heard on recordings. Once you have played your goal tempo, go drastically in the other direction (slow goals --> go faster; fast goals --> go slower). Climb up or down in tempo from this start, always playing your goal in between.