I know that there are many professional musicians who never take more than a day off at a time from practicing, but I find it very helpful to take a larger chunk of time when the schedule allows.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually this takes place for me during the month of July, when I don’t have any gigs coming my way, no chamber music, no recitals.\u00c2\u00a0 I try not to go more than a week, because coming back can be too painful (mentally and physically), and this year it will fall at just about a week, with my last day of practicing being this past Friday.<\/p>\n
I find that it’s important to take some time away from the grind.\u00c2\u00a0 I stop thinking about music with a “must learn notes now” mantra and instead start to think of music the way I did when I was just starting to really fall in love with it and with playing.\u00c2\u00a0 It allows me to think about musical ideas poetically, rather than mechanically – or to manufacture game plans for the coming months in my head without juggling them with projects all jostling for the front burner.<\/p>\n
Right now, I’m thinking about Bach.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve decided that I need to learn a couple more of his cello suites (up an octave for the viola) and maybe take a crack at one of the violin sonatas or partitas.\u00c2\u00a0 Bach takes an enormous amount of time in preparation.\u00c2\u00a0 I find it a tremendously hard nut to crack – there are always too many options to consider, and the weight of many great cycles recorded for posterity which make every decision seem like life and death.\u00c2\u00a0 The most common dilemma for me is between “smelling the roses” and the “sewing machine” interpretive schools, and each time I take up one of the suites my mind is changed from one to the other.<\/p>\n
I’m also going to figure out when I can record the commissioned works from a couple years ago – finding the time in my schedule and keeping those holes open and free of outside gigs is going to be hard, but I’ve got to get on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know that there are many professional musicians who never take more than a day off at a time from practicing, but I find it very helpful to take a larger chunk of time when the schedule allows.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually this takes place for me during the month of July, when I don’t have any gigs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[3660,3659],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-viola","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-6h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12917,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/06\/deliberate-practicing\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":0},"title":"deliberate practicing","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog post by Juilliard performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama has been making the rounds amongst my musicians friends on Facebook, and I finally took a look at it. It crystallizes how a lot of those of us who have busy orchestral careers have learned, out of desperation and necessity,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "practicing"","block_context":{"text":"practicing","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/practicing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kageyama","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/kageyama-e1375843480280.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7601,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/15\/on-practicing-a-guide-to-good-work-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":1},"title":"on practicing – a guide to good work habits","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 15, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"I came across this article on what makes for good practice habits (which has been making the rounds of musicians on Facebook today). It's well-written, and applicable to everyone, regardless of their playing level. How Many Hours a Day Should You Practice? @ The Bulletproof Musician And if you don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/9DbUPjEbIvA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":267,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/09\/time-to-start-practicing-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":2},"title":"time to start practicing, again","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The feedback from the recital has been coming in over the past day or so, and the response has been very gratifying, indeed.\u00c2\u00a0 I was alerted to a review on the blog of James Bash, a local writer who does a lot of arts coverage for the Willamette Week.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6583,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/05\/in-situ-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":3},"title":"in situ","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 It's been a while since I updated the blog, though not for lack of time. Something is stewing in between my ears, and we'll see how it manifests itself on the blog. Aside from that, however, I've been discovering the joy of doing two things that I love very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/07\/28\/this-is-your-brain-on-not-practicing\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":4},"title":"this is your brain on not practicing","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In a word: it hurts.\u00c2\u00a0 I pulled out the viola after a two-week hiatus and it really sucked!\u00c2\u00a0 The calluses went soft, I couldn't shift accurately, my sound was like cotton stuffed up a skeleton's ass - it wasn't pretty.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent 45 painful minutes working through a couple major\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/20060918-CaseyBrokenViola200.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3259,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/13\/musical-longevity\/","url_meta":{"origin":389,"position":5},"title":"musical longevity","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Proof that musicians just keep on going and going - a wonderful profile of Wilsonville violinist Harold Wolf from today's Oregonian newspaper: WILSONVILLE -- Harold Wolf's beloved 1745 violin is gone now, passed to a granddaughter who shares his passion. But at 88, Wolf still plays, practicing twice a day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/haroldwolf2oct142009jpg-5e7c50964a8ace82_large.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}