Making Your Practice Matter

I was thinking about musical “fingerprints” the other day. I’m talking about the details that can leave smudges, distract us, and keep us from noticing the beautiful parts of our musicianship.

When we’re practicing scales, arpeggios, études, etc., are we just doing the repetitions by rote? Are we really listening and feeling for improvement?

These activities would help us a lot more if we looked at them like we might look at polishing fingerprints off a beautiful Steinway grand…

In my studio at the Colburn School, there's a full-sized Steinway concert grand. It has a beautiful black sheen, almost like a mirror. My studio partner has very young students who leave their adorable little fingerprints all over the finish. I find myself (subconsciously) taking my viola cleaning cloth and polishing and buffing out little fingerprints here and there.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we polished our scales and arpeggios like we’re buffing out fingerprints? Wouldn't it be nice for our playing to have a "high gloss finish"?

Even if you're very musical and your playing evokes emotion, musical "fingerprints" are distracting. Your music will communicate more effectively if you polish them away.

Let’s focus on buffing out the blemishes of bow changes, string crossings, and shifts. The music we're trying to communicate will come through more clearly if we make the "fingerprints" disappear.

Polishing out the fingerprints in efficient, daily practice is one of my favorite topics. If you want to learn more, we should chat! Find a time that works for you here.

Happy polishing,

Mick @ The Viola Pro