Violin practice strategies for busy people: the 3-template system
This blog post accompanies Violin Class Podcast Episode 40. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
So much to practice, so little time…
I think this is a feeling that a lot of us can relate to. I'm going to show you how you can continue to progress on the violin even if you're limited by your schedule.
Most of my students are pretty busy people.
I regularly work with:
People who work stressful jobs and long hours
Working full-time students
Parents of young children
Despite their busy schedules, they’re able to fit short but efficient violin practice sessions in regularly following some of these practice principals.
I'll also be dispelling the myth that you need to be practicing for an hour every single day in order for it to be worth it to learn violin. That's an ideal, yes, but our situations are not always conducive to that.
For busy adults whose careers veer far away from that of a professional musician, it can be really discouraging if you can't find that time regularly.
The 2 keys to practicing when you have little time
There are two keys to make practicing work when you're busy:
Make a plan, but stay flexible
Practice little and often
Make a plan, but stay flexible
When you’re busy, staying organized will help you to make progress when you have little time.
And if you can make a plan for that time ahead of time, you are not going to waste as much kind of scrambling and trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing.
Here you can follow my in-depth guide to creating a practice plan.
Here’s why this works: you're reducing the friction that you have when it's actually time to play the instrument.
It's the same reason I a meal plan for my family for the entire week. When I have 10 minutes to get dinner ready, I’m not scrambling to think about what I can make with what's in the fridge, how I can use it my leftovers… I've decided ahead of time, and all I have to do is just make the meal, no extra thinking required.
But what if something comes up last minute, and your planned practice time gets cut?
That’s where the 3-template practice system comes in.
Here’s how it works:
The 3-Template System
Take out three pieces of paper and make three different practice templates.
Title them:
Extended practice plan (30-60 minutes)
15 minute practice plan
5 minute practice plan
1. Extended practice plan: 30-60 minute plan
This paper is for your ideal practice plan. I would divide it as follows:
Warmup
Left hand exercises
Right hand exercise
Warmups
Etudes
Pieces
R/R/R
You'll have time for scales for all of your exercises, time to review your pieces, working on certain chunks and this is where you can kind of put all of your, all of your reach stuff, the things that you aren't regularly always getting to, but would like to get to.
If you want some inspiration, I have an example template that is up on my website:
2. 15-minute practice plan
I chose 15 minutes specifically because it feels like kind of a throwaway amount of time: you don't really feel like you have time to get anything meaningful done in that time. But in fact, if you're smart about it, you can get a really productive practice session.
Here is how you want to organize your 15 minute practice session.
Warmup (5 minutes) - 1 left hand exercise, 1 right hand exercise, 1 scale
1 goal from your main piece (5 minutes) - Pick just one goal. In 5 minutes, it’s not realistic to do more than that. This is going to be the most focused and the most productive part of my practice
Review (5 minutes) - Choose a section or a part of a piece to reinforce.
I'd recommend working with a timer here.
3. 5 minute practice plan
I think this is the most important of the three, because if you only have five minutes, it's really easy to tell yourself that it's not really going to make a difference in the longterm, which is not true.
Here’s what I’d work on if I only had 5 minutes:
Tone production
Exercise you can work on are:
Son filé
Long, slow scales
Open strings
If your practice plan was for 30 minutes and it gets cut to 5, it's always going to be worth it, to still pick up your instrument and play.
You just have to reevaluate what you're going to get done that day.
Practice little and often
As kids, we’re taught to practice in a certain way.
This might include:
Practicing at the same time, every day for the same amount of time
Always practicing with a parent
Always follow a certain order of pieces certain order of things.
This is effective, especially to younger children, but not super realistic for most adult schedules.
Small chunks throughout the day
Instead, try breaking up throughout the day. For a 40-minute session, this can look like:
10 minutes to warmup in the morning before work
20 minutes of working on your pieces before dinner
10 minutes to run through your pieces before bed
Other tips for practicing violin when you’re busy
Reduce friction
It’s especially important to reduce friction if you're going to be coming back to your instrument several times throughout the day and in those small chunks.
One tip that I give my students is to keep your violin stuff out where you can see it.
I generally keep mine out on a wall mount.
I find that it's so much easier to just pick up the violin from its stand, play a few notes, and call it a day, rather than have to find my music, remember what I was working on, etc… each time I want to practice
Mental practice
If you've never heard of mental practice, it is essentially practicing without your violin.
I have touched on this subject in VC episode 6:
My student Olivia shares how she has managed to learn how to figure out how to practice on the bus while raveling between university and her job.
Violin is 80% mental. Even without your instrument, you can work on figuring out tricky passages, rhythms, or make a plan for your articulation and dynamics.
Don’t forget your technique practice
You'll notice that in my recommendations for your practice templates, the less time you have, the more time relatively you're spending on technique. A good warmup is just really foundational, and will set you up for success in reaching your practice goals when you are short on time.
Remove distractions
Put your phone away while you're practicing. The phone's a great tool: you can use a tuner, a metronome, record yourself.. all things that help to make you more effective in the practice room.
But if you are receiving a text, if you take a break and find that you are wanting to scroll, that's going to take you out of the focus that you have, and especially if you only have 15 minutes.
Instead, put your phone away and invest in a digital metronome.
I use this old-fashioned one that I’ve had for a decade:
That allows me to put my phone in airplane mode, put it where I can't physically see it. I get more done and I feel good at the end of the practice: it feels good to be able to accomplish something without having had your phone.
You can learn violin, even if you’re busy
Even if you just have 15 minutes a day, you can get a lot of practicing done over the course of the week.
The keys to making it work is to make a plan, but to stay flexible.
I'd recommend making trying out my 3-template practice system so that you can reference those without having to think and come up with a new plan.
I would also embrace practicing in small chunks, but often, and spread out throughout the day, instead of trying to find the time to do one hour all at once.