How professionals practice, with Davina Shum of the Strad
This blog post accompanies Violin Class Podcast Episode 48. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Guest interview with Davina Shum, online editor and host of the Strad Podcast
Photo by Tim Walsh
Violin Class is about violin playing, but secretly it’s about violin practice.
Today I’ll be interviewing guest Davina Shum. In addition to being a professional cellist, she the online editor editor at the Strad (check my interview episode at the Strad).
This is our conversation on practicing: how it has evolved from when we were students, balancing practicing and a busy workload, and how we like to practice now.
We also discuss:
What it’s like to be a professional musician, behind the scenes
What we love to practice now
Some of the benefits of being an adult learner
Practical tips + and transferrable skills that you can apply as an adult learner
You can listen to the Strad podcast here.
About Davina
Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, Davina is a cellist and journalist based in London, UK. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Auckland and a master’s degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Since moving to the UK in 2013 to join the Southbank Sinfonia, she has enjoyed a varied freelance career as a performer, teacher, recording artist and broadcaster. Recently, she has held chaired positions in West End and musical theatre productions, including the multi Olivier award-winning shows My Neighbour Totoro and Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
Davina has been online editor for The Strad since 2021. She previously produced her own podcast As it comes: Life from a musician’s point of view and was a writer and narrator for the BBC Radio 3 podcast Time Travellers.
Transcript
This transcript was created by AI, so there may be some errors.
The violin class podcast might seem like it's about violin playing, but secretly it's about violin practice. And that's exactly what I'll be discussing today with my guest Davina sham. In addition to being a professional cellist, she's also the online editor at the Strad.
As well as the host of the strata podcast. This is our conversation on practicing. How our own practice and relationship to practice has evolved from when we were younger students than freelancers and where we're at now. how Devina balances practicing with a busy workload and juggling multiple careers. And how she likes to practice now. We also give you a little bit of a behind the scenes.
Look as to what it's like to be a professional musician. What we love to practice now. And some of the benefits of being an adult learner.
I think that our discussion is going to give you some practical tips that you can apply and I also think that the more you learn. About how professionals do things, the more ideas are going to have.
When it comes to your own practice.
So I hope you enjoy our discussion today with Davina
/ But first, hello and welcome to violin class, the podcast for anyone who is learning the violin as an adult. My name is Julia. I am a professional violinist and violin teacher. And on this podcast, I share tips to hopefully make violin and practicing a little bit easier. If you enjoy this episode.. I'd appreciate it. If you could leave a rating or review, this is the easiest and freest way of helping out the show. It really does help new people to find the podcast and a big thank you to anyone who's left or have you already. If you are interested in taking some violin lessons, I do teach online and and you can contact me through email at violinclasspodatgmail.com. Or through my website at violinclass.co slash contact. And lastly on violin class I'm often referencing some outside materials or links. And if you would like those right to your inbox, you can sign up to the violin class newsletter@violinclass.co slash newsletter.
I send an email out with every new episode.
Without further ado, let's go into my conversation with Davina.
Julia: well, Davina, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about what you do?
Davina: Oh, well, Julia, thank you so much for having me. I have to say, it's really quite a thrill for me to be on the other side of the microphone because, you know, we last spoke when I interviewed you for the Strad podcast. Um, so a little bit about myself, I'm the online editor for the Strad magazine.
So I look after all the online content that you see going up on thestrad. com. Um, as well as that, I'm also a cellist and I've been a cellist. Basically my whole life. I started playing when I was about seven, eight years old. Um, so I think with anything that you start musically at such an early age, it's, and then you continue to such a high level, it's pretty difficult to shake it off.
So I always say I'm a cellist in some capacity, even if I'm not doing it full time, but my years of being a cellist have you. really informed my, my fairly newfound, uh, foray into, uh, journalism. Um, so I've been working at the Strad since June, 2021. And as, uh, it's somewhat suggested by the date I started during the pandemic years.
So, um, Yeah. So, I mean, before that I was working as a cellist. Um, as you can probably tell from my accent, I'm from New Zealand. Um, I studied in New Zealand. I also studied in Australia and then I moved to the UK to embark on a freelance career, um, in 2013. And, um, I don't know if you've had any experience.
being in London before, but London's just got a really wonderful, diverse, rich music making scene. And so, um, I was very lucky enough to have participated in lots of different orchestras, lots of different projects, um, outreach projects, a lot of teaching. As I mentioned to you before we started recording, I taught a lot in schools, but I also, not only did I teach kids, I also had some experience teaching adults as well.
Um, and. Obviously come March 2020, they're all ground to a halt because of what happened in the world. Um, so, um, as well as, uh, you know, teaching online during the pandemic, I was also, you know, Just kind of making a bit of, um, it was also exploring journalism as well. I'd done a bit of freelance radio work and a bit of freelance writing work before the pandemic.
And in 2019, I started up my own podcast called, uh, as it comes life from a musician's point of view. And. That's basically what took over my life during the pandemic. So in a way, it was kind of my unpaid internship. You know, I put a lot of unpaid hours into producing a podcast, making sure that I had an episode go out every two weeks or every 10 days sometimes, doing all the copywriting, social media.
You know, like what you do as well.
Julia: I'm familiar with.
Davina: Yeah. I mean, you know what it's like, you know, the drill it's, um, it, it can be a very, uh, all consuming task, but I'm really, you know, in a way quite grateful for those lockdown years to explore, um, that side of my career. And, uh, it definitely informs my job today.
So, and gave me a leg up when it can't. To apply for the online editor job. Um, so that's me, basically. Um, I think a lot of people ask, well, how is it that you made the change from going from cellist to journalist? And as I mentioned before, I think I will always regard myself as a cellist because I've been doing it for so long.
But I think Um, one's role as a musician is so broad to begin with. So you can be a cellist, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you are playing full time all the time. You know, you, you're, you're doing so many different things that inform your cello playing. Vice versa, you know, your cello playing is going to inform whatever other career, career you choose.
Uh, decide to embark on. Um, so one thing that I thought about actually in, um, the interview that I had with you, the chat that we had with you, um, a few weeks ago was the, uh, transferable skills that you notice between your adult students, um, that your adult students employ when they're learning as a beginner violinist.
Yeah. Um, um, And I think what's quite interesting for me is I have definitely noticed these transferable skills, but from the point of view as a musician, starting out as, as, That having that as my foundation and then transferring it to something which seems quite unrelated But I think if you look a little bit closer, you'll you'll notice that with anything There are skills that you're going to be able to employ in different disciplines.
Julia: Yeah, I think as musicians We've got really good time management skills, just not that we're naturally like that, but just we have to wear many different hats. And, um, you just get to know yourself very well in the way that you work. And I think with practicing, we're very good at working on our own and quite self driven in that way.
So I imagine that must be Transfer over to writing as well.
Davina: I think there's definitely a lot to be said about having deadlines and also little windows of opportunity. So I think, I don't know if you've experienced this, but I've definitely experienced this in my career. When I've got to practice for something, maybe the deadline is a little bit far away or a little bit hazy, but you know, not necessarily set in stone.
Um, and yeah. You know, if you've got, say, 10 hours in a day to practice, it's probably quite unlikely that you'll get anything done. Yeah. Um, and it's the same for me when I've got lots of, uh, you know, pieces of online content that I need to put, um, together. on thestrad. com. I need to make sure that there's a time that it needs to be up online.
You know, there's nothing like giving a deadline and telling the whole world via the internet, um, to get you, you know, kickstarted into motion. I do think that there's a lot of value in structuring your time. Um, and so for me, um, speaking, you know, Purely as a cellist, I found that when I was studying, um, the best thing was to, you know, break things up into say like hour blocks or 45 minute blocks and just have dedicated goals within those blocks.
Um, it's tempting sometimes to just sit down with your instrument and think, I just want to play all the nice things that I know I can play. But in a way it's nice to give yourself a goal or maybe you've been given a goal from your teacher and then you think, okay, well, this is going to be. The focus point for my practice session.
Um, my teacher has sent me this study and what does this particular etude require me to do? And then, you know, you use that as you can hone in on your focus point. Then, you know, before you know it, 45 minutes is gone.
Julia: Mm hmm.
Davina: Um, so I would say that, um, definitely just identifying windows of opportunity has, um, to practice, um, You know, has been really, really useful for me.
Um, and especially now that I'm, you know, quite busy working Tuesday to Friday, basically nine to five every day. Um, I get a lot of people asking me, when do you practice? And to be honest, it can be quite difficult to find the time to practice, but. Um, I find that if I've got something coming up, like, for example, I know I've got a gig coming up next weekend, I will earmark some times in my diary after work where I can just sit down with my cello.
Even if it's just for 15 minutes, half an hour, just to get my fingers moving again. Um, because I think maybe this is a, um, a common problem in some of, with some of your adult students. Uh, half a battle is just getting started. Oh, yep.
Julia: Absolutely.
Davina: And, um, I imagine that a lot of your students, uh, maybe even busier than I am.
Um, uh, you know, they've perhaps more hectic personal lives than I do. Um, at the moment I'm not working on a show in the evening. So, when I finish my. work at the Strad. Um, I've
Julia: actually not working weekends on top of your nine to five. Yeah. Yeah.
Davina: So at the moment it's, I feel like I've got more time. So, um, more time to think about music that I want to explore and, um, elements of my playing that I want to continue improving on.
Um, So at the moment it's easy, but imagine perhaps if you're an adult learner or a beginner, you've got kids, you've got dinner that you need to make, you've got chores, you've got errands and all sorts of things. Um, yeah, of course it's going to be difficult to find the time, but I would suggest that, you know, set the bar low at first.
Um, as I mentioned, 15 minutes, sometimes it's all you can manage. But then sometimes that 15 minutes evolves into half an hour. It evolves into 40 minutes. It evolves into an hour and then, you know, your progress can therefore snowball. But then sometimes, you know, you only manage your 15 minutes and at least you did that.
That's better than doing nothing, right?
Julia: Yeah, for sure. And I think the experience of practicing when you've been practicing something for 20, 20 years is very different as well from um, adult learners who are just not only learning the instrument for the first time, but the experience of learning a skill that's both artistic and physical, like an instrument.
I'm sure it's similar in things like dance and probably a lot of sports as well, but it's really something that is so complex. And I find, uh, especially since I've had my daughter and I just have way less time and energy, sometimes I've got the time, but not the energy to practice. I, I don't know. I just, um, it's maybe not as structured as it used to be.
I'm not getting to certain things as much, but I, I just have a different approach with, I don't know if you feel the same way, now that you've added other elements to your career. You know, I talk a lot on this podcast about making a plan and structuring things out and not just coming to your instrument with, without any idea of what to do because it can be, if you've got only five minute window, it can be very disheartening to feel like, you know, three of those minutes have gone to Remembering what you were supposed to do. Just to give you guys a little bit of a behind the scenes, I guess the, once we've been doing this for a lot, a long time, my practice sessions probably look very different than my students and probably sound very different too.
Like I can really just spend. 10 minutes on like one shift, how do you find practicing since you've, uh, done a partial career change compared to when you were studying and, and focusing more just on cello?
Davina: Well, I do feel like that when I was focusing just on cello when I was a student and when I was, uh, you know, being a freelancing, only a freelance musician, you know, um, But particularly when I was a student, I feel like my practice sessions were, you know, quite focused.
I'm not going to say they were focused all the time because I wouldn't say that. Yeah, I wouldn't say that anyone is, is, is, you know, is that disciplined. But, um, in a way, I feel like the way that I practiced back then, you know, 10, 15 years ago, I mentioned earlier about how I felt like doing my podcast during the lockdown was a little bit like doing my unpaid internship.
Julia: In
Davina: the same way, I feel like doing that kind of practice when I was focusing on just playing the cello is kind of like doing an unpaid internship. It was an investment in myself. Um, and I didn't really know it at the time, but I really see the value now in practicing, preparing so well back in the day so that now when I sit down to practice, sure, I need to kind of remind my left hand, my right hand, what to do, what an A sounds like, what vibrato is, et cetera.
But at least I'm starting from a bass level that's not like rock bottom. You know, so I feel like at least I've put in those hard yards in the past and so that now when I sit down to practice, I'm starting from a place which, uh, just, just requires a little, it's like, um, I'm just thinking of, of an analogy.
You know, they always say it's like, you never forget how to ride a bike, . For me now, when I'm starting a practice session, it's a little bit like, oiling the parts of a bike to make sure it's running smoothly. Yeah. So you spend a little bit of time doing that, but then it all comes back, you know, providing you've prepared well, I think. Yeah.
Julia: And you've got that foundation laid.
Exactly. And that foundation is years and years in the making. It's not something that happens on year three.
Davina: Yes, totally. And you will know if it's, if it's solid because it feels right, you know. Um, and I do have to say sometimes It feels, it sounds like a little bit the opposite of what I've just said, but sometimes when I come back to playing after a bit of a break, I actually come back to my instrument more relaxed because I'm not doing it all the time.
Um, for example, I, um, Uh, about a month ago, I finished a four month run of a West End show. And I mean, you want to talk about repetitive when you're doing a West End show, you have to find ways to keep your playing fresh because you're literally playing the same notes every single night. But, um, when that sort of stopped and I took a bit of a break from the cello and the times that I have been back at my cello, I'm not just going back into, okay, it's seven o'clock.
We're just getting back into the show again. There is this element of freedom that you feel like, oh, I can play something else now. And as I mentioned before, it might, the gears might take a little bit of oiling but once You get going again. It's actually quite fun. And you feel like your limbs, perhaps your posture is just a bit more free.
Especially if you've been sitting at a desk all day, hunched over a laptop, holding a computer mouse. Sometimes it's nice just to go back to the thing that you've been doing for many, many years and just think, Oh, this is familiar. And it's a little bit different from. what I've done, um, all day today.
Julia: You just get into this flow state and the zone where you're not really thinking about anything.
And I think any professional musician could just be playing like an open D for like 30 minutes and just still be. focused in some way, just because we've done so much of that. Maybe not 30 minutes, but really a very, very long time of just like, let me just play open strings today. And what a luxury, right?
Exactly. Yeah. Cause you don't, when you're a professional musician, you've got so many things to practice for and you don't necessarily have much time to be doing what you want to be. You want to be doing it all. That's not a good way of putting it. Um, you know, I think a lot of us feel lucky to be doing this profession, but maybe you want to be learning a new concerto or just this cool piece that you found, but you just can't physically be on your instrument for long enough to, uh, if you've got other commitments to really put some time for it.
So that, that's kind of what I meant by what you want. Yeah.
Davina: You want to focus on something that serves just you. Yeah, exactly. For yourself, not for a
Julia: paycheck, not for,
Davina: you know, a composer workshop or a particular rehearsal or a show. Um, and obviously with those things, I love that because you're a cog in a giant machine and it all comes together and
Julia: it's a
Davina: wonderful feeling to be part of something like that.
But
Julia: in
Davina: your own individual practice sessions, what I. enjoy now is doing something that I want to focus on, you know, and, and it is just, I think we spoke a little bit about this in, in your interview, but it's just time for yourself. And I'm sure a lot of your adult students will relate to this and that playing the violin, um, you know, sitting down or standing to practice.
Mostly, mostly we stand, but sometimes I never stand as a journalist. I never stand. Don't make me stand. But, um, You know, you get into your practice room, you get your instrument out. And that is your time. That is time away from work. That is time away from your kids, away from errands, um, et cetera, just to focus on something that is for you.
And, um, that, that's what it's like now. And for me, the thing I really love focusing on is open strings and sound and tone. Sometimes if you're really busy as a, as a, gigging, freelancing musician. Um, you're, you're not always thinking about those fine details. And sometimes your sound can suffer as a result.
So I said the word, you know, luxury before. It is a luxury just to be able to have that time to focus on your sound, but also to do it for yourself and just enjoy the moment. Right?
Julia: Yeah, for sure. And I think that's something really special about being an adult learner is you are doing it because you want to do it.
Probably it's something you've been wanting to do for a long time by the time you kind of get into it. Um, and you don't have this pressure that the professionals have to be, you know, ready with these notes under your fingers for this certain date and that the concert has to go well because you're getting paid.
Or from a teaching From a teacher's perspective, I find it very freeing because when I'm working with kids, especially teenagers that are like, can go possibly the pre professional route, there's just a lot of commitments they've got. They've got auditions, they've got, um, Concerts, just things sometimes that they're, they're required to, to be prepared with a certain piece of repertoire that I, as their teacher, don't think they're really ready to do, but they have to because this and that.
And so you find that you have to skip certain skills maybe so that they can get this in time for that. And, it just puts a lot of, limitations on you. And that's, why I enjoy working with adults so much is that there is just. Endless freedom because there's no deadline.
Like you're, if you like this instrument, if you love this instrument, you're going to be in it, probably in some capacity your whole life. There might be some seasons of life where it takes a little bit of a backseat, but , the timeframe is, you know, we can be playing things that are exactly where you need to be.
You don't have to, um, .
Compromise.
Davina: Exactly. And you also have the time to For me now, I feel like I have the time to address those gaps in my knowledge and in my playing that maybe I skipped over when, when I was striving towards that particular audition or striving towards that particular piece of repertoire.
Like now you've, you've got the time. And we were talking a little bit about practice goals. earlier. You can use those, those, those little gaps that you want to address. So I'm doing a bit of DIY on my house at the moment. I'm just thinking about like, Oh God, there's so many little jobs I need to do.
Julia: Like there's a lot of analogies with it.
Yeah.
Davina: Yeah. So, you know, like you might need to paint that wall or you might need to fill in that hole or replaster that or whatever, but at least you've identified those things. Those are little goals that you can address and, you know, You might not, your house is not going to fall down if you don't do it, but you have that time to focus on it.
And that's a really nice thing because again, it's an investment in yourself, doing up things in your house is an investment in your own house, you'd hope, unless you do a really terrible job. But, um, fingers crossed, I'm not going to do that. Um, but yeah, I mean, anytime that you're able to spend with your instrument, you, you want to hope that it's going to reap some kind of reward.
Thanks. Maybe a better way of saying that is, uh, I remember there was a time in my learning when every time I sat down with my instrument, I would learn something new.
Julia: Um,
Davina: and that's a really nice mindset to have. I think it was when I was about 15, 16 years old and you're kind of, you know, at that point where you're exploring.
Julia: Yeah. Exploring is a really good word. And that's, I think, what we want as teachers, our students to feel like they're doing in the practice room. And it, I mean, having gone through many phases in my learning where there was just a lot of friction when it came to playing, that was all self imposed of like, I need to get this down.
Otherwise, you know, I don't know, whatever. It, it just causes a lot of stress. And I think that now. as an adult that's had more life experience and that's been playing this instrument for a long time now. I just don't have that anymore. Like, there's not as much expectations, um, as there were. And it's very free and it's just much more enjoyable now rather than expecting myself to get through all of this in, by this time.
You know, we talked about deadlines and they are very helpful when we're learning something, but , depending on where you're at in your life and what you're. dealing with, sometimes they can also be stressful. And, you know, when we come to this, we don't want to be stressed. So yeah, there's a little bit of, of everything,
Davina: it's a, it's a balance for sure. I mean, yeah, it's not always going to be a perfect analogy, uh, relating everything to running the strat. com because that is a website which is eternally running. Um, and there are deadlines obviously with press, but I think it is a balance, you know, I think if you can find.
You know, identify something in your playing that you want to achieve and it doesn't need to be a big thing, you know It might be just a particular bar that you're focusing on and a piece of repertoire And I still employ this method when I'm learning something new for example in the show that I just finished there was one bar that That was quite particularly horrific for the cello.
Julia: What was the bar? It's
Davina: just, uh, it was technically very difficult because it was just all of a sudden that kind of virtuosic flourish. Like you think of, um, you know, disco strings. And a lot of it is just that gesture. It's like a lot of notes, but like, you, you don't necessarily kind of need to play all of the notes, but it's, the idea is just like, yeah, it's the effect.
But, um, but it was this particular bar was just really tricky because it was that effect, but it needed to be articulated as well. And also because there were only two string players on the part. So I couldn't exactly fudge it because it would be very, very obvious. Um, It was just a fast kind of disco semiquaver.
You don't say semiquavers, do you? Sixteenth notes. Sixteenth notes. Sixteenth note flourish. Um. You can say semiquavers. Semiquavers. Semiquavers. Quavers are a type of crisp here in the
Julia: UK. I did not know that.
Davina: Yeah, they're little cheesy snacks. Um, they're quite nice. Anyway, so the semiquaver 16th note flourish.
Um, and that was kind of the bane of my life for a while. Um, but at least I, I didn't, I just had to identify what I needed to do. Um, um, And for me, it was just identifying physically what I needed to do with my left arm, um, in order to pull it off. Because the tricky thing for me, I've noticed that every time I tried, every time I was repeating the passage, I was stumbling over the same Um, the same notes.
And that's kind of an indication, isn't it? You know, you're whacking your head against a brick wall repeatedly. So, that's just something that you need to address. And so, for me, I just thought, okay, why is it I keep stumbling over that note in particular? And it's because this passage required it. Very dramatic change of position from fourth position on the cello up to thumb position.
And I mean, I'm demonstrating now and obviously listeners can't see this because it's a podcast, but you're going from a low left elbow to an elbow that is above the fingerboard. If you're a violinist listening, imagine you're playing the cello and it will make sense.
Julia: And I have to interject if in case you're not familiar with the cello is they sometimes play with their thumb on the fingerboard.
That might be a new fact for some of you because we really do not do that at all. Yes. It fascinates me whenever I see people like playing with vibrato with your thumb on the cello. Till to this day, just like. tickles something in my brain. What?
Davina: Yeah, I mean, because I guess as violins your, your thumb is always going to be on, on that side of the neck and then.
Yep, it'll come under, but it won't ever go up on, we don't use it as a finger. So we, yeah, it comes up on top of the string and then we can use that, um, kind of like a movable nut. Like you think of it like a capo on a guitar and so that's your, your new open string.
Julia: I'm going to include a little like picture or link in the newsletter this week so that if anyone's following along and confused, um, you can get a bit of a visual.
I don't know if you've got a piece you could recommend that has like a lot of thumb position, but maybe we can look at that later on.
Davina: Anything that sounds like A cello playing in the violin register is probably employing thumb position. Okay. So it's like a high position thing. Yeah, exactly. So, um, you know, because, uh, the cello, the fingerboard is a lot bigger, um, than a violin.
We can't just, there's only so far we can extend with our thumb behind the neck, um, the neck joint. So we need to bring our thumb on top and also it gives us more digits to play with. So going back to what I said, I, um, basically, uh, just, Employing that mindset of being motivated by these little goals and just identifying what is it that I need to do in order to overcome this difficult, horrible passage.
Yeah. And then after that, you know, I, I can draw back on my experience of practicing tricky technical things. You know, you start practicing things in patterns. For example, if you've got quavers, um, like, uh, Long, short, long, short, long, or short, long, short, long, short, long. Practicing things in different rhythms that really, really helped.
So you're practicing in different combinations of fast motions so that when you go back to playing it straight. You've covered all your bases, basically, and, uh, hopefully, you're able to string the notes together in, in a nice tidy way. Um, but yeah, now having played that passage 200 times in a four month run, I think I've got it down now.
Julia: That's great. And I think as a, as a teacher, that's my, One of my biggest goals is not only that my students understand the mechanics of the violin and how different techniques work and just how to play the thing, but just also how to practice. And I think as teachers, our goal is always to have our students eventually not need us anymore and just become their own teacher.
And I do a lot of practice breaking down like that because that's something that I don't think I had very much when I was growing up I was it was really just me playing from A to Z over and over like I didn't have a good routine for practice until quite late compared to a lot of my peers, probably my late teens, I started to really figure out how to break things down.
And had I done that earlier, I just would have been probably just way ahead of where I had been and it would have saved me a lot of frustration too.
Davina: Yeah. It's important to be able to be really aware of what you're doing. Um, not only physically, but. Um, how it matches up, um, you know, orally with what you hear, what you want to hear as well.
Um, it's all about, I can't remember who I said this to, but it's, it's, it's about using as many of your senses as possible to describe. gain the end result, what it is that you're wanting to achieve. Unfortunately, unfortunately, we can't really employ smell or taste in this equation. Some people might, you know, synesthesia is a thing, but for me personally, you know, it's a combination of, uh, you know, touch, tactile sensation, uh, you know, kinesthetic motion, uh, what I hear.
And then to an extent, you know, what you see as well, visually. You don't want to rely only on one of these things, but a smart combination of the three is going to get you really far, I think.
Julia: And vocalizing as well. I think a lot of my practice now, I mean, if I have 10 minutes, I could probably get more done or maybe just as much done.
If I'm using nine of those minutes just in my head and thinking through things and singing passages and then I can just take my violin the last minute and it just works. Whereas before I think, you know, I would just, you would just play through things and at the end, maybe you get there, maybe you don't.
And so, you know, over the years we just figure out what works for us and everyone practices very, very differently. Um, but nowadays I don't need my instrument. I try to be very, , intentional, especially if I've got like a big shift or just something very specific that I'm trying to practice, to really spend time away from the instrument, figuring out what it is that I need to do so that when I get onto the instrument, then I can do exactly that without thinking.
any, or there are mess ups, but limiting the amount of errors and mistakes that I make so that my muscle memory is always internalizing the same and repeating the same thing over and over again. You get just a process for it as, as life goes on.
But, , it takes some time and it takes some playing around, everyone will find their way just in the same way that I think everyone has a different. palette of foods that they enjoy. , we all have our own ways and it's just as diverse practicing for every musician.
Davina: Everyone's got their own style of practice. Um, I mean, we're going to use another imperfect analogy as we have been doing for the last little while, but, uh, it's, you could compare it to styles of writing. As well. Yeah, absolutely. You know, give two journalists the same news story to report on and they will come up with different areas they focus on.
They'll come up with different headlines. They'll come up with a different stand first. They'll come up with a different order or priority of information that they choose to lay out. But you know, in general, the message is the same. It's just delivered in a slightly different way, I think. Mm-Hmm. . Um, and that's kind of, you know, in music, uh, if you are reading dots from a page, that's, that's kind of like your treasure map, isn't it?
Yeah. And it's up for interpretation. You've just gotta find what works for you to achieve your interpretation of what this composer's left. Mm-Hmm. for us. Yeah. You know, give the same piece to two musicians and they're going to sound completely different.
Julia: That's true.
Davina: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, that's true. I think that's a nice place to, to wrap up.
I hope that,, this has given listeners some different things to think about and different , foods for thought on practicing, because I have my take on it. But as I, as we've been saying, every teacher, every player has a different, A way of going about things and what works for me might not work for you.
So I hope that some of this has resonated with with you and I'd be interested actually if to hear from anyone who has the reversed story from Divina who's maybe a professional writer, journalist originally, and has added on, music later in life or later in their career.
Thank you so much Davina for sharing your expertise and , giving us some things to think about. It was great to have you. Cool. Thank you so much, Julia.
/ I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Divina as much as I did. I'll be back with a new episode of iron class in a couple of weeks. The next one will be another solo episode I've been doing. I've had quite a few interviews lately, which has been really fun, but for the rest of the summer, but for the rest of the summer, I will be doing. More solo episodes, if there are any subjects that you'd like for me to cover, shoot me an email@violinclasspodatgmail.com or you can also DM me on Instagram at violin class co I look forward to hearing from you and I'll catch you guys at the next one.