peachdovie's music meme blog

What kind of mistake recovery? Like, you made a mistake on stage and you want to keep going?

The easiest way to do that is to treat certain practice times like a performance. Once your pieces are 90% ready, start playing them like you're on stage. If you make a mistake, just keep going.

Make it a goal to get back on track as quickly as possible - don't pause, don't panic, just keep going. If you let yourself stop every time you make a mistake, that's the habit you build. If you make yourself continue, that's the habit you build.

Making music is just 978 habits on each other's shoulders in a trench coat, mistake recovery is no different.

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich often used a four-note motif in many of his musical works to represent himself. The four notes, D-Eb-C-B, correspond to the German notation D-Es-C-H, chosen to match the German transcription of the composer’s name, Dmitri Schostakowitsch.

It is thought that the prevalence of Shostakovich’s “musical signature” increased with increasing pressure from the Communist Party under which the composer was forced to write. Artists who did not do the will of the state were imprisoned and even killed during Stalin’s purges and their names were stripped of their work; Shostakovich’s musical invention ensured defiantly that no such thing would befall his compositions. 

After having been twice denounced by the Soviet government, Shostakovich was forced to join the Communist Party against which he had so strongly but privately struggled. The event was said to have reduced him to tears and is largely regarded as the tipping point for the composer’s mental illness and suicidal tendencies. His use of the DSCH motif culminated in his String Quartet no. 8 composed in only three days, which he cited as his own epitaph and dedicated to “the victims of fascism and war.”

1:A song you like with a color in the title

2:A song you like with a number in the title

3:A song that reminds you of summertime

4:A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about

5:A song that needs to be played LOUD

6:A song that makes you want to dance

7:A song to drive to

8:A song about drugs or alcohol

9:A song that makes you happy

10:A song that makes you sad

11:A song that you never get tired of

12:A song from your preteen years

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs

14:A song that you would love played at your wedding

15:A song that is a cover by another artist

16:One of your favorite classical songs

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke

18:A song from the year that you were born

19:A song that makes you think about life

20:A song that has many meanings to you

21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title

22:A song that moves you forward

23:A song that you think everybody should listen to

24:A song by a band you wish were still together

25:A song by an artist no longer living

26:A song that makes you want to fall in love

27:A song that breaks your heart

28:A song by an artist with a voice that you love

29:A song that you remember from your childhood

😂

how to practice: a short guide

what you’ll need:

-your instrument

-a pencil, because you better mark things in your music

-a metronome. always work SLOWLY with the metronome. subdivide and make sure that you’re playing with it and not getting off the beat.

-a tuner, unless you play piano you lucky duck

-a scale book, etude book, and some repertoire

-nice to have: something to record yourself. whether you’re working on posture or listening to your tone quality. a mirror is especially good for checking posture.

1. do your fucking scales. I don’t care what instrument you play, how often you think you do your scales, how well you think you do your scales. there is always more. you don’t already play scales? add ten minutes of one octaves scales into your routine. sort of already do scales? do two octaves. three. this includes g flat major. do scales in thirds. do scales in tenths. harmonics, if that applies to you. you already do scales a lot? try left hand pizzicato. start the scale quietly and crescendo. make your scales musical.focus on tone quality or speed. there is always, always room for improvement.

2. do your etudes. maybe start with an easy one to warm your fingers up, and then do the one you hate. actually practice it. mark in the accidentals. write in fingerings. work with a metronome.

3. do your ensemble music. work specifically on the difficult parts. time is limited, so it’s best to skip the really easy melodic part you can play in your sleep and go straight for the sixteenth notes. 

4. work on your repertoire. again, do the difficult parts first, and if it’s a solo, you want to be confident with all of it, so practice thoroughly (which means painfully slow but beneficial metronome practice and writing a lot in your music)

5. look at some fun music/improvise. playing an instrument is difficult but it should still be something you enjoy and have fun with.

general practice tips:

-use your frifkvrn metronome please

-always, ALWAYS mark things in your music. if you make a mistake on a passage more than three times, write something. if you consistently make mistakes or feel uncomfortable playing one of the measures, circle it, and every time you play that piece, look at that measure first and really spend time on it.

-listen to the pieces you’re playing before you start practicing them so you have an idea of what they’re supposed to sound like. in your free time, listen to the pieces you’re working on and internalize it so you can easily tell if you’re playing something out of rhythm or out of tune

-record yourself. you might think you’re playing very well, but the recording usually begs to differ. likewise, you might actually be playing great, but once you listen to yourself from an outside perspective, you might want to change some of your phrasing or the dynamics

-don’t always start practicing at the beginning of your pieces. sometimes it’s good to start from the end and work backwards, or specifically target the passages that are difficult if you don’t have a lot of time

-take breaks, and be very aware of if you’re playing with too much tension or feel pain after practicing. do NOT power through pain. 

-try to aim for around an hour a day. I think it’s a good goal for most instruments. I also think that an hour of consistent, focused practice would be enough for high school-aged musicians or anyone who wants to be a competent player in an ensemble

-make practice a habit. it’s like exercise. you might not look it at first, but eventually it becomes kind of addicting and you’ll actually find yourself wanting to do it.

professor: okay, so let’s talk about embouchure.

And is started out as a fun little exercise as a few people answered and shared that they wanted to be teachers or open up their own studios or be a conductor. But then Dr. Olander slowly went around the room and asked every single person to share. And each person’s eyes lit up and they smiled and they spoke softly about what lead them to this school and what they wanted to do with their degree, what their interests are and how they wanted to use their degree to help others or spread music or make a difference. 

Every person. 15+ people. It took nearly the whole class period. And Dr. Olander finished and said she was just curious and didn’t mean to take up the whole class talking about that, but she thought it was good to stop sometimes and remember why you’re here, where you’re going, who you are and what your dreams are. 

I started crying in the middle of class bc it had been so long since i had stopped to remember why i love music and why i want a masters and how badly i want to use it to change people’s lives with music the way mine was. 

So stop for a second. Don’t think about how much you’ve practiced this week, or your grades or your classes or scholarships or jobs or anything. Really stop. Stop and ask yourself, 

Why am I here? Where do i want to be in 5 years? Why do I love this? What is my dream?