From the Practice Files, episode 9

  • Jacqueline Whittemore

Welcome to another edition of From the Practice Files! It was lovely to share so many pearls from great teachers in my last column. As a reminder, my two defining tenets for the Suzuki method are:

  1. Practice is a dynamic, focused collaboration between the parent and child!
  2. Suzuki is a way of life, so it should occur daily and be FUN!!!

With the end of the school year barreling toward us like an unchecked freight train in a Vin Diesel movie, it seemed a good time to acknowledge that great bugaboo of any sustained technical journey – the prolonged break.

Regardless of cause, the return to daily practice after a prolonged hiatus can be fraught with technical and emotional roadblocks. As Patrick Ruthfuss noted, “Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer.”

As such, the best course is to avoid such breaks. However, every Suzuki family eventually will be unable to avoid a practice gap – whether due to injury or illness, family travel, stay-away summer camp, or simply competing demands on a finite amount of time. The question then becomes how to restore a daily practice rhythm without excessive drama or angst?

Bad news. I have no easy solution. Over time, I have had to resign myself to a  bumpy adjustment period.

There are some things I have found to help:

  • Make practice-adjacent play count: If your learner digs in their heels at the very thought of picking up or seating down to their instrument, can you excite them to engage in another way? One year, Marguerite made a cello from her cello to wear as a Halloween costume. Cutting out cardboard isn’t  going to improve her bowhold, but she is still engaged with the instrument and humming her pieces. Wearing the costume also triggered numerous discussions with friends, interest from adults she admires in her journey, and invitations to play for them. The pride so engendered meant she returned to her long bows with gusto.
  • Start small: Just as one would not return to jogging after a break with a bracing 20 mile run, it can be prudent to return to the rigors of practice in stages. For fidgety students, starting with 25-33% of the student’s normal total practice time and working up over a couple days may allow attention to resettle without resentment. Hypercritical students may benefit from normal practice time but reserving advanced technical exercises or tricky passages until a rhythm is reestablished and, when reintegrating them into the regimen, taking them at a slower pace.
  • Notice the gains: “His enemy was time. Or perhaps it was his friend. One never knows for sure.” (Thomas Wolfe) Although it can be difficult to reboot daily practice after a break, small gaps in practice paradoxically can highlight leaps in skill as brain and muscle align. Watch for – and celebrate – sudden suppleness in vibrato or foot pedal use, even bow strokes with a balanced hold, correct finger placement during difficult passages, and intonation.
  • Channel the student’s inner expert: Having a friend around with interest in her instrument, someone she can ‘teach’, has always been a sure-fire way to get Marguerite engaged. After coaching another child through correct posture and pizzing, whipping out her bow to demonstrate exercises and play pieces is almost irresistible. As noted in a previous column, friends also make great time-keepers when put in charge of the practice plan and can be ruthless in enforcing technique.
  • Leverage review pieces: Revisiting the previous year’s repertoire is a great way to dust off the brain before digging back into current challenges. Favored pieces, much like dear friends, bring joy and help us see the best in ourselves. It is such pieces I believe Martin Luther was speaking when he noted: “My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”
  • Try something new: Injecting novelty or whimsy can be just the thing to dislodge a stubborn ‘mood indigo’ over restarting practice. This could mean playing a current piece on a different instrument, muddling through a song from the radio, or making up a good old-fashioned protest song. Anything that brings student and instrument together in solidarity will do!

Finally, there is nothing to reignite a love of music like music! Go out to a concert or sit down with a tasty treat and put on some vinyl. If all else fails, pick Bach: “Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.” (Douglas Adams)