An Exercise

As usual, I have been busy rehearsing and performing this past weekend. I acquired some new insights through my activities and want to share them with you.

One activity I did this week was writing about myself in my journal as an outsider would see me. And at first, I was not sure about this exercise. After all, I know too much about myself, and I was not certain I could be impartial like an outside observer would be. But then things turned up as I wrote about myself and described what I see. It turned out I am a pretty complex person. There is a bit of humor there. Of course, I knew that! However, I will not get into the details of my observations; I must say, it was quite enlightening.

Even better, the thought that arose was what if I did the same exercise about me playing my cello and describing what I see. The latter will perhaps be much more difficult to come up with answers, but what if? And this week, I encourage you to do just that. Observe yourself playing like someone else is doing that. What would they see and what would they say about your playing? Here are some questions you can consider answering. After answering the questions, you might even want to record yourself once and listen with a discerning ear. It might be worth a try. And you can also come up with your own questions if they are not listed here.

• Does the player warm up before starting to work on their repertoire? What type of warm-up exercises are they doing?
• Is there a goal in place for the player? Such as scales, etudes, and finger exercises, a solo piece, a sonata, a concerto, or orchestral excerpts?
• Does the player spend an appropriate amount of time on each exercise?
• Is the player poised in a relaxed way, or is there tension in their posture, bodies, and hands? Are they checking their posture by perhaps using a mirror?
• Is the player playing mindfully or mindlessly?
• Does the player stop when there are problems, or after making mistakes?
• Do they stop to correct intonation issues?
• Do they consider dynamics and phrasing while practicing?
• Do they address sound quality in addition to technical accuracy?
• Do they repeat the phrases in a correct manner? Because repeating mistakes reinforces mistakes.
• Can an outside observer (you in this case) identify the player’s problems with a specific piece they are playing and name and define them?
• Does the person practicing value this activity, or are they just practicing to get it done?
• Does the piece being played show signs of being second nature to the player?
• How much time do they put into practicing?

These are some of the questions I have at the moment. I will write an additional post for additional questions.

On that note, I am off to do the exercise. I hope you do the same. And don’t forget to share your results in the section below.

Happy Playing!