Post your WOOP – Week of April 3rd

[Cheryl (cello)]

Last week I practiced 5 of 7 days!

This Week:

Wish: Record measures of section melodies today, mvt I, and rerecord on Sunday afternoon and review.

Outcome: I will have a good start on the more difficult but also favorite parts of the first movement, and can take some questions to Wed. sectional.

Obstacle: Putting practice off until I’m wearing down and don’t think I can do it well and therefore should wait until tomorrow until I’m rested.

Plan: I will do at least 20 minutes before 4:30, have dinner, and do more afterwards. (once I get started, I usually keep going for almost an hour)

Cheryl

[Jaime Johnson (viola)]

Hi Cheryl. I have the same obstacle as you do about waiting until I’m winding down. I’ve had the same success practicing smaller but sooner as you have. I’m inspired by your big win last week. Jaime

[Noa Kageyama]

Yay for 5 out of 7!

One thing you might experiment with is cutting your practice sessions short, or stopping while you still feel like you could easily go longer. Sometimes, when we end a practice session (or workout) feeling like things were tough at the end, it can be harder to start the next time. Whereas if things feel easy at the end, it can be easier to get started again the next time.

[Angela Alves (piano)]

Last week’s WOOP went well – I was able to address the 3 issue spots and was able to play the entire piece (even if I had some random error I was able to just move on and continue) by the end of the week.

WISH: Practice each section of Forest Whispers and note dynamic plan on sheet for practicing.

OUTCOME: This will be the first piece I have applied “musicality” to with dynamics and rubato and worked on practicing those techniques. I will feel like I finally get all the things I’ve been studying and researching and hearing my teacher say over and over every week! Will be a big hump gotten over and accomplished!

OBSTACLE: Overthinking and trying too hard or trying to apply too much to each phrase.

PLAN: If I start getting stuck, I will just play through the section and record it on my phone and listen back to what I did for dynamics and rubato – if it sounds good I’ll note what I did on the sheet and move on.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Angela, quick thing about recording on your phone – if you have an iPhone, there’s an app called TwistedWave Recorder (the free version works just fine) which allows you to turn off dynamic compression and other iOS “enhancements” that optimize recording for speaking, but are suboptimal for recording music. If you haven’t tried it already, you might find that this gives you a more accurate representation of your dynamic range, etc.

[Angela Alves (piano)]

Thanks, I just downloaded it. I’ll try it this week and see if I hear a difference!

[Anne Brüggemann (violin)]

Oops, I missed two WOOPs. The two that targeted Peter und der Wolf went well with play-along practice of small sections. I continued with „interleaved“ practice, setting a timer for 15 minutes while working on something else and then playing just once through a critical section of Peter und der Wolf. The first few times were rough, and then it got better — a miracle. I was well-prepared for the performances and I enjoyed playing in the group. I am now sold on this approach, so I will apply it more this week, with a slight modification as an experiment.

Wish: I want to get the first movement of the Haydn concerto in C Major ready for a recording for my teacher and Weill Youkali ready for a group rehearsal.

Outcome: I‘ll be well-prepared, ready to share my music and open to receive feedback.

Process: I will mark a number of brief sections in the music, and I will interrupt other practice every 15 minutes to do a RRR on one randomly chosen of these spots. RRR is Renée-Paule Gauthier‘s Record—Reflect—Refine and involves to record an initial play-through of a section, to listen back and to reflect what went well and what I want to address next, and to refine, record again without any additional practicing, going through this loop exactly three times.

Obstacle: To be tempted to practice a section that is coming up for RRR with conventional measures. To be tempted to not go through this at all, because work on other stuff might feel more urgent.

Plan: I will remind myself that these two pieces have priority for me this week.

[Noa Kageyama]

Will look forward to hearing how interleaved practice continues to go in the weeks ahead!

[Jaime Johnson (viola)]

Weekly WOOP April 3-10

Last week’s WOOP: It was purposeful and it did really help me organize the steps in learning a new song and it is a great tool for all of my future work. I fell down on the recording aspect.

Wish: I want to be able to sing FOR MEMORY the first section, to the key change, of An die Apfelbaume, wo ich Julien erblickte by Schubert.

Outcome: This will reinforce my goal of being able to learn songs faster. This song is less technically challenging for me and I can use my self-made tools from prior WOOPS.

Obstacles: Being reluctant about working on memorizing the words in the right order. Becoming complacent about practicing singing first thing every day.

Plan: Warm-ups for 10-15 minutes, then get to song in the first practice session. Use white board for word work. Make mini-recordings, evaluate, and use my new tools to solve problems.

[Grace]

My March 21st WOOP was a win! I played for Ann Grogan, “live” in San Francisco, where we both live, and for Paul Kenyon, my practice buddy, by Zoom. They were both generous and kind with their feedback. Both the schedule of playing for them and their comments gave my practice more focus. I lost my concentration when playing for them, and later worked on solidifying the passages where that happened. The performance at my music club on 3/28 was much more secure, with only a couple of scrambled moments. My long time friend and piano partner commented that it seemed I had learned these pieces faster than usual — and she’s right!

This week’s WOOP:

Wish – Play the Schubert Ländler set with more expression while continuing to gain focus and security.

Outcome – Feel more confident that my audience will find the set interesting, not just “nice.”

Obstacle – Getting tense and holding my breath while playing; getting distracted

Plan – 1) Listen to multiple recordings and try out different interpretations; 2) play the set for at least one person per week; 3) be mindful of breathing and relaxation in practice and performance try-outs; 4) schedule a lesson for fresh input

[Noa Kageyama]

Yay! Glad it worked out with Ann and Paul.

[Margaret Marynowski (violin)]

First, I want to say that the presentation by Jason Sullivan today was excellent!

My accountability group has inspired me to find more practice time in my day, and I did make progress from last week. But during today’s event I realized that I am not nearly as focused or efficient as I should be if I want to make progress on my skills.

So my WOOP for this week:

Wish: Continue working on the rhythms in the first half of Thais

Outcome: fluid melody, allowing me to focus on dynamics

Obstacle: mindless practicing

Plan: Make a list, tackle it measure by measure. Start the Deliberate Practice course!

[Noa Kageyama]

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