I could totally relate to this question sent in by Rodrigo in Mexico city:
“I’m 32 years old, and I am very busy most of my day. I have a sales franchise and work in a consulting firm here in Mexico and most of my day is spent on my work. However I’m very enthusiastic about learning to play the violin. Could you please give me some advice on how I can learn despite my hectic schedule?
-Rodrigo”
It can feel damned near impossible to find time to practice as a busy adult, and I believe this is one of the top reasons that adults think they can not learn. Some slight adjustments to how we think about practice can go a long way in violin progress!
1) You can progress on the violin with a very SMALL amount of practice each day. As a beginner, focus on frequency rather than duration. In other words, it is much better to practice for five minutes a day, than to have longer less frequent practices. Five minutes a day IS enough to progress through the first stages. Five minutes twice a day is even better. Most of the actual progress and learning happens in between practice sessions when your subconscious mind can chew on what you’ve done.
Try to create a habit of practicing for five minutes just before your lunch break, and again before you end work for the day. By lumping your practice time together with your work day, it may feel less like you are sacrificing precious down time. And you can use the momentum and focus of your work day to assist your violin playing. This can be easier than trying to get focused back on the violin after beginning your evening relaxation.
2) Take lessons via video Skype for 30 minutes once a week. This is a big one. The violin has many technique tricks that are hard to figure out on your own, but very easy if you have someone show you. A good teacher can keep you on track and help to avoid frustration and bad habits. By using the video Skype, you can cut out the time of traveling back and forth to lessons. Having a weekly check point gives your practice sessions focus throughout the week. If you have a great practice week you have someone to show off for at the end of the week, and if you have a busy week and can’t practice at all, you can have a chance to refocus and recommit yourself for the next week.
It is a big motivator to have put some money on the line. By paying for lessons you can make a clear statement to yourself that says, “this is important to me!” I’m amazed once I’ve paid for lessons, I will step up to get what I’ve paid for and put in the practice time. My Skype teacher is Corrin Evans and I highly recommend her: www.rosincloudschool.com.
3) Keep your violin outside of the case. Use a violin stand or shelf to display your violin so that it’s easy to pick it up without having to go through the whole process of unzipping the case. This saves time and keeps the violin on your mind. Try keeping it at the office so you can pick it up to practice before leaving, or put it in a prominent area so that it’s the first thing you see when you get home.
4) Practice your bow hold with all sorts of objects. Learning a comfortable bow hold is the first and most important thing to learn. To practice this you don’t even need to hold the violin or bow. You can learn to have a comfortable and relaxed bow hold by taking 20 seconds to stop work, think about your right hand, and try a simple relaxed bow hold with your pen or pencil.
If you can remember to this a few times each day you will exercise the “bow hold creation passages” in your brain much more effectively than by beating yourself up for 30 minutes straight some evening in an official practice session. When I was first beginning I would think of the bow hold very often and try it on all sorts of objects including my steering wheel when stuck in traffic.
Does anyone else have time saving tips for busy adults? Has anyone tried these? Do they work? Please let me know in the comments section below!
Happy brief and frequent practicing, everyone.
Love,
Jenny
I work as an oncall locksmith. I take my Violin along everyday and inbetween calls I practice. I get multiple 20 min sessions in each day.
The hardest thing I found was finding a practice space that doesn’t offend people with my early days cat screeching attempts at violin. One of my mates told me he goes into the office before anyone else (excluding cleaners who usually wear headphones) to practice guitar. 5-10 minutes most mornings then thinking about it for the rest of the day planning what to practice for the next day.
Great post Jenny. The other thing is to keep coming back to it even if you get busy for a while. Having the violin in sight as a visual reminder all the time is a great tip.
Make sure of 3 things: (1) you are depressing your strings all the way to the fingerboard, (2) make sure your bow is right in the middle between your bridge and where the fingerboard begins; if you play over either one of these it will scratch, and (3) as a beginning student, make sure that the hairs on your bow are flat on the strings; don’t roll your bow over to one side or another (this is an advanced technique that will only cause problems in the beginning.) Also, make sure you have enough rosin on your bow hairs or it will scratch, too. Hope this helps. š
you are incredible!!! I am gong to learn this mohican tune as I have wanted an easy ntry into theese rolls.. also wanted to play somthing not so celtic/repetitive. anyways. thanks !
Thanks for your music shares! Am adding violin at 63 and did not know it is okay to leave it out of the case. Will begin doing so immediately as keeping my guitar out on a stand has worked very well. When I can just grab it, check the tuning and go I play 10 times as much! Thanks again!
Hi guys,
a little bit drunk, but still in …
First off, … IĀ“ve the same problem as Rodgrigo, the same age, donĀ“t count hours spent learning violin, itĀ“s useless …
I play violin second year and thereĀ“s such a lot of things to learn. š IĀ“m looking forward to learn them :-).
I have quite different view than Jenny.
Everything is individual, maybe you will find some pattern in studies, but IĀ“m sure you probably won’t.
You have to deal with yourself and consider whatĀ“s important and what is not!
Learning to play violin completely changed my life. I had to find 1-2 hours a day to train. No discuss about it. ItĀ“s
necessary to go forvard and to learn new things. The most important thing is to have a strict teacher. I have some basics,
, I have some stops (1-month not played, 2 months not played). This is the life, dont hate yourself if you canĀ“t play because of
your life problems, life cassualties or whatever. If you are adult and have to take care of children or whatever, donĀ“t
blame yourself youĀ“re not training.
I had to rearrange my daily scheduler. IĀ“m running some bussiness to pay my debts (house buy š ) and feed myself, so it is not
as like a child who comes from school and have a plenty of time to do whatever it wants.
For me, it is difficult to find some free time during work-time. Mornings are the worst, I have to deal with my costumers,
and switch to five minutes break by training violin is impossible. At first I donĀ“t have space to train (it will disturb
my collegues) and the second – it is only a little time to train something. I wish to have more time to train in the mornings and
then in late-afternoons. But I canĀ“t, because of bussiness. I have to train some mid-afternoons and spent-time replace in
the evenings.
Sometimes, I feel, I can fly. My bow do everything I need, but sometimes I want to hang myself. My bow is not responding and
notes are not played as I expect (eg today š ). ItĀ“s common, I think, my teacher is going to marry. One month without an teacher is like a ….
I want to hang myself every day … IĀ“ve so many questions ^%$*%&&*%& I need a leader !!!
These are most important things to do:
1) Traing daily ! No dayoff excuses.
2) Train with breaks (15mins training, 3mins break)
3) Before start of training – close your eyes, turn off your brain completely and forget everything about your life (five minutes should be enough)
4) DonĀ“t train in regular order. Play whatever you want, play it in random order. Etudes, rhythm, fav.songs, new things ..
5) Teacher is very important. Listen to him and trust him ! He will push you forward ! DonĀ“t by ashamed to ask him again, be honest what you can and what you canĀ“t.
6) Be patient! Everything connected to violin takes time to understand !
7) Be stubborn! If somebody says you canĀ“t play it, you canĀ“t do it, you should do the opposite! You will! Sooner or later …
8) Be prepared to pay money. Violin accessories, teacher, … itĀ“s inevitable. ItĀ“s uncountable.
Last word is about Jenny:
I think Jenny is a great girl, I wish to meet her personally and to have a chat with Jenny … itĀ“s my secret wish š
Good luck to all beginners or advanced players.
Jenny,I’m starting to learn Promentory now after ditching poor Fan (my violin) for so long!Thank you for inspiring me!
I bought a nice used violin from a nice college student but it had a funky smell, so I left it out of the case. As Jenny mentioned above, I got in the habit of playing it five minutes here and there throughout the day. What a huge difference it has made in my exploration and is just a nice way to break up the monotony of adult activities. I have been playing now for about 6 weeks and am having a ball.
After sharing this link with some of my fellow fiddling pals, I will be practicing the 5 note roll in the first instructional video on this site. Am thrilled – thanks ever-so-much!
Kim