I’ve been told at least a hundred..thousand..times by former teachers to practice slowly. Did I? Hmm.. I should have asked them to define what “slowly” meant to them, because I am pretty sure I did not implement their definition of “slowly”. So, I have some good news for those who hate to practice slowly like I did. This information is from Noa Kageyama’s podcast “Bulletproof Musician”. When you slow a passage down you can end up learning a passage with the wrong technique.

There are four general reasons why we practice. This excerpt is taken from Christine Goodner’s podcast, Time to Practice.

I’ve been told by countless music teachers that the most important quality to have as a musician is solid rhythm.

Awadagin Pratt, performed the Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Savannah Philharmonic this past February. He received a standing ovation after his concerto and after everyone took their seat, he sat down to perform his encore, Mysterious Barricades by François Couperin.

A friend of mine, Matt Lawrey, Atlanta United Academy Director gave a talk titled: Three Challenges to Inspire the Atlanta United Academy. The second challenge hit me like a ton of bricks.

Martha was clear in her assignments to me. For example, a page of her notes would look something like this:

Question: What percent of the time do you think top endurance athletes practice in a red zone?

Green — comfortable, talking pace- easy or light

Yellow- somewhat hard, short response only

Red- Hard, high intensity, gasping pace, heart rate is really high

I had ten years of incorrect technique under my belt when I first studied with Martha Gerschefski, Atlanta’s top cello teacher who taught at Georgia State University. She had a lot of young students who played on a very high level so I was the unicorn in her studio- a 23-year old student trying to figure out how to not squeeze my bow.

A lot of students have a goal of making the second round of All-State. Over the years, I have noticed a few things that make those who get to the second round stand out.

A few years ago I was telling a student: “If you record yourself, you will catch your mistakes sooner and then you can learn from them sooner.” She said, “Oh, no, I don’t want to do that because I know it will sound really bad.” I sat there for a second to process the irony of her statement —

Years ago I heard about a cello teacher in Chicago, Tanya Carey, training cellists on how to teach Suzuki cello book one. In my typical 20-something cynical self, I groaned and thought, “what could I possibly gain from learning about how to teach in the Suzuki method?”