Practice, Practice, Practice (informal survey and general discussion)

Posted: 9/20/2020 4:38:48 PM
bisem

From: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Joined: 1/1/2011

I never practice. The more time I spend between playing, the better the play. Once you learn, you don't practice, you play. I don't even have to do that much either.

I find this to be true.  Sometimes when life is busy I will go several weeks without playing and it seems that playing is more effortless and sounds better.

Posted: 5/14/2021 5:36:12 PM
xiaosquared

Joined: 5/14/2021

Hi everyone! I've been an occasional visitor to these forums since starting the theremin in 2017. Decided to join the conversation today :-) 
I am a human computer interaction researcher and a big learning nerd. Started the theremin as an experiment in learning. Been documenting my progress with little video clips on Instagram for the past 4 years (https://www.instagram.com/_xiaosquared_/). Glad to see discussions about how people practice here! 

To answer your questions: 

1. Do you keep track of your practice time?  Is it informal, or do you write it down somewhere? 
I try to do at least 30 minutes a day on theremin, but I don't keep track of it formally. I also play piano for around 30 minutes every day and do singing warmups in the morning and evening. On piano, I am slowly teaching myself the language of harmony and try to understand the harmony in the piano parts of my theremin repertoire. Songs I play on theremin are too difficult for my current vocal level (just a beginner), but I still try them to better understanding phrasing and breathing. 

2. How much do you practice: like 15 minutes, 1/2 hour, or an hour or more per day? 
On average between 1/2 hour to an hour. If you count all my musical activities, it's around 2 hours per day. 

3. How you keep track of your repertoire? 
Dropbox folder with sheet music, accompaniments, references

4. How often do you attempt a new song? 
It varies. 6 months into starting, when I was first able to play more or less in tune, I was trying something new every couple of days. Now I'm trying to polish my playing more, so I am just starting a new scheme. Currently working on a bigger classical piece until I get it to a high level of polish, which might take a couple of months. Also starting to work on some jazz standards on the side. I'm expecting to try new ones of these every couple of weeks or so.

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