Developing Your Ideal Practice Routine | Adult Cello

Mar 25

I’ve received a few requests to talk about this subject and so today I want to talk about developing your ideal practice routine.

As adults we already know that consistency and efficiency are going to be the name of the game, but sometimes it can be difficult to develop a routine that moves us forward while also inspiring us.

And even harder can be figuring out how to fit consistent practicing into our schedules.

I have to admit, in preparing this blog I felt a bit like I was trying to herd 2 dozen cats because so much of a good practice routine depends upon where you are in your journey and what practice techniques will be most helpful.

For that reason today I want to talk more about making practice work for your schedule.

This is a channel for adult learners so I’m assuming you will be fitting your practice plan into an already busy schedule.

No problem, let’s get started!

Personally, I’ve gone through NUMEROUS practice regiments and structures during my journey.

At one point I was practicing 4-5 hours every day, 365 days per year.

At another point I had the exact same 50 minute warmup routine that I did so automatically (and mindlessly) I eventually realized it was more of a psychological ego boost than anything else.

I’ve tried practicing 3 hours every day from 6-9am with short breaks, I’ve tried 2 sessions per day, 3 sessions per day, only practicing after dinner, finishing all my practice before breakfast…

But let’s talk about those of you who have started your journeys a little more recently. A lot of my private students ask me, “Should I practice daily? And if so, how much?”

This is a great 2 part question.

So, especially at the start of your journey, I would aim for daily practice if possible.

When you are newer to playing the cello, the foundation of your technique is still like wet cement and it’s easier for things to shift and slide if you don’t keep a constant eye out.

There is nothing more frustrating than having a huge breakthrough - maybe your bow grip suddenly feels supple and balanced or the way you’re holding the cello suddenly feels ergonomically just on point - but then the next time you sit down to practice, the magic is gone and you feel like you’re back to your old bow grip or cello posture.

You feel like exclaiming, “What the hell? Was that a dream? Where’d it go? What’s going on?”

Daily practice will help you pick up from where you left off the day before and personally, I believe your subconscious is more likely to remember more of those little unnoticed adjustments you might make as you improve your technique.

So, part two of the question is how much should I practice every day and it’s also related to the question, “how can I fit a consistent cello practice routine into my schedule??”

I can say from experience that the sheer amount of daily practice you do minutes-wise is not as important as the quality of work you’re putting in.

I’ve seen studies that suggest the modern attention span is as short as 8 minutes and that peak focus on a single task can last for a maximum of 20 minutes; so just taking our brains into account, I think an ideal goal for adult learners early on in their journeys would be something like 30 minutes to 1.5 hours of practice a day, but ideally broken up into multiple practice sessions.

In my experience, if I try getting all my practice done in one sitting, even with little breaks it’s less beneficial than splitting that same amount of time into two sessions at different times of the day.

To a degree, splitting up your practice can almost feel like you’re practicing two complete sessions each day instead of one, even if time wise both cases equal the same number of minutes.

Imagine how great it would feel after 3 months of practicing twice a day to feel like you have logged 6 months worth of daily practice sessions and to be able to see and hear the results that would follow!

My theory is that after your 20 minutes of “super focus” has drained, there is going to be a big drop-off in productivity.

With two separate sessions per day, I now get 40 minutes of primo focus since my attention span will have had a chance to recharge between sessions.

Another benefit of splitting up your practice into 2 sessions is that for a busy adult who wants to practice 50 minutes daily for example, it might be easier to secure 25 minutes of practice twice a day than to locate and block out the entire 50 minutes all at once.

So let’s talk about your schedule. Work, kids, dogs, cats, cooking, we’ve got a lot going on.

I would try to carve out 1-2 slots in your schedule reserved for your practice, and I would create a fun little ritual out of it to get you into the correct mindset:

“these next 20, 30, 40 minutes are me and my cello. I’m going to let go of everything else, it’s not going anywhere and it’ll be waiting for me after my practice time.”

Also, please switch that phone of yours to “do not disturb” so that even if you use it as a metronome or tuner, your practice time won’t be interrupted.

Continuing this idea of ritualization, I would ideally have a cello area in your home with everything set up and ready to go.

Imagine with me…the perfect chair in the perfect spot with your rockstop already attached, music stand is nearby and ready with sheet music and written notes, cello is out of your case and resting in a stand next to the chair….etc.

You get the picture, all you have to do is sit down and you are ready to start.

Okay, I’ll admit something embarrassing, I cannot tell you the number of times I didn’t get that extra practice in because I saw the cello in its case and my practice area not prepared ahead of time and I just thought, “eh, I’ll do it in a bit.”

And of course it eventually got too late and that was that.

Preparing your area will also help cut down on precious minutes of set up time.

If you are committing to 30 minutes a day of practice in two sessions, you want all 15 minutes of both sessions to be working and not spending 3-4 minutes “getting ready” each time.

So carve out time for yourself and create your cello shrine.

You are a cellist who practices daily, because that’s what cellists do. This personal practice time is so wonderful, it’s just you growing into the musician you are destined to become.

So that covers the first part of establishing an excellent practice routine.

To recap, plan ahead of time when and where you’re going to practice, and for how long! And treat that time like an oasis of self exploration in the otherwise scorching desert of adult responsibilities.

In my next blog we will cover how to go about structuring our actual practice, both on a macro and micro level.

If you have any questions about practicing or about the cello in general, feel free to email me at billy@adultcello.com