When practicing a piece of music, it is always important to break it down into chunks. This requires self-discipline; it's much easier to wander through the piece, often with your mind traveling off somewhere else, than to work hard. I understand this.
So, how do you decide to break the music down? If you have been with me for more than five or six weeks, I should have already showed you how to do this. If you're not sure, first we have to backup and make a definition. A phrase consists of a small part of music. When you sing, you usually breathe between phrases. So a phrase is the part between breaths. Let's say that you are singing "Doe, a deer, a female deer." That is a phrase.
Now, let's pretend that you are playing the notes for that song. Doe, a deer is easy, but you're having a little trouble with the last four notes. If you just run through the whole song, and you're still getting stuck on the second half of the beginning phrase, you aren't doing yourself a lot of good. You can practice the first phrase alone for better results.
Even better, break the phrase down and only practice the last half. Do those four notes repeatedly until you've got them. Now go back and play the entire phrase a couple of times. If that goes well, start at the beginning and plan to the next phrase. This is how you break music down into chunks. If you have enough discipline to do this every time there is a problem, you will play much better.
Happy practicing!
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