Week 1: How to practice when there's no time 
Welcome to Week one of "Change your Habits, Change your Playing" with Phil Goldenberg! This is the thread for posting your submissions and assignments for the first week!
Watch Phil's Livestream on June 7th here!
Assignment:
Pick a challenging 20-30 second spot in your repertoire. Play it once or twice, then record it. Then, practice that section in a hyper-focused matter for exactly 3 minutes, then record it again and check out the improvement! Feel free to see everyone else's improvement and see if you can tell what they worked on for those 3 minutes.
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Sor's Andante Largo measure 33 June 9
Here is another challenging measure from this piece. Obviously, the biggest difficulty is the stretch between the index and pinky on the second beat, while the middle and ring fingers play bass notes. This would have been a bit easier on Sor's guitar, no doubt.
I shot a video before my three-minute practice, but I messed it up, so this is just the "after" video. My goal is to continue to play this each day, increasing the tempo a little bit each time. Please let me know if there is some other way I should proceed.
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Eric Phillips Hey Eric! I know this is a class on practice technique, not fingerings, but if you switch the strings that the F and E are on in beat 2 of this example (so the e is open and the f is on the 2nd string) this section becomes much easier. I'm pretty such that change will clear things up for you. Happy practicing!
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Phil Goldenberg Hi Phil. Thanks for the fingering tip. I had actually thought of that fingering, but decided against it, as it makes the notes after it (the first inversion Dm chord) more difficult to play and less legato, in my opinion. Am I misunderstanding what you meant?
Here's a video explaining what I mean with the guitar in hand.
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Here is a fragment from a piece that I am relearning after many years. The fragment is from the Capricho from Abel Carlevaro's composition "Introduccion y Capricho." The fragment is four measures and for the three-minute practice session, I focused primarily on the last measure, taking it very slowly at first and then recording it closer to tempo.
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Dale Needles Huge improvement, Dale!
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Eric Phillips Thanks! Same back to you. I do think these short and focused three minute practices are helpful.
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Dale Needles Very good, Dale. Your left hand looks much more relaxed and smooth.
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Jack Stewart Thanks. Not sure if you know this piece, Introduccion y Capricho but it is one of Carlevaro major solo guitar works. Just re-learning it after many many years. Will play it for you the next time we get together.
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Dale Needles I just checked it out on YT. That's pretty interesting - quite a ways from Campo! I'd love to hear you play it. It looks really challenging.
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Sor's Andante Largo measure 21a update (June 10)
Here I bumped the speed up from 54 to 66.
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Sor's Andante Largo measure 33 update (June 10)
I am now playing this at 76 on the metronome.
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Eric Phillips That was very smooth and relaxed, Eric. I also like your system of showing progress over days. I seem to need several days for any improvement to be apparent.
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OK, after 3 days of practice (2-3 sessions of 3min practice each day), I could finally play the Ejercicios Previos No5, not very well, but reasonably steady. (at least, I didn't frown when playing bar 15 this time)
Don't know why, I was thinking of the ambulance siren when practicing this piece. -
Wai Excellent. So much better. I like the subtle left hand and arm movements in the second video.
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Dale Needles Thank you, Dale. After hearing Phil's advice, I forced myself to put my pinky near the note F# (but since my hands are small, I really couldn't put my pinky "directly" above the note), and suddenly the whole arm movement became subtler and the difficult part became easier to be executed.
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Wai Your improvement is very noticeable. Your finger and hand movements are much smoother and more relaxed.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack. This one was really difficult for me because my hands are small. Besides, I found that the improvement was more noticeable the next day rather than immediately after the 3 min session, weird, isn't it?
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Wai Outstanding work, Wai! What a difference! Even without the sound, I can see how much more controlled your finger movements are, with no wasted motion.
And, you're right, it does sound like a siren.
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Wai wonderful. Wai, I what e progress. didn’t follow this from the beginning. But it sounds so good now. I myself would play it even slower still. What really impressed me: In the second video you are playing the two voices really straight in time. In the first you were arpeggiating. And your hand looks so controlled now. I’m impressed what a bit of practice and good advice can do.
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Eric Phillips Thanks, Eric. I really like the concept of "3min session", it helped me segment and focus on the problem, but we have to discipline ourselves to keep the practice at the slowest comfortable tempo in order to see the effect. And I decided to call this piece "Sirenade".
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joosje Thanks, joosje. I was surprised by the efficiency of this "3min practice" concept too! When I took the first video, I had already practiced this piece for a week and you could see that I still couldn't play it. However, after 3 days of focused practice (2-3 sessions, so 6-9min each day), plus advice from Blaise, Dale & Phil, the difficult part became doable suddenly. Sorry, I start sounding like a broken record...
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Sor's Andante Largo measures 21a and 33 June 11 update
I'm having one of those days when my fingers don't seem to want to do what I ask them to do. Anyone else have those kind of days?
I'm now playing measure 21a at sixteenth-note = 80, and measure 33 at sixteenth-note = 96.
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- Eric Phillips hi, Eric. I have so many of those days! But this sounds and looks quite good to me. Secure enough. In the first fragment you hand looks really more secure and stable than before. In the second, well, you don’t seem to have any problem with that stretch.
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Eric Phillips I think it is easier to think of the days my fingers all do what I want. You seem to have a very solid grasp of these measures.
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Chopin Op. 24.1 meas 45
I have difficulty with the 'C' section in this Mazurka. I have picked the most challenging measure to work on next (Piazzolla is still ongoing). This measure has a trill and concludes with a shift that is difficult to maintain the rhythm (for me). My recording level on the 'post' video is a little too high so the sound is a bit harsh.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
