Hot answers tagged exercises
9
I think the key is muscle memory. The only way to improve this is by specific repetitive movements. In your question you state: "quick interchanging between my 2 and 3rd finger." Presumably there is a song you are working on that requires this, so the part you are having trouble with, do that move over and over again until you no longer have a problem doing ...
8
I am not an expert in human physiology, but I believe the constraint you describe is completely normal. I think it has something to do with a shared tendon? Needless to say, my hands behave the same way. You should be able to lift the fourth finger higher if you raise the pinky at the same time, yes?
What I do know about human physiology is that each joint ...
8
This is a bad habit. Essentially, you need to reprogram your mind to stop tensing when what you really want is focus. The instinct to tense is extremely common, and, unfortunately, very difficult to override.
luser droog gave a fantastic explanation of how to build proper posture. You should take his advice, and constantly check to see if you're following ...
7
This may be overkill, but I gained a great deal of insight into my own posture from The Thinking Body by Mabel E. Todd. The basic idea is that the body resists gravity in the same manner that a building does: by distributing the weight along lines of compression and suspension. For the most part the front of your body is suspended from the frame of the ...
6
Get a good teacher, it can really make a huge difference.
Practice difficult passages slowly (surprise!) and concentrate on relaxation. Often when I get tense, it's because I play faster than I think (like, my thoughts come after my hands). So, when you practice (slowly), try to think ahead, and when you speed up, try to keep it so that your thoughts are ...
4
There's no such thing as finger independence(read finger equality most of the time). All our fingers are different, and they're all connected too! For instance, would you ever expect any of your fingers to match your thumb in strength? Or take your index finger and press it to your palm. Your other fingers will move as well.
The key to evenness and ...
4
I have often found it helpful to use mental cues to aid pitch when I'm having trouble. I have heard many choral directors, as well as my own college voice professor, talk about 'landing on top of the pitch'.
This really has to do with a sort of 'musical momentum,' almost as if our pitch were an object governed by Newton's first law. When a melodic line is ...
3
Okay, I've been working a while with many different fields of music... I certainly wouldn't say that vocals are my specialty; however, rather than doing what every other answer suggests (having you use a program that "trains" your intonation to become more in tune), I think it'd be a lot more effective and genuine if you were to just simply work on the ...
3
Hand strength is important in the violin, but so is fine motor control. Why not develop both? Practicing etudes by Kreutzer (42 Studies) and Paganini (24 Caprices, Op. 1) should strengthen your fingers enough to play almost anything. Try chord and trill exercises for a serious finger workout.
Here is a graded list of etudes.
3
Everything Dr Mayhem mentioned is fine.
If you can (and like the idea) climbing can sure help in strenghtening your hands.
Apart from that, I'd do a lot of spider excercises, especially on the upper part of the neck.
This means playing 1-2-3-4 (i.e. index on the first fret, then medium on the second, then ring finger on the third and finally little finger ...
3
One of the best exercises for fingers is to use a FingerGrip type exerciser like this one:
And I would also recommend using a tabletop if you are sitting at work, pressing your fingers hard against the surface.
Carrying bags of shopping is also useful - try heavy bags and just using one or two fingers - I use this for strengthening my fingers for ...
3
To play a fast piece (or section):
Get a metronome.
Set it to the slowest speed that you can play perfectly.
Play the piece (or section) perfectly three times.
Speed the metronome up by 2 clicks (4 BPM).
Go to step 3. If you can't play it perfectly at that speed: one click down.
Playing fast music is highly muscle-memory dependent.
If you want general ...
3
So, I still don't have a good idea of what exactly is giving you trouble (mostly because I didn't ask the right questions), but I think that we've narrowed it down to the point where I can post an answer of reasonable length.
When it comes to playing fast, there are a handful of types of figures that will give you some trouble. I'm going to cover repeated ...
2
Ideally when warming up with a large ensemble, it shouldn't be your first warmup of the day - regardless of what instrument you play.
Take a half-hour or so a few hours before your rehearsal and do a nice, solid warmup. When you meet the group for rehearsal, you'll just need a minute or so to get things moving again. For that, you could pat rudiments on ...
2
The mere existence of that thrill key is an indication, that there is a problem with the combination in question. Therefore the standard fingerings are unlikely to be combinable in sufficient speed and/or tone quality. For bassoon (I'm better acquainted with) there are special fingering tables for trills and it is more likely that they are different than the ...
2
Pitching in here as someone that does have perfect pitch - however, I'm one of these people who has just always had it rather than sat down and learning it. It's as clear to me that the note being played is say an Ab than the folder currently to my right is green, and always has been. I don't profess to know this from some superhuman effort in training, it's ...
2
I you're learning on a steel-strung acoustic guitar, consider practising barres on a nylon-strung instrument, or on an electric with narrow gauge strings. These require less pressure so you can get used to the shapes and build up your strength.
Whatever instrument you are practising on, start high up the neck. Near the nut is the hardest place to play a ...
2
The answer to this one is 'it depends on you'
I never felt the need to use one when playing violin, as finger strength was never a requirement, but I do use one now I play guitar as for certain songs I need the extra strength and stamina to hold complex barre chords.
If you feel you don't have the strength or stamina to be able to play the pieces you want ...
2
A systematic set of exercises can help. Try to practice every possible move in isolation. Do these at each fret position to get comfortable all over the neck.
Index-Ring, Middle Pinky.
$6 1 3 $5 1 3 $4 1 3 $3 1 3 $2 1 3 $1 1 3 2 4 $2 2 4 $3 2 4 $4 2 4 $5 2 4 $6 2 4
The "spider" (can be mirrored 4 ways):
$6 1 2 $5 1 $6 3 $5 2 $4 1 $6 4 $5 3 $4 2 $3 1 $5 ...
2
Don't worry! Every new guitar player goes through this.
The key is to not disregard the 3rd and 4th finger and use them a lot especially when practicing dexterity exercises. Your thumb is close to your 1st and 2nd finger, so that makes those finger more capable of playing these exercises.
Don't disregard the 3rd and 4th finger, push through on your ...
2
Search on youtube for singing exercises for your range. These exercises should just be a bunch of piano notes.
On these exercises practice your vowels a lot. The 'ah' sound and 'eh' sounds are always a bit harder than the 'ii' sound for example. So start one of these tracks and sing 'ah-ah-ah' both legato en staccato on these notes.
Make sure you are not ...
1
Good question.
I have a suggestion. As an exercise devise a program that randomly generates a pleasing tone in the range of your voice then you try to match it. The program listens and gives you a score on how close you got it. The next level the program requests you to sing a perfect 5th above (adjusting its range so you are not asked to go beyond your ...
1
I've never known anyone who has needed to use hand strengthening exercises in addition to normal practice to gain enough strength to play properly - usually the strength needed would come with the regular practice required (and both of these will come gradually, you're not going to be bashing out Paganini's caprices on day 2.) Perhaps if someone had weak ...
1
There are lots of exercises you can do. Remember this ability won't come overnight! It took me a while to play that dreaded F chord too. Most of my students have the same problem. Try practicing Fmaj7 for a while and get used to it. Gradually tip your first finger down to bar the two strings together.
1
Take a well known tune that's usually played in a specific key.Just sing the first note. I use ( 'cos the wife watches and it's played 4 times in each episode )the theme from Coronation Street (U.K.) .It's a C over an Ab chord .Sing the note just before it's played, and soon you'll (hopefully) be very close. Every time I go past a piano, I sing the C, then ...
1
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Not really, though it depends on your definition of perfect pitch. Perfect pitch is not actually "perfect", meaning without errors or with great precision. Rather, it's the ability to identify a note without another note to compare it to. A more accurate term is "absolute pitch" (AP), which can be contrasted with ...
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