Maintaining Musical Growth: Faculty Tips for Staying Consistent

Emma Sepmeier | French Horn Faculty

• Before a schedule change, create a modified practice plan. This will take the stress out of trying to fit your practice in, and you can relax knowing you've accomplished your goal. 

• Not all practice takes place on your instrument. Travel time can be great for listening and score study.

• Look for artistic experiences you might not otherwise have. Nearby concerts, museums, and shows can all have a refreshing effect on our musicianship. 

Dr. Sarah Plum | Violin, Viola, & Chamber Music Faculty

• Mental practice and visualization. Start by getting comfortable in a chair or lying down. Get relaxed with a few deep breaths or a body scan. Work from head to toe, loosening each muscle. Go through your whole piece in your head — from being backstage, tuning, walking on stage, and then playing the whole thing. You want to experience it with as many senses as possible: feel the heat of the stage lights on your face, your hands on your instrument, your breath, where your feet are, and what you hear — your pianist, the sounds of the audience coughing. It is all in your head, and do not worry if imagining it in full detail takes practice. Here is the cool thing: you have to imagine playing it perfectly, including every hard part. Which seems easy, right? It is all in your head! But interestingly, it takes practice to visualize a perfect performance — no mistakes, perfect shifts. In any case, any amount of time you spend doing this is immensely helpful, illuminating, and fun!

• Go to concerts!  Listening on Spotify and YouTube is great, but hearing live music is just as important— and listening to all sorts of great classical music. It does not just have to be the pieces you are playing. So go out to concerts — here in Chicago, but also wherever you end up on vacation or visiting friends and family. Go to the big, famous groups like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but also to small concerts in small halls. There are lots of great places to hear music — experimental music, string quartets, college students — everything. Free concerts in a church. Just hear live music!

• Compose! If you are someplace — perhaps without your instrument — find some manuscript paper and a pencil and just start writing. A solo, a duo, a quartet, a symphony! Just start writing the music you hear in your head, maybe something you want to play — really anything!

Dr. Marie Alatalo | Campus Director, Chicago; Piano and Musicianship Faculty

• Formulate a practice schedule.  

• Listen to music.  Work to become an engaged listener. Study lyricism

• Enroll in a Theory class to learn the language of music. Knowing the harmonic structure of pieces will both facilitate learning and promote intelligent phrasing choices.

Brad Conroy | Guitar Department Chair, Guitar Faculty

• Listening to music. Listening to music is one of the most important factors in your journey. Listening to music helps to give you a reference of what can be achieved, stimulates the imagination, and helps to get you excited about music in general. 

• Practicing. Thoughtful practice habits applied regularly each day with enough time will assure you of success. 

• Talking about music and engaging with others who are also interested in music. We often learn just as much from our peers as we do from our own teachers. 

Lisa Zilberman | Piano Faculty

• Help your child organize their time by making sure there is a practice routine they can follow. 
  Provide a calm, distraction free environment where child can feel comfortable.

• Show genuine interest by talking about their repertoire—ask what they think about their pieces and discuss them together to deepen engagement. Expand your musical horizons by listening to music of all genres together and attending live concerts whenever possible for a shared, non-replicable experience. 

• Monitor their practice by encouraging slow, focused work in small sections. Kids love running their pieces from start to finish. Instead, make sure they are isolating tricky passages and practicing them slowly and deliberately until they improve.