1. On the habit of practicing the piano

Practice, repeated practice, hard practice, uninterrupted practice, not only runs through the growth process from beginner to performer, but also runs through the entire artistic career of an erhu performer.

From a scientific point of view, it's a fact that every exercise is linked to our physical movements and is the result of nerve center activity. Therefore, we must view each exercise as a mental and physical training process.

In each exercise, it is the goal that the performer is striving to achieve that is decisive. The result of the practice depends entirely on whether he has a clear vision of the goal, whether he concentrates his attention, and whether he works hard or not.

The clearer the concept of "what should be pulled", the clearer the concept of "how should be pulled". The end itself already points out the means by which it is attained. This is also the technical secret of a truly great erhu player.

If you want a horse to run a mile, you train it to run a mile and a half, and it will not find it difficult to run a mile.

The foundation of proper practice is clarity of purpose and continuous improvement of feedback mechanisms.

The process of practicing the piano is ultimately about forming a habit. For example, pay attention to accuracy at the beginning of practice, and after you develop a habit, your performance will be complete and accurate. On the contrary, if you often practice with mistakes, as a result, the practice will become the consolidation of mistakes, and after forming a bad habit, it will be even more difficult to change.

2. On Concentration

Concentration is the first letter in the word success.

It is much better to concentrate on practicing half the time. Even purely mechanical exercises, in order to achieve beneficial technical effects, must be transmitted to the motor nerve center of the brain through the two human organs, the ears and eyes. If the brain is occupied by other things, then it will not be aware of the impression of the practice at that time, and such practice is a complete waste of time.

During the practice, the stronger the will (purpose) and attention, the better the effect. The more passive and passive the practice, the longer it takes to master the work, and the interest in the work will inevitably decline. These are well known, but a reminder is necessary.

Developing good habits of concentration allows for clean and accurate technical movements and eliminates mistakes (like stiffness) that waste a lot of energy. Eliminating unnecessary and wrong movements can save practice time and the player will feel less tired.

Erhu teaching after the 20th century has paid more and more attention to practicing the piano with the mind. Facts have proved that pure mechanical physical exercises without the guidance of psychological factors cannot solve the technical problems of erhu playing. To pull a set of notes and learn a performance technique, the mind should direct the fingers and other performance organs to move, and the mind should move the fingers first, rather than simply relying on the fingers and other organs to move unconsciously and blindly (the so-called 'slip fingers'). . The headquarter of the erhu playing is in the head, and the fingers just follow the command of the headquarter to charge the soldiers. Therefore, the mind should be trained more than the fingers.

It should be said: if you do not practice the piano, you will not be able to play, because the flaws in the performance all reflect the problems existing in the piano practice. The speed of learning and progress in piano practice mainly depends on the efficiency of piano practice, and the efficiency of practice depends on the arrangement of piano practice and its guiding ideology and methods.

Mental fatigue caused by lack of interest in exercises and exercise content is more common. Confucius Day: "Those who know are not as good as those who are good, and those who are good are not as good as those who enjoy music." The pursuit of music and the pursuit of beauty can make people full of interest and perseverance.

3. On slow training

Slow down and you can go faster.

Slow training is the key to overcoming all technical obstacles.

Slow practice is like a "magnifying glass", which enlarges all the details in the music, so that the performer can carefully pay attention to every cell of the music. Through slow practice, the player is on a track that is playing correctly from the very beginning.

For training skills. Slow practice is absolutely essential. But at the same time, slow practice music pieces should be kept to a minimum as much as possible, such as only slow practice in those areas that are particularly difficult.

Slow practice is undoubtedly the foundation of fast playing, but slow practice does not give immediate results to fast playing. It is necessary to gradually increase the tempo from time to time and try to play fast, even if doing so temporarily loses intelligibility, this loss should be compensated by later practice at a slower pace.

All difficult techniques, if you slow down the speed several times, will not be difficult, that is to say, if you can do it and overcome it, you should do them as perfectly as possible first, and then gradually improve your proficiency. Get up to speed, so that there is nothing that technology is impossible to overcome.

4. On memorization

When viewing a new composition for the first time, both hands should be used together, as this is necessary to obtain, at least approximately, the inner musical image. (At the same time, it is beneficial to the training of visual spectrum ability. - Editor's Note) If you have mastered the gist of this piece, it is good to practice separately, because it can focus on the performance of one hand.

There are four ways to learn a piece of work:

(1) Read music on Erhu;

(2) Leaving the Erhu to read music;

(3) Don't read music on Erhu;

(4) Leaving the erhu without reading the score;

The second and fourth are the most mentally laborious and laborious methods, but they are the most conducive to the development of memory and what we call "insight," an extremely important talent

Thinking is the most important thing when learning music, because this kind of learning method, or memorizing notation, is from brain to hand, never reverse from hand to brain. I put a lot of emphasis on memorizing, because it's the best way to keep a piece of music in your hands forever.

To make oneself master a piece of music proficiently and often, in order not to develop the habit of wrong fingering, only need to read (pull) it through once; then start a section, two sections, or at most one sentence at a time according to the difficulty of the work, analyze its harmony, and determine the fingering. Then, re-read the measures you are practicing very carefully, until the notes are clearly recorded in your mind, then sing or read the names of the notes over and over again; then recite the measures or phrases; but not faster than the notes are written. quick. If you forget a note, don't touch the strings with your fingers or look for it with your ears, but use memory to retrieve it. If not, look at the sheet music again. When you can recite this phrase without any hesitation, you can practice it further using the prescribed method. Every time you join a new section, try to memorize it from the beginning. This is the "incremental mnemonic". If you forget everything you've learned the next day, don't be discouraged, and practice as before. After a few days of this practice, you will memorize quickly, and what you memorize will always be yours.

Students should be asked to recite most of the time.

Memorizing not only depends on the quality of memory, but also depends on the way of memorizing. It is possible to memorize notation in a sentence-by-sentence manner, that is, in small units while practicing, rather than rehearsing the whole large section or the whole song over and over again. Repeat the practice several times to memorize the eight bars; then recite the next eight bars; then connect the sixteen bars to memorize. In this way, the "addition" memorizing method is more effective. You can also not play on the piano, but rely on reading and memorizing, and then practice on the piano. Both methods should be mastered.

5. On repetition

Repetition is the mother of learning.

Whether it is for the least gifted or the most gifted, the old adage "repetition is the foundation of learning" is a rule.

Repeated practice is not always positive. Without clear purpose, understanding, and conscious control and correction, repetitive practice becomes a blind and non-selective process. Such practice will inevitably strengthen both the right and wrong elements in the performance, and it is usually many times more difficult for Jiao to make a wrong habit than to establish a new correct one.

Practicing erhu should not be a thoughtless repetition of time or number of times.

Each exercise should be targeted and analytical. Never spend most of your practice time repeating it over and over again. It is possible to number all the difficult pieces of the learned repertoire, and concentrate them on repeated practice, which is very effective in overcoming technical difficulties.

To "repeatedly practice in small units", you can either concentrate, focus on one practice, and do not change to another unless there is improvement; you can also break up and practice, that is, "practice only a few times at a time, and "small amount of meals" often Practice. The former is suitable when you start to practice, and the latter is suitable after you have practiced for a period of time.

6. On Practice Methods and Others

In the erhu teaching after the century, more and more attention was paid to the methods and methods of practicing the piano.

One of the most common mistakes students make is to keep playing a piece of music from beginning to end over and over again. As everyone knows, this kind of performance from beginning to end is really without any benefit, and it is extremely difficult to benefit or grow from it. A good practice is to break down the music into details and practice in small pieces, as if carefully filing each part first.

The amount of time to practice the piano every day should first depend on the time when you are highly concentrated and the degree of physical strength you can maintain. Therefore, it is closely related to age. Minor students should practice several times a day, and each time should not be too long (for example, about an hour).

Practicing the piano for too long in one day will often have adverse effects. Because in the final analysis, you can only benefit by focusing all your energy, and the practice of concentration can only last for a certain time. Once the energy is exhausted, all the following exercises are in vain.

Remember, when considering the quantity of exercises, you must consider the quality. As long as you concentrate and concentrate, it will not matter how long you practice.

Counting the beats out loud while practicing is invaluable because it develops and strengthens the sense of rhythm more than any other method, plus it's a consistently correct guide to the point of a friendly phrase.