How to Practice Etudes

It’s time to talk about etudes. More specifically how to practice etudes.

Practicing etudes can be tricky and dare I say mundane when you are trying to get them to that perfect level. Sometimes there is a tempo marking, sometimes you have a metronomic marking. I’m a firm believer in getting them to that metronomic marking, especially with Andersen Etudes.

So what do you do? How do you practice these to get them to the tempo that you want, to be able to play all the way through with confidence and concentration without making mistakes? Because, as we all know it’s not “practice makes perfect.” It’s perfect practice makes perfect.

We need to practice etudes perfectly

Let me give you a step step-by-step process for practicing etudes. I’ve used this with my students, and it’s been very effective. Hey, it’s been effective in my own life. This is how I attack any technical passage whether in etudes or solos. So let’s begin with looking at an etude.

The first thing to do is divide your etude into sections of perhaps 3-4 lines per section. Don’t worry about where the cadence points are placed. They are not terribly important at first. Take your pencil and mark out your 3 line sections.
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Next you will need a metronome. Use that metronome to find a tempo marking that allows you to play the sections perfectly. In other words, slowly. Scan the etude and look for a difficult line somewhere in the middle with a lot of accidentals. Use that line to find the tempo which will be painfully slow. If you can do that line without making mistakes then you know that’s the tempo to begin with. Then play the first 3 lines with that tempo.
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However, don’t just play those lines as written, but use a set of different articulations. I like to use the articulations from Taffanel and Gaubert’s #1. If you don’t have that book, go get that book and use those articulations.Then play those 3 lines with the metronome at the tempo that you know that you can play perfectly at with all 10 articulations. Once you accomplish that and feel good with it, then move the metronome up a couple clicks and do the same thing over again. After you’ve repeated this process then it’s time to move to the next 3 lines and repeat the steps. Once those first two sections are going well, then put both sections together and play through.
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Repeat this process all the way down the page. When you have worked on the whole thing and all of it is at the same tempo then play through the whole thing as written. Keep the metronome on and don’t allow yourself to stop for any reason.
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As you go through take your pencil and put an X on any measures where you made mistakes. The next day when practice, start with those X’ed passages. Go over them a few times to get them in your fingers. Then add the measure or two before and after the tricky passages. This will ensure that you can play through them.
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Repeat this process every day until you attain the tempo that you wish. When you start the day’s practice, slow down the metronome a click or two. But set a goal to end your practice at least as fast as you ended the prior day.
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As you get to know the etude, then you can begin adding phrasing, cadence points and dynamics.

I guarantee you that within a week or two you’ll probably have that etude where you want it to be. Plan on getting half way to your tempo the first week and the rest of the way the second week.

If you use this process you will learn a lot. Your fingers will have learned an amazing amount of control. Plus, they’ll probably have bumped up to a new level of technique.

Use this process for learning all of your solos too. It works!

Remember: slow gets you faster faster.

Have fun working on your etudes.

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this: How to Practice Etudes