As an aspiring Singaporean violinist, there will be challenges that you will face which may not be faced by violinists living in other countries. The following are certain techniques and strategies you should incorporate into your practice routine so that you can improve your violin playing skills and achieve your musical goals – specific to Singaporean musicians.
Prioritize practice sessions on the violin
First of all, you want to establish a practice routine by prioritizing your practice sessions, and not having them as an afterthought. This can be especially hard for Singaporeans because adult learners have a very busy work schedule, and work some of the longest hours and for the most days in the week compared to many Europeans or Americans. Even for younger learners such as those still studying in MOE schools in Singapore, they have way more homework and project work than people from Europe or US. As a result of that, if you let life take control of the wheels, then it will be nearly impossible to get any kind of practice sessions on the violin if you treat it as an afterthought. You need to prioritize your violin practice sessions and establish a routine.
Keep practice short but consistent and frequent
Second of all, keep your practice sessions short but consistent. You also need to be realistic and understand that being consistent is more important than keeping at an impossible rate. If your work or study schedule is very busy, which many Singaporeans’ are, then keep your practising sessions on the violin to be short 15 to 30 minutes each time. When you keep it short, it is much more likely you will be able to keep to it even over very long periods of time. Sustainability is much more important for success over time.
Use the metronome
Third of all, playing in time is crucial to become a great violinist. While using a metronome is the norm in many other countries, many Singaporeans do not like using metronome for some unknown reasons. If you want to become great at violin playing, then it is important to use the metronome right from day one as it helps you develop a strong sense of rhythm.
Practice with a clear purpose each time
Next of all, you should practise with a purpose. Many Singaporean violinists, especially younger ones, tend to practise for the sake of practising. This is because of the kiasu (afraid to lose) mentality in Singapore, and parents either force their children to practise non stop or in a bid to progress faster than their friends, practise non stop on the violin, but without any kind of purpose or specific goals. This is bad. Progress is what you want and any practice session on the violin without a clear goal or objective is just going to result in your skills being stagnant while wasting time. Each session should focus on improving a particular aspect of your violin skills.
If you want to become a great violinist even within a short period of time, consider signing up for one of our violin lessons in Singapore taught by our professional and qualified violinist teachers. With our private one to one coaching sessions, you will able to progress extremely quickly and leapfrog over others easily!