![]() ![]() It is very seldom that more than 20% of a hard passage is the “real problem” and it is very common to see students practice the hard spot over and over, week after week, without ever identifying the exact nature of the problem or coming up with the reason behind it or the solution to it. Each difficulty should be isolated and reduced to its simplest terms so that it will be easy to devise and apply a practice procedure for it.” Intonation, shifting, rhythm, speed of a particular bowing, the coordination of the hands, and so on, or a combination of several of these. ![]() “Whenever technical problems are encountered, they must be analyzed to determine the nature of the difficulty. When analyzing each problem spot before practicing, try to do what violinist and pedagogue Ivan Galamian so famously suggested in his book Principles of Violin Playing: Step 2: Identify the real problem inside the problem However, when starting to learn the work in more detail, spend 80% of your practice time dedicated to the 20% of the work that contains the most difficult passages. When learning a new work, it is important to play it through several times to get a feeling for the whole work. If you are using sheet music, make a copy of the music, put it in a folder or binder, and label or mark the most difficult parts with a pencil. If your music is on an iPad, mark all the difficult parts with one color. Applying the Pareto principle to your own practice Step 1: Identify the 20% of the work that is most difficult It’s not just important to “work hard” and “work smart,” but also to work smart on the right things. Of course, the 20/80 rule might not always represent exactly the right ratio between what is hard and what is not hard, but the Pareto principle should remind us to focus our energy on the smaller part of a work that contains the real difficulties. ![]() With this in mind, find the 20% of a piece or a movement that is the most difficult and dedicate 80% of your time to that. Since we all have limited time, we must spend our most productive time on the 20% of tasks that really matter. It can be applied in several ways toward practicing a musical instrument or to studying and gaining new knowledge. This principle has been proven over and over in a variety of applications to hold a universal truth. He developed the principle by first observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. In 1906 the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered that 20% of the Italian population owned 80% of the nation’s wealth. The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, approximately 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. ![]()
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