Hi,

I am learning the violin at the moment.

I have a question on practising.

On a score with slurs and dynamics ,etc.

How do you guys practice?

Do you execute all the notations at one time while practising or you break them down such as :

First step: Learn to recognize notes first by practising using seperate bowing first.

second step: Add in the slurs as according to the score.

third step: Add in the dynamics.

etc. So how you guys practice? Do you do all the above at one go?

When I'm learning a new piece I play it through with slurs but without dynamics initially and then add in the dynamics as I become more familiar with the music.
Breaking the music down phrase by phrase can help with more technical passages.

I play the whole piece through once. Then I stop and check what I played against the score. Anything that I did wrong/not too well, I work through to get it right. Then I play it again, and so on.

If I'm practising a piece though, rather than sightreading, I divide it up into sections and apply the above to each section.

if it's not a complicated piece for me then I play through it making sure I have all the right notes (I do slurs), then I play it over and over again until I get confident and up to speed then add dynamics.

for a more complicated one I may just learn the first line or so or try to work out where to shift etc, If I find a particular bar quite tricky I practice this over and over to make it better, I may practice just that bar one day and go back to whole piece the day after.

dynamics for me is way the last thing.

Getting the rhythm right is the most important aspect.

Wrong notes (pitches) can be corrected, dynamics, slurs etc. can be learnt, but if the rhythm is played incorrectly from the first moment, then this will become rooted in your brain very quickly and difficult to correct.

that is SO true, thanks Amanda for reminding us of that one! I used to have difficulties with my piano pieces sometimes because I payed too much attention to the notes and not the rythm. I don't have that problem with violin, I think it's because of the two hands/two staves on piano that I found it harder.
Jo

Yes very true, thanks Amanda. If I'm going to have problems with any aspect of a piece then it will be the rhythm.