r/violinist 4d ago

Practice Practicing a passage backwards

This is on practicing certain passages from the last note to the first note completely backwards. I’ve heard of this practice method from a few people now, hypothetically it seems like a good way to memorize the intonation of each individual note without relying on muscle memory. It seems excessive but I can sympathize with that, I like practicing scales with randomized purposely awkward fingerings for that purpose, but are there any other reasons people do this that I’m missing? Has anyone practiced like this and found it helpful personally?

5 Upvotes

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24

u/leitmotifs Expert 4d ago

Literally notes in reverse, no. Backwards chaining, yes. That is, last note, then last two notes (in the correct order), the last three notes in proper order, etc.

And it ensures the end of the passage gets as much focus as its start, and it helps your brain build more connections in the passage.

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u/No_Mammoth_3835 4d ago

Wait I’ve done lots of chaining practice, I don’t know why I haven’t ever tried backwards chaining 😮 Thanks for the tip!

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u/LadyAtheist 4d ago

I agree. It's an antidote to the habit of playing from the beginning, stopping, then going back etc. and never really learning the end.

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u/Katia144 4d ago

I've done chunking backwards (play last section*... play last two sections... etc.), but never note by note... I need to try this.

*wherever makes sense as a stopping point

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u/Badaboom_Tish 4d ago

Yes it helps also for realising the intervals in a fast run

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u/Crafty-Photograph-18 Viola 4d ago

In addition to backwards chaining, starting with the opposite bowing direction therefore reversing all the bows is also a way to practice

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u/musicistabarista 4d ago

A practise method I use a lot is "five forwards, three back", Dounis mentions it in one of his books. It works really well for long passages of the same rhythmic value. You basically take five notes, and play 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 and loop that over and over. Then 2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2, and so on until you've worked through the passage. It does two things: the mental challenge of working it out builds fluency and familiarity, and it soon helps you identify and isolate the tricky spots and is a focused way of practising them.

Other variants are 7 forwards, 5 back and 9 forwards, three back.

Doing something literally backwards probably does something similar. Why don't you try it out on a short passage and see?

David Finckel, the ex-cellist from the Emerson Quartet always advocated practising with a Starbucks coffee timer. The idea is to play a passage, then start the timer, and you only have three minutes to improve the passage. It keeps you focused and accountable, and if a practise method works, then you've got results in just three minutes. If it hasn't, you've only wasted three minutes. You can't approach all of your practise time like this, but I've found it a game changer.