Using The Three Minute Rule To Rocket Your Skills

  1. Thom
  2. January 10, 2008 3:29 am

As stated in the classroom analogy, it is difficult to efficiently process multiple sources of information and consciously retain all of it. It is for this reason that we learn to split concepts and techniques in their practice. Aside from your normal routine of running through music and scales, take the time to skyrocket your techniques through the Three Minute Rule.

Say you have a triplet spiccato arpeggio. You first want to make sure that you understand the proper form and etudes dedicated to this particular technique. Using this knowledge, spend three full focused minutes practicing with perfect accuracy.

  • Use a stopwatch or egg timer to keep track. When the three minutes are up, move on to your next technique.
  • Think of it as watering your plants daily; soon it will blossom into a beautiful garden of flowers!

The strategy breaks down like this:

1. Choose a technique.

2. Dedicate three minutes per technique to proper form and improvement.

3. Practice daily.

Edit: 6/20/11  Though the Three Minute Rule can be helpful to make sure you are hitting each technique daily, remember not to race through things, concentrate and focus on proper execution. Spend proper amount of time working on difficult techniques to ensure proper understanding and application.

1 Comment

  1. Shang says:
    Posted October 5, 2008 at 9:38 am | Permalink

    Hi Thom, thank you for the tips, as i think its a good piece of advice in-order to improve the playing skills, thank a lot for sharing.

    **by the way i am quite new to violin, just curious how many skills are there in violin (basics will do) thank you.


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