Another good practice day

I wanted to go on and on and on tonight, but the clock struck 12 and I needed to stop, so I did. I had a really great practice session tonight. One a forum I frequent (but don't post at often), there was a thread about biggest mistakes a person can make while practicing. I took the advice given there to heart. So my method of practicing I used tonight was to start playing the songs through and as soon as I hit a wrong note, I drilled that particular section 40, 50 times or more. I have no idea how many times. I didn't count. Some sections that I drilled were only a measure long, or sometimes even shorter. I played my Schubert Impromptu through once and it took me 40 minutes with all the drills I did. This piece normally takes 10 minutes to play, and I'm fairly proficient at it. I believe this may have been one of the pieces I auditioned with for my piano scholarship, but it's been 13 years so don't quote me on that. Since it was so perfected at one point, my fingers still "know" the piece pretty well, but there's always improvements to be made.

Then I went to my Chopin Nocturne and I used the same technique. I got through 3 measures before the clock struck 12. I think this piece will take me a full hour or, more likely, longer to practice in this manner. I'd like to continue practicing this way, though. I feel like I accomplished a lot more today. Perhaps I'll work on one page at a time in this way until I can practice it this way with it only taking me a half hour. Hm.

So I got in a full hour of practicing today. But I did do some improve earlier in the day. My husband stayed up at a coworker's this evening because he was so tired and traffic was so bad, so I intended to practice from about 9 or 10 until midnight, and I put the kids to bed at 7 to plan for that. Alas, they didn't fall asleep until about 10, 10:15, and I didn't want to risk waking them up by practicing right away! So I made crackers until 11 and then got in my hour. Maybe someday I'll be able to get in the 2-3 hours a day that I really need.