Practice Routine for an Adult Suzuki Student?

[FortyNothing]

Hi,

I'm considering trying out the Suzuki Method for violin. I have Book 1 already, I just need to figure out a good practice routine.

I have a teacher who is familiar with Suzuki, but lets me play whatever I want.

I have 20+ years of previous music experience, so my general music theory is pretty good

I just want to know what people who have done Suzuki or teach Suzuki would recommend for a daily structured (possibly timed) practice routine.

I usually practice between 1 and 2 hours every day.

[Stephen Fine]

So... Suzuki...

In addition to your 1-2 hours of carefully structured practice per day you should be taking a lesson per week and attending a group lesson and listening to your repertoire as much as possible.

Suzuki's Mother Tongue Method doesn't require that you push yourself.  Suzuki's theory is that we are all quite naturally programmed to pick up music like a language.  Immerse yourself in music and you will become a better player.

That's sorta the Suzuki-specific answer to your question.

But it seems like you might want more direction in your practice... have you thought about pulling out an egg timer for discipline?  If you're doing an hour...

10 minutes right hand calisthenics (Suzuki Tonalization, slow bows, finger/hand exercises)

10 minutes left hand calisthenics (Suzuki shifting etudes, Wohlfahrt/Kayser/Kreutzer etudes)

10 minutes scales (Accelerating scales, different keys, always starting slowly)

10 minutes slow intonation work on your repertoire

10 minutes slow dynamics work on your repertoire

10 minutes whatever is left

[gwie]

The basic Tonalization exercise that starts on G natural on the D string from Book 2 onwards can be played in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions. It's useful to do that to work on the shape of the hand frame, and ensure that one can consistently hit the ringing tones in tune regardless of which finger is playing which note.

For the left hand exercises, I would look at the finger pattern exercises of Schradiek as well as the 1-finger scales of Yost ahead of delving into etude books. Those exercises really reduce the individual technical problems of interval spacing in the fingers and movement of the left arm system down to their smallest components.

For bow strokes, especially working on the sautille, I like using Perpetual Motion and Etude from book 1. While they are simple pieces, one can ramp up the challenges significantly by applying various bowing patterns. One of my students who was working on the written bowing for Paganini 5 recently discovered that playing  Etude using that same bowing (three down, one up) was a real exercise.