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Why do people give up playing after just a little study? Usually not because it’s hard. Not because they hurt themselves. Not because instrument rental and lessons are too expensive.

No, the problem for most people is practicing. They want to play great, beautiful music, but what gets in the way is the daily drudgery of practicing. It’s like having a chance to go back in time to help Antonio Stradivari create an instrument, but spending most of your visit watching the varnish dry.

It shouldn’t be that way, says Philip Baldwin, assistant professor of violin and viola at Eastern Washington University. “Good practicing is creative practicing,” he insists.

Practicing shouldn’t be dull. But how do you make it more creative? Baldwin offers plenty of tips on how to avoid mindless repetition.

MAKE YOUR MARK
Mark bowings and fingerings in the score as soon as you decide on them; mark reference bowings so you can start in the middle of a phrase; use colored pencils for specific kinds of markings; use brackets to identify practice spots; mark tempos. Keep pencils handy, and use them!

Then you can avoid wasting time figuring out the same things again and again.

CLEAR THE WAY
When it comes to learning notes efficiently, Baldwin advocates what he calls the “Zamboni Effect.”

Zamboni is the make of the machine that cleans the ice at a skating rink.

“It eliminates all the grooves,” Baldwin explains. “In music, the grooves are the mistakes or the mis-coordinations that we make when we play. By completely reorganizing the way the music is practiced, your brain can learn in new ways; it’s not stuck in its old ruts.”

To achieve the Zamboni Effect, take a passage, eliminate the printed rhythm, and play the notes one at a time. Then regroup the notes into odd divisions, and practice this for awhile.

TRAIN YOUR EAR
Take a high passage down an octave. Sing through a passage for pitch and musical contour. Close your eyes and just listen to a passage in your head. Sing and play at the same time.

THE BIG PICTURE
At all times, keep your mind in motion, right from the beginning of your practice session. Baldwin is especially fond of a line from Robert Gerle’s The Art of Practising the Violin: “Think what you need to accomplish specifically during the day’s practice: three minutes spent thinking about your practicing before you start are worth three hours spent in aimless repetition, during which you only learn the bad better.”