Practice Advice from Dorothy DeLay

Five Hours
(all hours are 50 minutes on, 10 minute break)
1: Basics such as left hand articulation, shifting vibrato and right hand bow strokes
2: Repertoire passages, arpeggios and scales
3: Etudes and Paganini
4: Concerto
5: Bach or solo recital repertoire
Dorothy even has an answer for those with orchestral commitments during their study
(probably most of us!). On orchestra days only hours 1, 3 and 4 are expected.
Basics
Vocabulary to know: "round turn" is the term used for one "repetition" of each exercise. In the
sounding point exercise, a round turn is from fingerboard to bridge and back, in the speed
exercise it is from fast to slow bow, in the pressure exercise it is from low to high pressure and
back to low, and on the hair exercise it is from one hair to full hair.
1. Sounding Point. Place the bow on any FINGERED note on any string (preferably D or A, but
you should work the E and G once in awhile too). Begin by moving from the fingerboard
sounding point to the bridge sounding point and back again over the course of a full bow (one
round turn), making sure that there's lots of vibrato and a clean, pure sound all the way. As you
feel more comfortable increase the number of round turns to 64 per bow (as you put more round
turns per bow, the distance travelled will be less, and the variation between sounding points will
be less--that's OK as long as there is some distinction). Oh, and cut the vibrato at 32 round
turns ;)
2. Speed. In a similar manner--choose a sounding point and start your bow very very quickly,
making sure to isolate speed only (use very little pressure) and slow it gradually so that at the tip
or frog you're moving the bow extremely slowly (one round turn). Work up to about 16 round
turns per bow (my max so far!)

3. Pressure. You should probably know exactly what I'm going to say...start off with no pressure,
increase gradually to full pressure, and then back off gradually to where you started over the
course of one bow. Increase the number of round turns per bow to something that's challenging
but comfortable (no cracks, etc, in sound). Remember, always keep that vibrato going.
4.Hair. Start on one hair, and go to full hair gradually, and then back off to where you started
over the course of one bow (one round turn). Increase the number of round turns per bow...you
catch my drift ^^
If you can get your hands on a copy of THE "practice schedule" (that thing seems almost biblical
to me!) by all means do it--those exercises along with all the stuff outlined in there are fantastic
(they've helped me tremendously) but you really do need to do them in conjunction with all the
other stuff.
Concertos Sequence

Group I
Bach A minor/E major
Haydn G Major and C Major
Kabalevesky
Mozart #2, #3, #4, #5
Conus
Bruch G Minor
Mendelssohn
Khatchaturian
Barber
Wieniawski d minor and F# minor
Lalo
Dvorak
Vieuxtemps #2, #4, #5
Saint-Saens #1 and #3
Paganini #1

Group II
Tchaikovsky
Sibelius
Brahms
Prokofiev D minor
Bartok
Glazunov
Beethoven
Group III
Berg
Walton
Elgar
Stravinsky
Shostakovich
Other 20th Century...

Dorothy Delays Concertos Seq