Doing Time vs Setting Goals

[elconquistador]

First of all, thank you too all the people on here that gave me some great advice which is simply: set goals rather than do a specified amount of time on one practice.

So when doing hanon, arpeggios, scales, should I set a goal a 10 times perfect at a specific tempo?

Or should I just use exercises specific to the music pieces that I'm studying? Like if I'm playing something in EbMaj that goes into it's relative minor then I should only study and practice those scales, and if it has arpeggios then I should practice those ones instead of practicing all scales and arpeggios?

Also, could someone share with me how they approach a new piece of music? I always like to hear how others practice. Thank you so much! I love this forum!

[brogers70]

An example of the sort of goal I find helpful is something like this. Say I'm working on E major arpeggios in the right hand; I find that my 3rd finger tends to hit the B too hard producing an unintended accent. So I break up the descending arp into units of 4 16ths and a quarter note (E-B-G#-E-B, then B-G#-E-B-G#, etc). Then I focus on making the last three sixteenths sound like an upbeat aiming at the final quarter. Then I work on my hand position and relaxation and arm movement or whatever it takes to get that rhythmic feel without an unintended accent from my 3rd finger. Then I put the arpeggio together and make sure it sounds even, without bumps or unwanted accents.

That goal might take a few days to reach, so each day I just work at it until I feel a noticeable improvement and then come back the next day and keep at it.