Imagine you have to teach a 9-year-old a difficult piece of music. If he can play the piece perfectly in just one hour, you win a million dollars! Motivated? OK. So how are you going to do it? What will you advise the 9-year-old to do?

Should he play the piece from beginning to end without stopping? What about playing at top speed to get it fast? How about just playing the easy parts? Better yet, why not just listen to the teacher play it and imitate?

Here's a better idea: Try "Bare Bones" practice. Correcting mistakes is so much harder than learning first without them and "Bare Bones" practice is a step-by-step process to make sure mistakes never happen the first time.

Strip the piece to its bare essentials. Are there slurs? Take them out. Ties? Re-tongue or bow them. Ornaments such as grace notes and trills? They're outta there.

Figure out the rhythm: If the piece is in 4/4, mark the beats in 8/8. 3/4 becomes 6/8. If that's still too hard, how about a piece in 16/16? The more beats you mark per measure the less chance you have of messing up. Before playing, say the rhythm out loud.

Do everything to make the piece so easy it's almost impossible to mess up. Once the Bare Bones are learned, one by one add other elements including dynamics, slurs, and phrasing.

You may not win a million dollars, but you will easily, and correctly, learn the piece!

A few years ago, I read two articles about how to use your summer learning time. Article one suggested that the summer was the perfect time to spend two hours on scales and another two hours on etudes, then on to two more hours of repertoire to sharpen technique.

Article two suggested you go to the beach! The author believed that music is more than just scales and technique. Music is about life, and the more you know about life the better you can communicate.

I agree with the second author. Relax on the beach, travel, read, go to the movies, have dinner with friends.

Of course, summer is a good time to put in some extra practice, but don't forget to live life. A little break will leave you refreshed and happy to return to your practice. And your experiences will make you a more interesting person and a more interesting player.