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Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to the irrepressible joy of making music, which he communicates. (Taken from his biography from https://itzhakperlman.com/)

He said in an Instagram post:

“When you practice it has to be slow. You cannot practice impatiently. You know, putting in the time of practicing is not enough. I would rather you practice with your head for two hours and somebody else just mindlessly for eight because that doesn’t work. So I can tell you if you want to practice really correctly, Number 1: SLOWLY.

Number 2: HAVE AN AGENDA. Why do you want to practice? You know, make sure that you practice in small sections. You want to make sure that you don’t repeat anything without actually hearing what you’re doing because when you repeat certain things and for example let’s say that you practice something for the bow and you keep repeating it and you’re playing it slightly out of tune then you are actually practicing to play out or tune. That’s why you have to listen really carefully to what you’re doing and so on so I know that this is very, very general but at least the important thing is to do it very slowly and to do it in small sections and to have patience. If something sounds great on Monday and it does not sound so good on Tuesday don’t give up. It means that it’s not yet there. Keep practicing slowly again and again and by Wednesday it will be slightly better and by Thursday it will be even more better but patience is very, very important.”