6/30/25 How to Push Through Plateaus in Your Playing

We’ve all felt it—we made some great progress in our playing, we were all excited about our new skills or new piece we could now play, and then it’s a few months later and it feels like things are getting stale.

You’re getting tired of working on the same things—the same piece, the same etude—because your teacher says it still isn’t better. But you thought it was getting better, so now you’re not even sure you understand what better is.

It’s easy to get in ruts with our practicing and to hit plateaus that feel like we’re not improving.

My advice is to go ahead and practice the stuff you’re supposed to practice. Check it off the list. But then stop practicing and get playful.

Find a different piece to play, first of all. Something you love. Could be a tune or a section of a larger piece. Play it however you like, whatever feels like fun.

Then take one or two simple things to focus on that you were focusing on for your serious practicing. Let’s say it’s intonation. Or it could be your bow hold.

Then just focus on that one thing, intonation, let’s say, but on your new piece that you love.

Then pick another piece or tune you love. And do the same thing.

Use the ideas that your teacher is working on with you, but on new material.

Take it from being a chore you have to do, to being something you love to do.

Chances are you will actually do more good for the thing you are focusing on than if you were just slogging away at the same piece over and over, and you will soon move off that plateau and onto the next level of your playing.