OK, eating a piece of cake isn't going to solve the problem, but thinking of one as a model for your practice strategy just might. I'll get to the point. I think of the different challenges within a small chunk of music as the layers of a piece of cake. You might need to work on the notes, the rhythm, and the bowing, for example. You are better off working on only enough music at one time that you can solve all these layers before moving on to other spots. So, don't just work out the notes and keep going, for example. As the notes start getting easier, add a different layer by paying attention to the rhythm. But don't stop there. The more layers to your slice of cake the better.
There is some minimum number of layers just to get the "facts" correct. These are questions of right and wrong, mainly including the correct notes, correct rhythms in a steady tempo, and for young string players, the bowings as well. Other challenges are questions of quality, such as the beauty of the tone, precision of the intonation, or questions of expression relating to the feel of the music such as dynamics, line shaping, and so on. Every time you add another thing to notice and improve, you are adding a layer to the cake. It is necessarily a distraction from whatever else you were already thinking about to have to pay attention another thing. You will make mistakes. After you correct these, the bottom layers of the cake will be easier for you. They have to become more and more automatic in order for you to put your attention on new things.
If doing your list of stuff that has to be good about the chunk of music feels really hard, and you never get all of it correct at once, then you have too many layers. Find a small enough slice of cake (like one phrase or two measures) and decide what you will try to get right first. As you do, repeat without adding anything more until it starts to feel easy. Then add another layer, get it right, repeat to make it easy enough, and add another layer. The more layers you add the better, although there seems to be a point of 'enough' somewhere around eleven to fifteen. Most practicers don't come anywhere near that many.
So, more layers=good. Also, different kinds of layers=hard=good. So after you get the "facts" assembled, you could move into quality of sound, then intonation, but then add awareness of a physical habit (like released shoulders), then something that requires your expressive, feeling brain to engage. The different kinds of awareness are most disruptive and therefore push the other layers to get much easier.
So, practice with a slice of cake in mind, and try to get it as tall as possible.
There is some minimum number of layers just to get the "facts" correct. These are questions of right and wrong, mainly including the correct notes, correct rhythms in a steady tempo, and for young string players, the bowings as well. Other challenges are questions of quality, such as the beauty of the tone, precision of the intonation, or questions of expression relating to the feel of the music such as dynamics, line shaping, and so on. Every time you add another thing to notice and improve, you are adding a layer to the cake. It is necessarily a distraction from whatever else you were already thinking about to have to pay attention another thing. You will make mistakes. After you correct these, the bottom layers of the cake will be easier for you. They have to become more and more automatic in order for you to put your attention on new things.
If doing your list of stuff that has to be good about the chunk of music feels really hard, and you never get all of it correct at once, then you have too many layers. Find a small enough slice of cake (like one phrase or two measures) and decide what you will try to get right first. As you do, repeat without adding anything more until it starts to feel easy. Then add another layer, get it right, repeat to make it easy enough, and add another layer. The more layers you add the better, although there seems to be a point of 'enough' somewhere around eleven to fifteen. Most practicers don't come anywhere near that many.
So, more layers=good. Also, different kinds of layers=hard=good. So after you get the "facts" assembled, you could move into quality of sound, then intonation, but then add awareness of a physical habit (like released shoulders), then something that requires your expressive, feeling brain to engage. The different kinds of awareness are most disruptive and therefore push the other layers to get much easier.
So, practice with a slice of cake in mind, and try to get it as tall as possible.
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