what to do when you can’t think of what to do!!

• Every day warm up with a scale and arpeggios
• Spend time on your etude, study or exercise
• Spend time on performance pieces
• For more advanced students: practice double stops every day, whether in the book or in a piece

What to think about as you're practicing 
(if you haven’t learned any of these practice techniques yet, don’t sweat it! We’ll get to them soon enough):

• names of notes (especially in scales)
• staccato subdivide
• pronation of RH
• soft LH (especially thumb)
• no flyaway fingers on LH
• play slowly for intonation
• play pizzicato to focus on LH
• plan every shift and practice shifting up and back (especially focus on shoulder release)
• rooting to your center (no extraneous motion)
• practice at a moderate tempo with a metronome
• tone as a result of weight, speed, and placement of bow: experiment with different combinations (like close to the bridge with a slow bow, or close to the fingerboard with a fast bow...etc)
• practice sections in double stops
• use practice rhythms