Technique Jar

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Ingredients:
2 large jars (can be plastic or glass but large enough for your hand to reach in to bottom of the jar)
Many slips of paper (approximately 1" by 2") 

1. a) On the slips of paper you will write the name of EACH individual technical requirement.
   b) Be sure that if hands should be separate then two slips of paper be used.
   c) Be sure that the chords have separate slips of paper for hands and for solid and broken. 

2. Put both jars on top of your piano, with the jar full of slips of paper in it on the left hand side. 

3. Take one slip of paper out of the jar and play what is written on it. If you’ve played it well, then put the slip of paper into the jar on the right hand side. If it is NOT good enough, then practise it repeatedly until fine. Then put the slip into the jar on the right hand side. 

4. Continue in this fashion, taking a new slip out of the left-hand jar and putting into the right-hand jar, until all the slips of paper are now in the right-hand jar. 

5. Switch the jars so that the full jar is on the left-hand side of the piano. 

6. Repeat Steps 3, 4, and 5, until your exam.

It is not necessary to get through the jar in one practising session. If the slips of paper are always going from the left to the right, then you do not have to remember which one to take from the next time you sit down to practise. You will find that the more times you go through the jar, the faster it will be to practise your technique. Remember, if it is good enough, don't play it again. Spend your time efficiently on the technique that needs it.