Practice makes perfect, or at least that’s what they said. Truth is, unless your utilizing the keys listed below, there’s a good chance your practice is taking you nowhere great.
Practice alone doesn’t ensure any kind of perfection. Like it or not, there’s a vast different between sitting down and playing an instrument versus buckling down and practicing an instrument.
And while there’s a time and place for both, only with correct practice will your playing become better.
So how do you optimize your practice time and make sure you are actually going somewhere?
1. Create the right atmosphere. Eliminate potential distractions. Grab any supplies you may need, whether it’s a sharp pencil, a few highlighters, erasers, a timer, metronome and tuner. Have these things handy and ready to go. Don’t kill precious practice minutes searching the house for these necessities.
2. Set a goal. Whether you’re practicing for 30 minutes or two hours, what are you hoping to accomplish with your instrument? Also check your lesson assignment to be sure you’re practicing the correct songs and exercises.
3. Begin with a warm-up. Unless you’re a beginner and just starting out, start your practice time with a short exercise, scale, or arpeggio. An athlete knows better than to start a marathon without a few stretches and exercises first. The same holds true for a musician. Don’t dive into your longer pieces without first warming up your fingers with a few exercises. In addition, get creative with those opening scales by utilizing different rhythms, various groupings, and alternating accents.
4. Identify the hard spots. I can’t stress this point enough. If you’re looking to get anywhere in music, it’s pretty much mandatory to steer away from simply playing an entire piece and then moving on. Rather, when first looking through a piece, identify the hard spots. Which measures are giving you problems? Separate these parts out and consider what’s wrong. Is your fingering incorrect? Perhaps your rhythm is twisted? Or maybe the notes are just all wrong? Whatever the problem, consider how you’ll fix it. If you’re struggling with a group of fast notes, try repeating the passage with different rhythms. If you’re fumbling with the rhythm, drop the notes and just clap the rhythm several times until it feels comfortable.
And always, start slow. Far too often, I see students approach a difficult part of a song, quickly blunder through it, and continue on. When this happens, not only are you not correcting any mistakes, you’re also reinforcing the mistakes you’re already making. (Not good!) So when you make a mistake, the first thing to do is slow down. If you’re still making mistakes, go even slower.
Even if you’re feeling like you might lose to a snail, slow the piece down until you can play the hard spot with no mistakes. Then? As you continue playing the notes perfectly, gradually work the tempo faster little by little until you’re back to performance speed.
After mastering a hard spot, begin playing several measures prior to the hard spot and practice playing in and out of your mastered hard spot.
5. Stay Engaged. Allow your brain to disengage, say hello to boredom, and kiss long term progress good-bye. While short term memory can help fix a hard spot today, tomorrow the problem will be right back if you’re not actively engaging your brain while practicing. The fact is simple: increase your mental activity today and you’ll have greater long-term retention tomorrow.
To sidestep boredom and poor long term results, avoid practicing for long periods of time on a single section. Instead, pick a few hard spots that need work and then alternate practicing between them. Practice the first hard spot for three minutes, rotate to the next hard spot for three minutes, focus on a third hard spot for three minutes, and then go back and start again on the first spot. Practicing this way will help keep the brain engaged which means you’ll be less bored, more goal-oriented and more productive. Plus, the next day you’ll be able to keep moving ahead rather than having to return to the same hard spots only to tackle them all over again. Not convinced? Check out this article.
6. Don’t always start at the beginning. Working in tandem with the previous point, don’t waste your time always starting at the beginning of a piece. Sure, it’s fun to play a beautiful beginning, but unless the rest of the song is given due attention, come performance time that beautiful beginning will roll into a rough and under-practiced ending. So go ahead, grab some initiative and jump right to the hard spots. Once those are mastered, then go back and start from the beginning.
7. Visualize the music. Perhaps you’re away from your instrument and have a few minutes to think. Go ahead and visualize how your music will sound. Picture the notes in your head, focus on little musical details, and engage your mind in some seriously effective practice time.
8. Write on your music. Yes, you’re totally allowed. If you’re borrowing your music, make copies and write all over your music sheets. Whether it’s adding correct fingering, circling a hard spot, or highlighting a dynamic, take the liberty to add notes throughout your piece that will help you next time around.
9. Record yourself. Or film yourself, whichever you prefer. Then go back, listen to yourself and look for any areas you might change. Do you like how you sound? How can you make it better?
And of course, have fun. Learning an instrument is hard work, reward yourself on occasion. It could be as simple as playing a few of your favorite pieces after you’re finished practicing, or snatching an ice-cream cone on the way home from your next lesson.
Regardless, cheers to more effective practice time and some serious long-term improvement!
P.S. If you are a parent wondering what some of the musical jargon above means (i.e. dynamics, scales, groupings, etc.), I invite you to come along for your child’s next music lesson and feel free to ask any questions. 🙂
