Practicing is hard work! And practicing is not usually fun. So why practice? Because it is the ONLY way to become a better musician. If being a better musician matters to you, practicing is a must! But don’t waste your time when you practice. Be smart about it. Follow these 5 tips for better practice.
Better Practice Tip #1 – FOCUS
You must focus while you are practicing if you want to be a better musician. Eliminate the distractions! Silence your phone, turn off the TV, retreat to a quiet space, and concentrate on practicing. You must be able to listen and think while you practice.
You can accomplish more in a short amount of time when you have a focused objective.
Better Practice Tip #2 – ISOLATE
Isolate the problem spots in your music and intensely work on those spots until you can play them correctly every time. Don’t spend your time just playing through a piece hoping that your errors self-correct. Not going to happen! Find the problem spots, identify the mistakes you are making, and correct them! This is efficient practicing!
Mistakes are . . . immensely useful. . . they show us . . . where we are right now and what we need to do next
William Westney
Better Practice Tip #3 – RHYTHM
Learn to play all the rhythms in your music correctly. Music is more than just quarter notes and eighth notes. Conquer all those weird and tricky rhythm patterns! How? Mark the places in your music where the rhythm confuses you. Write out the counting if you need to. Clap the rhythm patterns to cement the correct pattern in your mind. Then, practice playing it slowly. Gradually work the passage up to tempo. If you need help, ask someone – your teacher, band director, orchestra conductor, another musician.
Be better than you were yesterday.
Better Practice Tip #4 – SLOW
Spend time practicing slowly! I cannot emphasize this enough. When you play up to tempo, it is easy to fool yourself into thinking that you are playing everything correctly, especially when you are playing in a group. But when you do slow practice, you can hear every section where you have troubles. Are your eighth notes uneven? Do you skip over some of the notes in a sixteenth note passage? Slow practice will make all those errors obvious – and then you will know exactly what you need to work on. Remember this: If you cannot play a passage well slowly, you will not play it well at a faster tempo. Slow practice points out all your deficiencies so you can correct them.
If you can play it slow, you can play it fast.
Better Practice Tip #5 – MUSICIANSHIP
Playing all the notes correctly and perfectly performing all the rhythm patterns does not make you a good musician. You may be good technically, but musicianship goes far beyond that! A good musician turns the notes on the page into art for the ears and transforms the score’s black and white into beautiful colors that speak to our hearts. So, practice the dynamic changes. Perfect the expressive elements of your music. Give every note a sense of direction. Pour passion into your music by practicing it that way. Give your music some love!
You practice and you get better. It’s very simple.
Phillip Glass
If you add these 5 smart strategies to your practicing routine, you will make your practice time more efficient, escalate your musical progress, and become a better musician. So, go for it! Go forth and practice!
For more information about practicing see the following articles:
When Your Child Doesn’t Want to Practice
