PRACTICING

Practicing your instrument is by far the most important, effective and fun way to improve your playing and understanding of music. The NCEA solo performance standard is designed on the assumption that students at this level are practicing for at least half an hour each day. On this page we'll explore some ideas on how to maximise your practice time so that you can get the best results for your efforts, and so that you feel inspired to practice on a daily basis.

Here's what some people on youtube think:

7 WAYS TO PRACTICE MORE EFFECTIVELY

1) Have a Clear Purpose

2) Create a Practice Schedule

3) Don't Over Practice

4) Isolate the Problem

5) Incorporate Practicality

6) Attack Concepts from Different Angles

7) Get it Right Slowly, then gradually get faster

Practice EFFECTIVELY

1) Be prepared to make mistakes

2) Practice Slowly

3) Break a song into smaller parts

4) Be Consistant

5) Keep yourself Accountable

Perfect Practice

The thee factors that will make your practice time really effective are:

1) Consistancy

2) Evaluation

3) Repetition

The One Thing

Evaluate yourself, and ask yourself the question 'What's the one thing I need to work on that will make everything else easier?"

The answer to this question will change over time as you develop as a musician, but core principals like time feel and technique need constant attention, no matter how far you progress.

PLAYING FAST

Saxophonist Dave Pollock gives some useful tips on how to practice playing difficult tunes at speed.

1) Break the music up into small sections

2) Drill the first section slowly (playing into the first note of the next section)

3) Gradually work up speed before moving on to the next section, then repeat step 2 with the next section.

4) Go back to the beginning and drill both sections together before moving on to section 3.

5) Once you've got the third section down, practice all three sections together.

6) Repeat this process until you've covered the entire piece.