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Practicing is the key ingredient to success in playing an instrument. It is imperative students are practicing in order to build the muscles and memory necessary to feel successful on their instrument. At Parkview, it is required that all students practice the minimum of 20-30 minutes daily.
Practicing is the key ingredient to success in playing an instrument. It is imperative students are practicing in order to build the muscles and memory necessary to feel successful on their instrument. At Parkview, it is required that all students practice the minimum of 20-30 minutes daily.
Helpful Practice Tips:
Helpful Practice Tips:
Set aside the same time each day to practice - this helps establish a good practice routine
Always warm-up before beginning to play
Brass Players- warm up with lip-slurs and sirens
Woodwind Players - warm up with long tones
All 7-8th graders - warm up with scales
Use a metronome, download a metronome app for free from the app store, or use a free online metronome (see link below), to help keep a consistent tempo. Then practice and play along with the metronome, always!
Use your pencil! Mark, circle, and write helpful hints and tips all over your music that will help you perform better. Leave yourself notes - you don't have to remember everything! Feel free to write in tricky rhythm countings, write in accidentals in the music or an odd fingering here and there, but DO NOT get into the habit of writing in all of the note names or fingerings as this will only hurt you in the long run.
Play through the challenging music - when you come across a measure that is tough: Stop, Slow Down, and Break Down tough measures or sections. Practice those parts or measures over and over until they are more comfortable. Then put it back together with measures surrounding it and eventually speed back up to the tempo.
Use helpful listening tools
Download or listen to the accompaniment tracks for every exercise in your red, blue or green band book. Play along with these accompaniment tracks so you can hear the correct pitches and feel like you are playing with a band! Check the back cover of your book for either a CD or a unique online code that can be used to access the IPS (Interactive Practice Studio) to download or play along with practice tracks. The best part is.... IT'S FREE when you purchased your book! (See link below to the IPS practice studio)
If you are practicing sheet music, listen to the professional recordings of the pieces found online. JW Pepper has a lot of great recordings that you can listen to for free. Simply search the name of the piece and/or composer in the search bar and listen to the recording of the song. (See JW Pepper link below)
End with something fun to play or something you feel successful at.
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