Practicing Tips
Below are tips for establishing a good practice routine as well as tips for how to practice more challenging music.
TIPS FOR PRACTICING
At some point in every musicians’ musical study, they will encounter music that is difficult to master. This is a normal occurrence, and even happens to seasoned professionals. Having strategies in place to effectively practice will help students overcome more difficult music, and will actually reduce their practice time overall, with better results.1) Don’t try to master the entire piece in one practice session. Pick 1-2 measures to concentrate on mastering. Stick to those until they happen effortlessly before moving on. You may pick a goal of a couple of measures, or a line of music per day, depending on how quickly you need to learn the music.
2) Make sure you are confident of all of the notes (their name and how to play them on your instrument) before trying to put them together in the music. If you are trying to play notes you don’t know, you are just going to get frustrated. Take some time to look up how to play the notes, practice playing those notes individually, and when you feel comfortable and confident, start working on the music where the notes happen.
3) Practice slowly at first. It is always better to be slow and correct than fast and wrong. Only work on going faster when you feel like the music is super easy at the slower speed.
4) Know that harder music is going to take longer to master. It will not happen in a matter of minutes. You will have to practice it longer (more time), and more frequently (more days), for it to become easier.
5) If you are getting very frustrated, take a couple minute break. Set your instrument down, get a drink, snack, etc. and then come back when you have given yourself some time to relax.
6) Identify measures of music that repeat or have patterns. Sometimes looking at an entire piece of music can be very intimidating, but if you take some time to scan through the music, you will see there are patterns, and places that the music repeats itself. Recognizing this will make you feel more accomplished (and relieved) when you realize that there is less music to master then what it looks like.
7) Practice daily (or close to it). If you don’t review the parts that you worked on, you are likely to forget what you did, and have to start all over again.
8) If available, listen to recordings of what you need to play. You will be able to hear if you are playing the notes and rhythms correctly. However, if the recording is fast, don’t be tempted to play it at the recorded speed until you can play it slowly and accurately.