Practice Tips and Resources

When practicing:

• Try to pick a consistent time to practice everyday. It's easy if you practice as part of your daily homework routine! Practice for 10-15 minutes and work you way up to 20-30 as the school year goes on.
• Warm-up for 2-3 minutes before practicing your homework. Play your rhythm charts on a certain note and do your scale exercises! Focus on using lots of air, sitting with good posture and playing with the best tone (or quality of sound) possible.
• Use a metronome and tap your toe to keep the beat for yourself!

Free Online Metronome: Click here!

When practicing your homework exercises use these steps:

1. Clap and Count the Rhythm (if you learn a rhythm incorrectly it will take a long time to undo.)
2. Point to the notes and sing the note names.
3. Sing and do the Fingerings.
4. Play

• Be sure to find the tough measures and work on those before trying to play the whole piece or exercise. Challenge yourself to not move on until the hard measures are correct.
• Repetition: Try to play the difficult measures correctly 5 times in a row. If you can do it 5 times in a row you are less likely to make a mistake later.
• End your practice session by playing something you love to play and something you play well.
• Perform for your family, friends, neighbors, siblings, and pets as much as possible so they can see what you've learned!