Practice Tips, Videos and Websites
When practicing:
- Try to pick a consistent time to practice everyday, instead of changing that time every practice session. Practice for 20-30 minutes.
- Warm-up for 2-3 minutes before practicing your homework. Play your rhythm charts on a certain note and do your exit proficiencies! Focus on using lots of air, sitting with good posture and playing with the best tone (or quality of sound) possible.
- When practicing your homework exercises use these steps:
- Clap and Count the Rhythm (if you learn a rhythm incorrectly it will take a long time to undo.)
- Point to the notes and sing the note names.
- Sing and do the Fingerings.
- Play
- Be sure to find the tough measure 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.
*Remember, "Practice does not make perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect."*
Videos:
Practice Websites, Composition Tools, More Videos, and GAMES!
Include these in your practice logs.
GoBando.com - Learn how to play songs you hear on the radio on your instrument!
Instrument Tone Videos - Listen and watch videos of professional on every instrument!
Music Racer- how fast are you note reading and fingering skills?
DJ Rick's Music Mixer-create your own music and cool beats.
Happy Note- makes reading music a fun game.
Whack-a-Note- just like Whack-a-Mole.
Incredibox- create your own music and cool beats.
Odogy - Practice your favorite songs with original recordings and video!
iNudge - create your own music and cool beats.
NoteFlight - create your own music and learn how to notate music.
Soundation - create your own music and cool beat. Very similar to GarageBand.