New students are often told to ‘practice, practice practice!’ but are just as often never taught how to practice effectively. In this busy age it is more important than ever to maximize the efficiency of your practice so that each minute is most useful to you. With this in mind, I’ve prepared a list of tips and tricks which I use when I practice. I hope you find them helpful!
1.) Take time to warm up
Don’t launch into the most difficult parts of your music to start. It’s important to take a couple of minutes to just get used to the instrument in your hands. Pluck some open strings. Get comfortable. Start slowly. Breathe. There is a huge mental aspect to making music, and if you don’t take time to get into the proper headspace, you will find yourself struggling more than you need to.
2.) Establish constancy
Your practice is most rewarding when it is done every day. I know it’s a cliche’d line, but it’s one of the most important aspects to learning music. Reinforcing what you know daily is the quickest way to get material under your fingers.
But…
3.) Less is more.
Practicing can be a daunting task, especially if a student feels like he or she needs to practice for long periods at a time. I’ve found several 10, 15, or even 5 minute sessions throughout the day to be more helpful than one marathon session per week. If you find the time for a couple of hours at once, go for it, but don’t feel pressure to make time to practice that you don’t have.
4.) Focus your time
Practicing for several short bursts is only effective if you know in advance what you’re going to be working on. Have a theme for your sessions, and don’t be afraid to pick something really specific. ‘For 10 minutes I’ll work on smoothly transitioning from playing over a C chord to an F chord’ is a good example. Ten minutes of focused, goal-oriented playing is worth hours of unfocused playing.
5.) Focus on things you don’t know, review things you do
It’s ok to make mistakes when you practice! It’s almost a necessity. You get the most value out of working on things you are still uncomfortable with. Then, once the session is winding down you can relax and play through things you know well as a warm down.
6.) Don’t practice to ‘get better’
At first, this seems like counterintuitive advice, but it’s important to understand. Practicing will not make you better at once. If by the end of your session it still needs work, don’t worry. Practice is an ongoing process of familiarization. The more familiar you are with something, whether its holding the instrument, playing a tune, or picking a string, the easier it is to play. Ease of playing will always translate to a ‘better’ sound! So strive, above all else, to become familiar with what you play, not better.
You’ll know you’re making progress not because the music sounds perfect, but because it begins to feel like it takes less mental effort to play.
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“Each of you is perfect the way you are…and you can use a little improvement.”
“If you understand the point of practice, then even without a bow and arrow the archery will help you. How you get that kind of power or ability is only through right practice.”
–Shunryu Suzuki