Music Practice Tips

Once again, Leo over at ZenHabits has posted an article that’s got me thinking. Written by Clay Collins of The Growing Life, it highlights some of the common characteristics of prolific people, and what you might choose to do if you want to become prolific. Keep Reading »

In keeping up with finding what other people are doing, I noticed in Brandon’s blog that he’s keeping track of the amount of time practiced. He calculates each day, noting the longest and shortest session of the week, the average amount practiced and other such things. While keeping a journal is a great idea, there’s plenty of ways that we can do it. Keep Reading »

Don’t feel like practicing, but know you should eh? It can be tough sometimes, and we need to be aware of some things that we can do. Here’s 10 things that I do when I don’t feel like practicing.

1. Take a break. No really… just go away and not do anything for a while. You’ll soon feel that you want to practice, especially if you just sit there doing nothing. “OH well, there’s nothing else to do, let’s do some practice.”
2. Listen to your favourite artist/piece. For me, I listen to the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. It’s a piece that really gets me wanting to play again.
3. Read. Read a book about music, or read the score of the piece that you’re learning. These things can have dramatic effects on your musical understanding.
4. Play. I don’t mean pick up and start practicing, I mean “PLAY” - have fun. Pick up a book of Irish Jigs and have a go at some of them, or put on your favourite pop CD and play along - see if you can improvise a better solo than what is in the song.
5. 5 Minutes. Tell yourself that you’re going to do 5 minutes. After you’ve done 5 minutes, you can ask yourself “Well, do I want to continue, or do I still not want to practice.” If you still don’t want to practice, do 5 minutes more, and if it’s still a no, then take a break and do something else.
6. Reward yourself. Tell yourself that if you do an hour of practice, then you’ll get a treat - some time on the computer, or a piece of chocolate or something.
7. Set a deadline. By setting yourself a deadline, You’ll have something to aim for. You’ll need to practice in order to achieve the goal - whether that’s a public performance, or getting something right for your teacher.
8. Find a practice buddy. Someone who’ll challenge you to practice, send you daily messages “Just finished my hour’s practice. Feeling GREAT! How about you?” If you’re anything like me, having that partner there to spur you on will help a lot.
9. Nike. Nike? What’s this sports company got to do with it? Remember their logo? Just Do It. I used this a while ago, put a great big piece of paper over my computer monitor that I would use to cover the monitor each night, so when I woke up, it would say “Have you done your practice yet? Just ****** Do It” (Yes, I used an expletive, it challenged me more). Just do your practice. It’s not going to kill you.
10. Read this website. Ok, so I’m kinda cheating here. But there are lots of good practice tips on here already, so there’s plenty of ideas to keep you going.

I recently read “The Mastery of Music” by Barry Green. While the whole book was a fantastic read, there was one chapter that struck a chord with me in particular, and that was the chapter on Discipline. I love music, and it’s obvious to others who later comment that they can see the love that I have for it. Yet my technical ability is often lacking. I know that I need to practice, but often days, or weeks go by with very little practice. I have felt that I needed to be inspired to practice, and so often I haven’t found that inspiration. Keep Reading »