Tips & tricks from a musician who has tried everything
“Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results” - James Clear
Learning how to practice properly is just as important, if not more important than your lessons! You spend far more time in your life practicing alone than working with your teacher, and that means the way you practice can positively or negatively impact your improvement.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Some teachers may tell you to practice one hour a day - I disagree with this method. It is not how long you practice that is important, it’s how well and how often you practice. If you can only stay actively focused for 20 minutes one day, stop when you feel your focus fading. If you lazily practice the wrong bowings every day, or stop focusing on tone and pitch, you will begin to cement these bad practices until you can no longer play with good technique.
10 minutes of focused practicing every day is better than 1 hour of unfocused practice.
WORK YOUR WAY UP
Start with short practice sessions. The definition of short is different for everyone - for some, 10 minute practice sessions may be a good place to start. Older or more focused students may be able to practice well for an hour or more.
Focus capabilities will increase over time. 10 minutes/day of focused practice will turn into 20 minutes/day of focused practice, and will keep increasing as the student develops the tools and enjoyment for the process.
30 minutes to 1 hour every day would be a great goal, but only when you’re ready!
PRACTICE WITHOUT YOUR INSTRUMENT
Say what?! Practicing without your instrument might sound weird, but studies have shown that think-practicing helps digest and cement what you've already learned and practice.
Think through the piece you’re learning. Feel your fingers move as you hear the notes in your head. Can’t remember how the next measure goes? Take a mental note of it and practice that isolated measure next time you take out your instrument.
Think-practicing is a great memorization tool, as well as a tool to learn how to hear music in your head.
But NO, think-practicing doesn’t count in your practice log :)
HOW TO APPROACH CHALLENGING MEASURES OR PASSAGES
Repeat after me: Don’t practice challenging sections at a fast tempo.
I know how fun it is to play everything at lightning speed (I was guilty of this as a student too so I get it), but do not practice difficult sections quickly.
When I have a performance coming up where I have to perform fast, difficult music, I practice slowly for months before I start playing it at concert tempo.
Practice the entire piece at the same tempo - if you can't keep up with the tempo in a certain section, practice the isolated section several times in a row with careful accuracy.
When you practice slowly, focus on exactly where your fingers go, and how execute your move from note to note. Practice one or two difficult measures on a loop slowly until you feel comfortable with them, then slowly continue to increase the speed of the passage as long as you can play it properly. Do this with each difficult section.
Practicing the piece all the way through will not fix difficult sections! You must work on difficult sections on a loop to see improvement.
… BUT I WANT TO PRACTICE FAST
I know you do. I empathize completely. Practicing the same 2 measures slowly over and over again is boring but I promise it’s worth the effort. Practicing fast and playing through the entire piece repeatedly does not count as practicing unless you have put in the work of isolated, slow practice first.
PRACTICING WITH A METRONOME
Your metronome is your best friend. It helps cultivate your active listening skills (in turn, prepares you for ensemble performance), improves rhythm, reveals metronomic tendencies (naturally wanting to speed up or slow down), and indicates sections that are too difficult to play in time.
I highly recommend practicing with a metronome regularly. As a rule of thumb, practice with a metronome for at least 10 minutes a week, but there’s really no limit! If you find it helpful, use the metronome every day.
You can find free metronome apps for smartphones and ipads. You can even find a free computer metronome by searching in google.
HOW MUCH DOES SARAH PRACTICE?
I practice about 1 ½ - 3 hours a day, depending on what my goals are at the time. If I know I have a difficult concert coming up in a month, I will practice upwards of 2 hours a day. Some days, I’ll practice for 2 hours straight and other days I’ll practice multiple times for 30 minutes. If there’s nothing particular that I am working toward, I still practice 1 hour a day most days. I certainly do skip days as well, but generally I practice 5-7 days a week.
MAKE IT A HABIT YOU DON’T WANT TO BREAK
One of my favorite books is Atomic Habits - it is a how-to guide for achieving your goals through daily habits. I’ve taken a few of his best tips to share with you.
Start small to make your habit easy
Practice 10 minutes a day to start
Build a habit stack
“After I ____, I will practice every day”
After I get home from school, I will practice
After I eat dinner, I will practice
Make your habit satisfying and attractive: reward yourself
“After I practice, I get [insert reward]”
After I practice, I get to play outside
After I practice, I get to watch TV
Make habit success easy
Remove any extra effort that creates friction surrounding your habit
Have your instrument, music stand, and music in an easy to reach location
Keep your violin out and ready to play on a violin stand (if you can safely do so - beware of pets)
Place it where you can see it
Make habit failure harder
Brainstorm things that would tempt you to cheat on your new habit and remove them
“Instead of practicing, I’d rather play video games”
Hide controllers until practice is completed
Track your habit
Habit tracking becomes very satisfying when you can see on a paper how many days/hours you’ve logged
Reminds you that the hours you’re putting in are getting you closer to your goals
Use the practice log I provide to all of my students to track your practice progress
Find your habit helpers
Friends, parents, guardians, we're calling on you!
Encourage, support, and remind them to practice. Brainstorm ways that you can help them achieve their goals without making them dread it.
Ask for my help - I am here to help you brainstorm!
Apply this process to ANY goal, not just practicing!
More from James Clear, Atomic Habits here:
-Sarah
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