What lies at the heart of mastering your instrument? What is the very foundation of progressing as a musician? The answer is, of course, practice. And not just practising whenever you feel like it, but regular, consistent practice. Therein lies the key to achieving your musical goals.
No matter who you are, what you play or who your teacher is, one thing is for sure: you were told to practice. You’ve surely heard it over a million times:
- Did you practice this week?
- How much did you practice?
- Did you even practice at all?
Sometimes these questions can be quite nerve-wracking, especially if you had no time since the last lesson. But let’s dive deeper into exactly why we are so encouraged to practise.
Practice is like exercise for your brain. By practising you are not only improving your ability to focus but also strengthening neural pathways. Studies have shown children who practice an instrument have a cognitive advantage over those who don’t. Additionally, it develops coordination between your mind and body.
Most instruments require you to make small, precise and fast movements. That’s part of what makes them so difficult. Each time you exercise these muscles when practicing they become stronger and more stable. This will help you maintain muscle memory and improve your mastery of your instrument.
You learn good habits from practising. You learn to maintain determination and grit which are essential skills to achieve success in all parts of your life.
The more time you spend with your instrument, the more confident you will become. This means the more you practise, the less anxious and worried you’ll be on stage.
When you try to keep up with your practice schedule and really go and target specific problems you will be more confident in your next lesson, knowing you made an effort. In turn, your teacher will recognise your hard work, and this will create a necessary bond of trust between student and teacher.
These are merely a handful of the amazing benefits of practising consistently. To attain the benefits, proper technique is required in your practice sessions.
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Plan your practice sessions in advance.
It does not necessarily have to be hours long; it’s more important to build a consistent schedule and focus on practising a little every day.
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Don’t make your sessions too hard or overwhelming.
If you tackle a big problem head on and don’t get it resolved immediately you will lose motivation to practise. Break down your goals into small achievable bits and work your way up. And remember to have a little celebration each time you have a ‘win’.
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Remember to think about what you are practising!
Mindless practice is far from being as effective as thoughtful practice.
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Make sure your practice area is organised and distraction-free.
And even go as far to add little things to your practice area to make it somewhere you’ll want to go. Maybe you can place a photo of something/someone that inspires you as a musician above your sheet music!
At ScoreS2Duo, we have begun a practice challenge, which is a fun way to keep you on track of your practicing. You start with practising 10 minutes every day for 10 days. Thereafter 20 minutes every day for 20 days and finally 30 minutes every day for 30 days. This way you aren’t immediately overwhelmed which makes it easier to stay determined. Eventually, you will make your way up to 30 minutes, and by then you will have mastered the routine of practice.
By understanding the concepts behind consistently practising you (and possibly also your teacher) will be amazed at the progress you will be able to make.
Now it’s your turn to apply all this information to your practice sessions. To the practice room we go!