Epitelo Music Academy
Teaching music to every child
Practicing: What's up with that?
A guide for musicians and their parents on why we practice, what good practice habits are, and how parents can help.
Why Do We Practice?
Musicians practice because it is the only way we will improve as musicians. We must work on the physical and mental skills of playing daily so we can learn to remember them. This is called muscle memory. Muscle memory is when you train your muscles (those in your hands or in your brain!) to know how to do something.
Athletes practice, too, but they do so with their teams. Most athletes practice a few days a week for two or three hours at a time. As musicians, we don’t have this kind of time to work as a team, so we must work on our own. Also, working in a group isn’t sufficient for us, as we must learn to listen to our own individual sounds.
We also practice for specific reasons, like to learn a particular song. We can’t learn to do something new if we don’t ever do it! We might also practice to learn a new skill, such as shifting to third position, using low second finger, or vibrato. These skills also become part of our muscle memory after awhile.
Why Should I Practice? Will Anyone Know if I Don’t?
You should practice because hopefully, you want to become a better musician. That’s why you’re taking lessons! Practice is the only way to really learn the core skills of being a musician, and learning these skills and practicing them consistently is what makes someone a good musician.
Yes, people will know if you don’t practice. Teachers have spent years and years practicing and learning their instruments, and studying how to teach these instruments. They are trained to know when students don’t practice. A young student may see an improvement in his or her playing simply because s/he’s been playing a little bit in school, or has practiced one day a week. But the teacher knows that the student is taking longer than s/he needs to learn a skill because of a lack of practice. This isn’t meant to scold you – only to inform you that you can’t fool your teacher!
How Much Should I Practice?
Ideally, you should practice everyday. This is especially true for young students, because they are still trying to develop the fundamental skills and commit them to muscle memory. If you can’t practice everyday, you should at least aim for 5 days a week. Don’t practice the day of your lesson, and you get one other day off. Besides that, you should play everyday.
How Long Should I Practice?
Young students should aim to practice 10 – 15 minutes at a time. If you don’t know enough music to practice that long, play your song/exercise for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the afternoon. No one says that you have to do all your practice at one time!
Older students should practice longer, at least 15 – 20 minutes. Students who are in high school and/or who are serious about their instruments (and who have reached at least an intermediate level) should practice 20 – 30 minutes a day.
Students who are very serious and are 15 or older should practice 30 – 45 minutes a day. Students who are juniors or seniors in high school and intend to become music majors should practice at least 60 minutes a day. College music majors will practice 1 or 2 hours each day.
Can’t I Practice 45 Minutes Today and be Done for the Week?
Nope! It doesn’t work that way. If you play for a long time one day, you get some really excellent work done on committing new skills to muscle memory. But if you don’t practice any more for a week, you lose a lot of the stuff you just spent 45 minutes learning!
Overall, it is MUCH better to spend 5 minutes a day, 6 days a week practicing than to spend 30 minutes one day a week. Your body needs lots and lots of repetition in order to commit skills to muscle memory.
How Do I Practice?
Okay, we’ve covered why you practice and how much you practice, but what do you do when you’re practicing? Here is what a typical practice session should look like:
Warm-Up
During this, you spend between 2 and 30 minutes (depending on your level) playing scales, etudes, long tones, or other exercises you have been assigned. Your teacher should give you something that s/he designates as a warm up. Wind players should play long tones, followed by scales and/or finger exercises (Klose pages). String players should play scales and easy pieces (stuff you finished in lessons a few months ago).
The point is to get your muscles warmed up and moving. You are exercising when you are practicing, and you need to make sure you won’t get hurt! Besides, practicing goes better when your muscles do stuff they already know to get ready, before they have to learn new things.
Scales/Etudes
Wait, didn’t we just cover these in the warm-up?! Not quite. During a warm up, you should pick stuff you already know. Play the scale you learned in lesson a month ago, or the etude you finished two weeks ago. Now, we’re going on to learn the new stuff.
Have you been assigned a new scale or etude to learn? This is the time to work on it. You should have goals when you work on your etude. Do you want to make sure you get all the notes right? The rhythms? The intonation? The dynamics? The articulation? Know why you’re playing it, and try to make an improvement on it. You should feel that it’s gotten at least a little bit better than it was before you played it.
Piece/Music
Now is when we get to the main part of the practicing – the music you’ve been assigned in your method book. What song are you working on this week? What do you need to fix in it? Your teacher should have given you goals in your last lesson. Perhaps you were told your intonation wasn’t quite right, or your fingerings needed fixing. Try to fix these things in particular. PRACTICE SLOWLY!!! That can’t be said enough. If you are playing so quickly that you are making mistakes, you are practicing your mistakes, and that is useless! Slow it down! I would rather see a student come to a lesson with their piece absolutely perfect – but really, really slow, than to have a student play their piece fast but make a lot of mistakes. Speed will happen easily, but mistakes will not fix themselves.
I’m Having a
Here is a four-step model for practicing even the trickiest spots:
1) Rhythm only (start by clapping or using rhythm sticks, then move on to your instrument, playing the rhythm on only one note)
2) Notes only (pretend they’re all half notes)
3) Rhythm and notes together, SLOWLY!
4) Speed it up
Okay, I Did That, I Still Don’t Get It.
If there is a particular measure or section that you’re having trouble with, break it down. Play only the part you are having trouble with using the method above. Then, play the measure before and after the trouble spot (with the trouble spot in between) using the method above. Keep adding more and more measures on either side of it until you can simply play it! If you're still not sure how to practice, or some spot is still giving you trouble, ask your teacher in your next lesson.
What Should My Practice Goals Be?
Hopefully, your teacher gave you suggestions about what to improve upon in your last lesson. They may be any of these things:
1) Play more correct notes
2) Play more correct rhythms
3) Fix dotted rhythms
4) Fix triplet/borrowed rhythms
5) Keep a steady tempo throughout
6) Fix intonation problems
7) Play correct dynamics
8) Learn a new section of the piece
9) Fix hand positions
10) Fix posture
11) Play correct articulation
12) Play with better tone
13) Have better control over the instrument
Your teacher may have suggested something that is not on this list, or which is on the list but was more specific. For example, a teacher may say to a young violin player, “Make sure your left palm isn’t touching the neck of the instrument.” That would fall under #9. Make sure that you note which items your teacher asked you to fix. If you’re afraid you won’t remember, ask your teacher to write them down.
The Teacher’s Role
It is the teacher’s job to guide you during lessons. That means that the teacher should clearly tell you what you have done well on (including what you have fixed since the last lesson) and what you still need to work on. If you are ever unclear about a teacher’s expectations or critique of your performance, ask! You are not in lessons to passively accept whatever happens. If there’s something you want to know about, ask your teacher. If you are having problems in practice or performance, ask your teacher to help you figure out a solution. It is the teacher’s job to help you solve these problems.
If your teacher is not giving you feedback, ask during the lesson, “What would you like me to fix in this? Is it okay as it is? What skills do you think I still need to focus on?” The teacher should readily tell you.
The Parent’s Role
You can do your child a great service or disservice, depending on how you approach this. The first rule is to keep in contact with your child’s teacher! Know what your child is working on and what the teacher’s perception of your child’s progress and skill level is. Perhaps it seems that your child is not working hard enough, but the teacher is actually very pleased. Perhaps your child seems frustrated and clueless, but the teacher knows that your child knows. Ask your child’s teacher at least once a month how he is doing, and if there is anything specifically you can help with.
Help your child to set up practice times. Remember, music should be his choice. He needs to have an active role in deciding when and how much he will practice. The motivation for music must be intrinsic, not extrinsic. Forcing a child to practice won’t work. The best way to handle practicing is to sit down and say, “How much do you think you really need to practice? I think 5 days a week for 5 minutes is good. Do you think you need more time than that? Let’s set up a regular time when you can practice each day.” Allow your child to choose an appropriate time. Monitor his practice but don’t intervene unless he asks for help.
What if your child won’t practice? Again, you cannot force a child to practice without making him unhappy about it. The most effective way to get a child to practice is to say, “I’d really love to hear you play. Would you get your instrument and play for me?” Usually, this delights younger children, and they will immediately play for you.
Older children need more motivation than this. Discuss the commitment of being a musician with an older student, and ask him/her if s/he’s really willing to make that commitment. Make it clear that there are two choices: be a musician (which goes along with lessons/classes and practice), or don’t be a musician (freedom not to have to practice). Again, once your child has accepted the responsibility of being a musician, set up a regular practice schedule, and issue gentle reminders when it is time to practice.
During your child’s practice sessions, be nearby, but not in the room if possible. Comments should be generally limited to “That sounded nice,” if anything at all. Remember, your child is only learning, not performing. If you are not a musician, you may not know how to help your child specifically. If you are a musician, your child may take your comments as criticism, since you are likely more accomplished. Comments are best left to the teacher, simply because a parent’s criticism tends to complicate matters.
If your child asks you to listen to him and help him improve, by all means, help. Different children react in different ways to parents helping them, and you know your child best.
Be supportive of your musician. Ask about lessons, ask about his/her opinion on his/her playing, attend lessons on occasion, attend concerts and recitals. Your presence and interest is the most important thing you can do.
A Tip For All Musicians To Remember: The difference between a “pretty good” musician and a “totally amazing” musician is that both may know how to do everything the right way, but a “totally amazing” musician does everything right all the time (plays consistently), and they work hard to make sure of it!
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