Category Archives: Practice

Sneaking up on you?

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Sneaking up on you?

When you are practicing (or performing) do you ever get the sensation that something’s not quite right? Like something is sneaking up on you?

I work with a lot of people as a teacher, a workshop presenter, a performer, and as an ergonomist. From my perch I can see it – and you’re probably right. Something is sneaking up on you.

Your shoulders.

Yup, those pesky pendents upon which we are so de-pendent. Literally – our arms hang from our shoulders. Our wrists are (still) at the ends of those arms. And dangling at the end of that chain – our fingers. Yes, our shoulders are pretty important.

But we get busy. There’s all that playing to do. Remembering the notes, forgetting our fingering, finding the right measure we need to be reading, possibly playing faster than we’re ready to. We are focused on a number of (granted, very important) things. And what we don’t have is brain space to focus on is often…our shoulders.

So, they creep up. They’re trying to help, but in their zeal to be supportive, they increase our tension, pull our arms out of their natural (relaxed) posture and requiring more energy to hold our arms, wrists, and fingers in the appropriate place to play the music the way we are wont to. And all of that makes it harder to play, which is distracting – and stressful. You can see how this can easily become a vicious (and possibly viscous) circle.

Stop it. How? you might ask. Well, I’m delighted to share that I have just the thing! Try this:

  1. Record your playing (you knew this would come up). Why? So you can see where and when your shoulders start to travel. This can be as simple as poor posture which you can improve by setting yourself in a good neutral posture from the minute you touch the bench. But what if you’re a stress shrugger? Do your shoulders keep company with your ears when the going gets tough? Well, a video will help you find your triggers.
  2. Once you know what it is that sets your shoulders off, then you can focus on correcting it. Your triggers might be playing faster than you’re ready, coming to a “tricky” part that you’re not really comfortable with yet, or that you’re not breathing, or just not relaxing into your playing. The video will help you find out what is happening – and when – so you can work on it.
  3. Once you know what triggers your shoulders’ to travel, then set a random timer (here’s a free one on the internet and here’s another one) to give you a signal at various times. When it dings, freeze, and check your shoulders. Are they where you’d expect and want them to be? Or did you run out of focus doing other things? Since this is random, it gives you time to stop thinking about your shoulders and the ding serves as a reminder to make sure they are down. If the ding happens and your shoulders are at your ears – don’t stop playing, just drop and relax them and keep going. You want to learn to detect that you’re shrugged and relax.
  4. Breathe! (Do I need to say more than that? I didn’t think so, but I will) Breathe like you mean it since it will not only relax you but also help keep your mind clear and present.
  5. Take breaks throughout your practice. Think about practicing in 20-minute segments (with a timer, because it helps). At the end of each segment, breathe, stretch, move around, get up off the bench, and let your whole system rest for a sec. Then you can come back to the next segment ready to go.
  6. Be kind to yourself. This might take a while. After all, you unknowingly developed the habit of tensing your shoulders and now you will consciously go about undeveloping that habit and learning to be more relaxed. Unlearning (to shrug) and relearning (to relax) takes longer than the initial learning, so be gentle on you – reward yourself for your continued growth. And don’t lose momentum, this is something that will come with time and practice.

It is important to get your shoulders dropped when you’re practicing – if you work in that tension, you will train yourself to play with that tension. You will actually ingrain that stress in your shoulders which, as mentioned above, impacts your playing.

If you’re still Team “I’m not comfortable on video” you can use a full-length mirror – but also, get over yourself, you’re not making a Hollywood extravaganza or even a social media video. You are using a valuable tool to help you grow. Just do it (it’s also faster than using the mirror because you can practice, and then review the video when you’re finished – none of that pesky trying to “catch yourself” while you’re also practicing!

Are your shoulders sneaking up on you? Let me know what you do (or what you’re going to try) – in the comments!

Keep breathing

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Keep breathing 

I think we could easily agree that playing requires concentration. A lot of concentration. Of course, some things make us concentrate harder than others.  For instance, we have to really focus when we’re learning. Maybe when a tune is really well learned we don’t have to focus so much (or at least we feel like we have more brain capacity available).  When we perform we probably focus carefully as well (at least we hope we will!).

One of the challenges of concentrating really hard is that when we do, many of us actually stop breathing (I can’t make this up). While you’re focused, you may hold your breath. When your brain is working hard, it gets busy and has a harder time of keeping all its plates spinning. Things like breathing can be one of those plates that gets dropped. (Don’t worry, the rest of your body will demand a breath when you really have to have one!). Of course, not breathing doesn’t make you think very well and all in all, it’s best if you can keep breathing.

The good news is that you can overcome this not breathing. You just need to practice doing it. Yes, even though you mostly don’t even think about breathing – you DO need to think about it if you’re not breathing consistently when you’re practicing (or performing).

When should you be breathing? Well, it’s best to breathe normally but if you notice you’re not (or your teacher points it out to you), you can add it to each tune or exercise! Here are a few ways to incorporate it so you can keep breathing:

Phrasing. If you’re learning by ear, you’re getting the tune in phrases. Phrasing might be easiest to understand in the context of singing because you must breathe (other blowing instruments are the same – no breathing, no playing). Phrasing is how the tune breathes, Watch (good) singers and you’ll notice that they never leave off in the middle of a word to take a breath – they breathe in “obvious” places…between the words. Just like they do, when your music calls for a breath (the end of a phrase) – take a breath. If you’re reading, you can still breathe at the end of a phrase – just remember to mark it!*  When you’re practicing be certain that you breathe there and make it part of how you play the tune.

Mechanical. I’m not keen on this one, but it could work. In this approach you specifically incorporate breathing as a “movement” just like placing, closing, changing levers, and all the other movements of playing. I don’t like this because it’s not natural (which might interrupt your breathing rather than improving it) and because breathing is a very different type of movement. More importantly, this approach doesn’t support the music either. It doesn’t tie your breath to the phrasing (above) which could knock your musicality out of whack (and who doesn’t need more musicality).

Relax. You might hold your breath when you are stressed – so relax. You’ll get the tune, you’ll learn the melody, you’ll get the fingering! And your brain will be glad of the oxygen!

Pay attention. This is related to Mechanical, and it might seem silly – because we are paying attention….to something else! Like Mechanical, set yourself the additional task of paying attention to your breathing while you are concentrating on learning the music. Post a sign on your music stand or make some other reminder to keep it front of mind!

Breathing is fairly important when you’re learning and when you’re playing. Do you notice specific places you aren’t breathing? How do you remember to breathe? Let me know in the comments how you are going to keep breathing!

*If you’re not familiar with the marking, use an apostrophe above the treble staff to indicate where to take a breath (ok, it’s your music, use anything you’d like but the apostrophe is the standard marking).

I’ll be Bach

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I recently started reading daily posts from Arnold Schwarzenegger – known for his movie line,

“I’ll be Bach” 

What do you mean that’s not what he said?

I’m impressed with him because he demonstrates a single-minded focus on achieving things he thinks are important.  Now, whether you agree with him on his choices or not, it’s difficult to argue with his successes.  I admire that he works hard, doesn’t pretend that the work isn’t work, faces challenges head on, thinks before acting, owns his successes, moves onto other goals once he has achieved the current goals, and is relentlessly upbeat (sound familiar?)*.  I’m pretty sure that if he had an interest in playing an instrument, he’d be quite good at it – for all the same reasons.

But the one thread to which he frequently returns is the importance of consistency.  He champions the reality that, no matter what your focus (weightlifting, acting, authoring, playing an instrument) you have to put in not just hard work but consistent hard work.  He highlights that it is the small gains that accrue day after day that are behind success.  And that these daily small achievements build on each other to become what we often think of as “real success” – achieving big goals. 

He doesn’t discount that these small daily increments are sometimes challenging to detect. What does he suggest? Capturing them (dare I say, in some sort of journal?). Why didn’t I say that (except maybe here, here, here, and here)?!

Consistency doesn’t have to be huge, BTW.  Consistency is exactly what it sounds like – do small things with extreme regularity.  It means practicing every day.  Making some routine for your time at the harp so that you can complete the consistent behavior.  Acknowledging that you have been consistent (whether that’s giving yourself stars on a wall chart or giving yourself a cookie – well, that’s up to you!).  And don’t forget being grateful for the outcome of consistent small progress.

You can become consistent by making the commitment to yourself.  You can help yourself along with a calendar reminder, a schedule, a process, a cookie (if needed. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is big on external rewards!). Keep in mind that consistent is not the same as perfect.  If you mess up or get sidetracked, don’t beat yourself up, just get back on it – consistently.  You don’t need excuses, just get back to it.  If it helps, at the end of each practice session, tell your harp, “I’ll be Bach”.Could you benefit from increased consistency?  What do you do to keep consistent?  What might help you to be more consistent?  Let me know in the comments!

* if you want a daily dose of relentless optimism that’s nearly as relentless and almost as optimistic as this blog, you can get it from Arnold here in his latest thing of bringing positivity to the internet.  Not an affiliate, just a fan.

What’re you doing?

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What’re you doing?

Do you ever feel like your practicing has fallen into the trap under the sink. It can be really easy to get caught in the comfortable swish of the U joint.  Just be and don’t move.  Don’t practice, or barely practice, or practice but don’t actually change or learn anything.  Loll here in the dark and wait.

Maybe you don’t fall into that trap, but I sure can – especially in “between times” like now – too early for the holidays but after the buzz of the summer.  It could be so easy to stay in the trap because there is so much stuff that needs to be practiced that it can be daunting.  Stuff to be dwelled upon.  To think through.  To work out.  To review.  So much stuff! 

Or maybe we’ll just stay here in the dark (so little motivation). 

Fortunately, playing is more like a diamond ring.  When it’s caught in the trap, it isn’t as enjoyable!  It is totally worth the work of disassembling the drain to rescue it so it can glitter and sparkle. 

No, staying here in the dark isn’t ideal, but sometimes we just need a push to get moving out of the trap. How do we get moving? Well you could start by asking – what’re you doing?  If there’s no succinct answer to that question, the right answer is focus!  On what? Well, how about:

Start small.  Settle on one thing to work on.  Maybe it’s sight reading? Or counting? Or refreshing stuff you were playing but set aside?  The point is to focus on one thing rather than trying to work on everything all at once.

Count the things.  Figure out what needs to be done.  Maybe this should be the first thing – how can you focus on just one thing if you haven’t figured out what the pool of all things is, prioritized them, and then selected one?

Set an end.  After all, you’re breaking out of a trap so while you’re going to focus, it’s not an unending focus!  Figure out how long you want to work on the thing you selected to be first.  Will it be a timeline of a week or a month? Or will it instead be an accomplishment like playing at tempo or steadily or accurately? When you define the end, you will know when you are going on to the next thing.

Keep track.  You knew I’d get around to this.  You won’t know you’ve gotten to the end if you’re not tracking your progress.  This doesn’t have to be elaborate, just note what you did and how you did it.

Compare.  This one can be tricky.  Because you’re not going to compare your progress to anyone else, only to YOURSELF.  You will never know how someone else got to what you’re looking at, but you can know where you were yesterday (or the day before or the last time) and compare yourself to the you before, not someone else ever.

Be consistent.  Pick your timing.  Help yourself by not only doing the thing as you decided (every day, every other day, whatever you determined) but also by sticking to the same time of day every day.  Or tie your time to another event (for example, always practice right after you walk your iguana (or some other event of your day)).

Be nice. You’re not striving for perfection.  In fact, if you do it perfectly, you won’t learn anything.  By the same token, by remembering that mistakes help you learn, you can be your own biggest cheerleader!  (bonus tip – I find that sometimes I need to let the mistakes I make simmer before I can really figure out what I’m learning there, so I write them down so I don’t forget what happened)

Focus!  Don’t “task share”, don’t pick up your phone (unless you’re adjusting your metronome app!), don’t pet your fish, don’t drink your tea.  Just focus on what you’re doing while you practice.  You can do all those other things when you’re done.

What’re you doing?  Do you ever get caught in that sink trap?  If so, how do you get yourself out?  If not, how do you maintain your equilibrium?  Let us know in the comments!

 

 

 

Keeping Track

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I know you’ve all had “that week”. The one where a  seemingly small thing throws a gorilla wrench into the works.  I’d say monkey wrench,  but the outcome is outsized and puts a crimp in your plans.

So this week, although I had planned a lovely and informative discussion about thinking, my laptop died on me. And frankly, while I’m grateful you’re reading, I’m not inclined to write that many words from my phone. So, we’ll table that discussion for now and instead, I’ll pass along something I can easily do with my (opposable) thumbs!🫱🫲

It is now summer, officially.  We’ve passed meteorological summer, Memorial Day and here’s the Solstice.

I know summer is busy and fun and it’s easy to forget, “Did I practice today?” And in fact sometimes it becomes, “Did I touch my harp this week?”

So, my thumbs and I are pleased to present you with a fun Practice Tracker for the summer.  Just click on the picture below and print it. 

Each day you play or practice,  color in a leaf.  It’s that easy!

I hope this makes you smile, and leads you to intend to practice.  At the end of the summer, I hope you’ll have leafed through it and found success (get it?).

I’m planning to start at the bottom and as I get closer to autumn, I’ll let the leaves start to turn color.  Hope you’ll join me! Let me know in the comments.

Prepping your practice

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Prepping your practice 

If you’ve spent even a little time in the socials you have probably not been able to escape seeing loads about Meal Prepping. 

If you haven’t, Meal Prep is an approach to helping you get dinner on the table so that mealtime is not a zoo.  All the cool kids are doing it, apparently.

There’s no magic to meal prep.  It’s a fairly easy process to follow.  And it’s smart because it saves time, money, angst, and the “hangries”.

While seeing that stuff again, it got me thinking* – could we “prep” our practice so that practice time isn’t a zoo?  Why not! 

So, if we were going to Practice Prep, what would we need to do?

We need to understand that practice prep isn’t a “hack” (remember, we talked about that before!).

We need to understand that, no matter how many well-meaning people make cute memes on the socials telling us what to do, our practice prep needs to be our own and that every suggestion is just that, a suggestion.  We can look at, evaluate (maybe even test drive) and decide to keep or toss each one as needed to fit ourselves.

We need to understand that it can be as simple or as complex as we need it to be. Meal prep can be simple (make extra to have leftovers later) or complex (make an entire week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners).  Likewise, our practice prep can be as simple or complex as we need (and it can vary from week to week).

So, like meal prep, Practice Prep is based on identifying some important things like – what do we want to get done over the week? What are the steps to get there?  What is missing that we need to build to make progress?

How do we identify these things? There are a few places to start depending on where you are in your harp life. 

The easiest way is to read your lesson notes to find what you have learned and what your teacher is expecting you to accomplish between lessons so that you can continue to progress. You may get very good direction on exactly what you should do.  But frankly, that’s likely only if you are a child or have just started lessons (while your teacher helps you learn how to practice).  You are told what do to and how “on track” is defined.  That’s fairly easy (as long as you do it).

If you are more advanced or if you are self-directed, you have the same information available, you just have to dig a little to find it.  What is your overall goal?  What are the precise steps to get there?  Have you further identified the substeps (iterated to the smallest steps) so that you can work on specific things to move you forward? (NB these will likely change frequently as the steps at the beginning of a tune will look different than the steps when you’re polishing).  Have you noted those steps so that you can 1. remember them and 2. verify that you have completed them (successfully)?  Have you defined your criteria for “good enough” or “done”?  Have you marked your progress (good and not as good) so you know where to start next and what needs more focus?

Now you can organize your time.  That includes doing any prep work needed (pencils sharpened? music ready? distractions put away?) so that you are ready to practice and make the most of it.

Finally, you need to be consistent – doing this one week will be helpful but won’t significantly move you forward unless you continue to build week on week.  No matter how much we try to pretend otherwise, the tortoise always wins the race!

What do you think?  Is my meal prep analagy too much of a stretch? Or am I on the money here?  Let me know in the comments!

 

* you caught me surfing rather than practicing!

Should you have a lesson if you haven’t practiced?

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No practice?

There must be something in the air (besides pollen) because last week a disproportionately large number of my students sent some version of this message:

“I think I should skip my lesson this week because I haven’t practiced at all.”

I get it – I even remember uttering those same words myself.  It’s easy to think that.  After all, when you have had a “week from hell” (that seem to occur more and more frequently), you won’t have had time to practice. 

But this is incredibly wrongheaded.  Why you ask? Well….

It comes from thinking of your lesson as a mini performance.  But if you think of your lesson that way, then you do need all the practice you can get to be ready to be on that stage with the critic sitting in immediate proximity!

But that’s not what a lesson is! 

A lesson (especially if you’re an adult) is an opportunity to glean knowledge and information from someone who is guiding you to grow into the musician you profess to wanting to become.  I sum it up this way,

“I’m telling you these things so you can avoid my mistakes and I expect you to go on and make your own, new, original mistakes!”

A lesson couldn’t be farther from a mini-performance for your worst critic (you) and your perceived harshest critic (your teacher).  It is meant to be a learning opportunity.  In fact, if you come into your lesson and play flawlessly, then what’s the point?  It’s in the lesson you want to fail – spectacularly!  That way you can receive additional instruction that moves you forward.  You’re not a dog, you don’t need a pat and a biscuit – you need constructive feedback and tuition, so you can keep moving!

In addition – playing the harp isn’t just about flinging out the sounds of choice, is it?  Of course not!  There is so much more to being a musician and all those things can also be a part of your lesson when, due to other circumstances, you’re not prepared to play tunes in various states of dishabille.  What, you might ask?  Here’s a long but not exhaustive list of things you could work on:

  • Reading and Notation
  • Theory
  • History
  • Listening
  • Composing and Improvisation
  • Harmonizing
  • Rhythm
  • Effects
  • Tuning
  • Techniques
  • New pop tunes*

So, the next time you’re not feeling prepared, or feel as if you’re going to be “wasting” your teacher’s time, or like you are setting yourself up for humiliation, remember that there are loads of things to be taught that might not get covered when you are more prepared to play a piece and the focus is on learning or perfecting.  Also remember that your teacher has many things to teach to and share with you and this could introduce time to cover some of those (especially since there’s never enough time in lessons to cover everything). 

Have you ever canceled a lesson because you felt like you were not prepared? Have you ever thought you should have, but then had a great lesson in spite of your misgivings? Do you remember a time when you were dreading going to your lesson but it ended up being a great time?  I’d love to hear your take – leave a comment!

 

PS – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!

* No really, your teacher is still a person and might actually have other interests…but you’ll never know if you only ever talk about harp!

 

We love a challenge

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We love a challenge 

What is it about a “30-day challenge” that makes them so popular?  Maybe they are attractive because we seem to be addicted to making ourselves better people.  And we also know that to make ourselves better (different might be a better word) we have to make changes.  Change is hard, and maintaining a change is even harder.  And we usually think a month isn’t so long, so you can endure whatever it is that you’ve decided to tackle.

Enter the 30-day challenge!  These are not magic – they are just structure.  And better – they are structure that someone else devised (so we fool ourselves into thinking that, because someone who knows something (maybe) generated it, that it’s better than anything we might come up with).  If someone else came up with it, it will be harder to dismiss partway through.  Besides, structure imposed by someone else isn’t self-improvement, it’s just improvement.

These plans are prescriptive.  They tell us to make a change, and then tell you how to make that change – in small ways, over time (i.e., 30 days).  To help us along, the challenge usually includes some means of noting and documenting the changes we are making (like a calendar).   It really is an adult star chart (because do we really ever outgrow the star chart from our preschool days?).

And because someone (not us) has defined this process as a “challenge” we honor it, and our commitment to it.  We don’t try to get ahead of ourselves – rather, we identify that we need all 30 days to make this change, so we need to allow it to happen over time, but we also can’t rush it!  The authors of the challenges also remind us that it’s ok to miss a day or two, so it is ok to not be perfect.  And we dutifully complete the challenge because we committed to it.

But maybe most importantly of all, these challenges build over time.  My personal favorite – the 30 day burpee challenge – starts out so painlessly that even I could do it.  Day 1 – you do one burpee* and then it builds incrementally over the intervening 30 days until you’re doing enough burpees to tackle anything.

Kidding aside, you can set your own 30-day challenge for anything you need to work on. Not getting to practice enough? Make a 30-day practice challenge!  On day one you might confine yourself to 5 minutes of practice, and increase each day – but also committing to the minutes you complete are also focused on what you want to be working on, not checking facetagram or adjusting your bench, or drinking your tea or any of the many ways we can sidetrack ourselves.  Or you could create a 30-day tuning challenge?  Sight reading? Warmups and technicals? There are so many things you might consider making a challenge to ensure they become part of your everyday life.

What would your 30-day challenge be? Here’s a tracker (download).**  Write in what you’re focusing on and make little increments for each day. Write those in the blocks and check each one off as you accomplish it.  Let me know what you decide (and how it turns out!) in the comments!

 

* If you don’t know, a burpee is a fitness exercise that is a combination of things no one liked doing in PE in school – it’s a pushup mashed into a squat thrust with a layup mixed in that you’re supposed to do really quickly. It builds both strength and cardio. And if you’re not sure, if my sarcasm is too subtle, I usually spend my time reading about 30 day burpee challenges, but do I do them? Ha! No.

 

**Think of it as your little reward for reading to the end!

Practice Hacks

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Practice Hacks

Everyone is passing along hacks for everything that happens in life.  Whether it’s a no-brainer like putting a paperclip under the tape so you can find the end the next time or a head scratcher like using Doritos as kindling when you need to start a fire (think that one all the way through), hacks are advertised as little things that make life easier (and the implication is that you should have thought of it already).  By extension, they make you smarter (for doing the weird easy thing).

There are even people talking about Practice Hacks.  But here’s the thing –

There are no practice hacks!

Yup, I said it.  There are no practice hacks.

Wait, before you become forlorn because I’m not going to give you cheap and easy ways to improve your practice, and before you start looking for ways to prove I’m wrong…

While there are no practice hacks, there are a number of ways to make your practice better!  These are all easy and cheap (or free).  And nothing I’m about to reveal should be a surprise! 

What are these mysterious methods that aren’t hacks?  How do you make your practice better? Here are a few things you can do/try/add to your daily practice:

  • Think – Structure your practice time so you spend a little bit of time thinking about what you want to do, what you need to do, and what you left to do from the last time before you actually start to work.
  • Plan – Based on your thinking, plan what you are going to do while you practice. Don’t leave it to chance.
  • Write – A practice journal in some form allows you keep track of what you have done, how it went, what you should do next, questions to ask at your lesson, and any other thoughts you have during your practice. This really is just for you so feel free to write anything you like here.
  • Listen – When I first started playing, I was working so hard to play the notes that I didn’t actually hear them! I had to learn to listen while I play – and you can learn that too. Sometimes when I practice, I focus on making the sounds and sometimes I set aside time to focus on listening so I can hear what I’m doing.  If you find you run out of brain space before you get to listening, then use your phone to record and listen to it separately – you’ll be amazed by what you learn!
  • Be present – Practice is often painted as drudgery.  But really, your practice time is time you’re spending on you with you. And you deserve it.  So be there for you. Put your phone away, turn off the tv, close the door, and be present for yourself.
  • Be prepared – If at all possible, have your instrument ready – out of the case and in front of the bench. It is always amazing to me how off-putting the harp can be if it’s enrobed in its case!  Also, have your journal, some pencils, pens, and post-its at the ready.  Make your tea ahead of time.  Preparedness is not just for Boy Scouts and the Coast Guard!
  • Be (time) Wise – Don’t think you must have 2 hours every day to make progress. Even if you only have 10 minutes here or there – those 10 minutes can add up.  And on “those” days if all you get is 10 minutes – use it!  Don’t talk yourself out of practicing because you don’t have a long stretch of time available.  By the same token, don’t write off an entire week because you missed a day or two.  Although we think about time in days, weeks, and months, these are artificial constructs.  In this case those constructs are not helpful.  The reality is that time is continuous – so you can continue too!
  • Chill – It is easy to get caught up in comparisons. Everyone you know has already learned that tune.  Or everyone is playing it way faster than you can. Or you have a simple arrangement, but everyone else’s is complicated.  Chill – it’s not a race! You do your thing, enjoy the successes of others, and play!
  •  Actually Practice – Practicing can encompass a lot of things, but the one thing it must include is that it is a time to knuckle under and do work. Focus and pay attention and do the things you need to do.  As mentioned above – it is time you are investing in you, so make it worth your while!

Like I said, there are no hacks.  There are no short cuts.  There are no ways to avoid the work.  But there are ways to use your practice time well and make progress – but you probably already knew that!  What are your “practice hacks”?  I’d love to hear – let me know in the comments!

Bzzzztzzzztzzzzzzzzz

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Practice Improvement

Do you ever feel like your practice needs fixing?  Like you should be doing something more but you’re not sure what?  After all, you do all the things (as the meme says).  And it’s our busy season coming, with friends, family, church, civic organizations, even strangers on the street, all asking for music for events or just to create a holiday vibe.  It is a gift to share your gift.  So the question is, is your practice ready or is your practice static?

Practice Improvement

Unfortunately, we can’t just wrap bows around our hands (or our brains!) and be ready to present our gift. So we practice.  And practice. And practice some more.  We listen to the gurus (I’m going to be presumptuous and add myself to that list!) and try to follow their advice.  We do the technical work, and we write down everything, we make recordings, we do repetitions, we make exercises from fumbles, we repeat and repeat and repeat.  Just like the “people who know things” tell us to.

But sometimes even all that might leave you feeling like you still don’t quite have it. Like all that practicing you should be doing isn’t getting you where you want to be.  Ever feel like that? Oh, it’s just me? Ok, well…yeah, I didn’t think so.

There’s just one problem with what I’ve described, and with “doing as your told” in general.  And that is that you can’t be static – not moving, not changing.

You have probably cobbled together (from all that guru advice) that you should do your technical work, then do your learning, then do your polishing, then play for fun and call it a day, invariantly, in that order.  But that may be where your unease is coming from!

You can’t always practice the same way all the time.  Mostly because you don’t always need the same thing from your practice each day.  There are so many factors that go into what you need to practice each day –

  • what you’re working on
  • what you’re working toward
  • what you’re doing the rest of the day
  • how tired you are
  • and more – all those things that impact everything in your day

So how should you practice? Well, start by knowing that, just like your learning, your practicing cannot be static. It has to change to fit what you need. 

But how do you know what you need? Well, as a beginner you might have to depend on your teacher to tell you – after all, you’re a beginner so you probably don’t know where to start and a teacher will certainly help with that.  But as you become more accomplished, you will be able to notice what works for you (and what doesn’t).  Before we go on, noticing what works is not the same as convincing yourself that practicing all the easy stuff is good and working on something you don’t want to do/don’t feel comfortable doing/is challenging can be skipped…these are usually the things you most need to work on (don’t ask me how I know this).

Practicing is the time to find what works for you – and what doesn’t.  It’s the opportunity to try different approaches to your music – play faster, play slower, try shoving your way through, break everything down, listen to a recording, read the music, listen to a recording while reading the music, work backward, work phrase by phrase, walk away and come back with a clearer head, sit until you get it, repeat 3 times, 10 times, 100 times, sing it, play it on another instrument (all things some guru has probably suggested to you before).

What do all of these approaches have in common?  They require that you pay attention.  No formulaic, mindless practicing!  Be critical (but not self-critical!).  Note what seems to help you move forward for each of a variety of situations.  Be open to changing as needed – and as the situation requires.  Follow your progress like it’s your favorite facetictweegram influencer!  Remember to start with your goals in mind so your can modify your process to get there  Focus on your progress and don’t be static!

What have you noticed impacts your practice success?  How do you modify your practice? How do you keep track of what you’ve done that worked and what didn’t?  Let me know in the comments!