I'm prepared to practice - what now?
There are many facets to playing and practicing music. You will have different practice strategies depending on
the length of practice time available for a particular session, your frame of mind, your location & distractions.
Scenarios.
5-10 minutes
- Run
through a technical exercise
- Review a couple scales
- Play a tune for fun you already know from memory
Pick
one or two. If it's noisy and chaotic do some technical exercises, you'll get frustrated trying to make music
with chaos going on around you.
15 minutes of quiet dedicated time
- 5
minutes on one or two scales you don't normally do but should (band instrument guys-chromatic scale please)
- 5
minutes on a tune you're memorizing
- 5 minutes recalling a tune you used to do but aren't sure if you remember
the words or notes or chords.
30 minutes of dedicated practice
time
- 10 minutes on scales (don't forget the blues, pentatonics, natural, harmonic
and melodic minors)
- 5 minutes of technical exercises you may have memorized (is the metronome handy? what! you
don't have one!! uh, uh, uh)
- 15 minutes reviewing a piece you're working on, working on memorization,
covering your 3 newest songs.
More than 30 minutes
- Review
scales and technical exercises
- Work on material that is giving you difficulty.
- Play through
the tune
- When you get to a part you are having a problem with isolate that part.
- Slow the speed
down until you can play it through SLOWLY
- Then, at that same SLOW speed play the entire tune.
- This will be the speed you need to play this entire piece for a week.
Practice mistake #1
You don't practice because you think you need
at least 30 minutes to make it worthwhile.
Ha - it's much better to play your instrument
multiple times for short intervals than to wait until you have 30 minutes.
Practice
mistake #2
You keep playing the same tune over and over at the same tempo making the
same mistake or changing the speed of the tune when you get to a hard part.
1)
If you make the same mistake 3 times in a row; slow down.
2) Isolate the problem, just work on the hard part (I
know that's not what you want to do)
Practice mistake
#3
You're so intent on reading the music that you aren't listening yourself.
How
does your music sound?
Does it sound like music?
Can someone tap their foot your music?
Is each note beautiful and can it stand on it's own?
Do you have a Metronome and have you been thoroughly trained in its use?
Metronomes
are an essential part of your music gear.
Metronomes are your private teacher at home.
They
alert you to timing problems.
They allow you to slow a piece down to a playable speed.
They assist you
with gradually increasing the speed.
Keep
a practice book or journal
List the scales you're working on
Technical
exercises
Tunes you know
Tunes you want to learn
3 tunes you can play on demand (to show you
really can play after all that investment!)
Always practice
assigned material first!
You want to have your assignment perfected by your next lesson.
Assignments should be written down and quantified.
How many
times, for how long & for how many days.
What result are you trying to achieve??
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Lyrics
Memorized
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Tempo
Goal
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