Music student must practice daily, no exceptions, that’s the end of this story. If you disagree you can stop reading and go back to whatever you were doing. As Jascha Heifetz says “If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.”
Practicing daily without missing a beat is hard, it’s a habit that must be nurtured and encouraged from day 1. We are tempted to put out what must be practiced today until tomorrow or the weekend.
Daily routine is crucial for any aspiring music student who wants to reach their peak performance. As in mastering any skill, in the beginning music practice may be boring. It requires a lot more brain power, thinking, memorizing etc unlike some other daily routines such as watching TV or reading a book.
Once we get past the initial hump we will start to enjoy the practice, it’s like exercising, your day will not feel complete unless you practice music. As a bonus, with music, unlike other not so creative endeavors, one starts to enjoy themselves and it only gets better day by day.
What is easy at first gets monotonous quickly and doesn’t help us grow. What is hard at first but gets easier later is challenging and after a while very rewarding.
Here are 7 tips that I have tried, they work but we need to do them daily and with faith.
Tip 1 – Practice sitting in the same place and at the same time daily
Tip 2 – Practice with all your heart, it’s serious stuff – practicing half is fine but practicing half-assed is not!
Tip 3 – Don’t waste time in setting up things like nice cushion to sit on, polishing your violin strings, cleaning the piano keys etc before practice, just jump in as quickly as possible and stay with it for as long as possible
Tip 4 – Record your practice, listen to it and you will be surprised how much room there is for improvement
Tip 5 – Don’t get distracted with phones, eating etc
Tip 6 – Keep a specific target for each practice e.g. I will master this one line
Tip 7 – Practice daily, no exceptions!
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