How to Practice Your Instrument (the Correct Way)
Learning how to practice effectively at home is one of the most important things you can do when taking music lessons. Learning an instrument is a complex skill, so it takes regular, goal-directed practice to make progress on your instrument. Here are some tips on how to practice effectively:
Make practicing a regular routine. Have a regular space at home where it is quiet and free from distractions, and have everything you need to practice ready to go, including your instrument, music, and other items you will need. Try to practice at the same times every day. This will help you set a regular routine.
How well you practice is more important than the amount of time you practice each day. A short, focused, and goal-directed practice session is better than mindlessly playing the entire piece of music over and over again for an hour. The goal is to break down a piece of music into small, manageable chunks, and by starting slowly and gradually getting to the correct speed.
Once you learn how to practice effectively, practicing more will make you a much better musician. The more time you spend practicing your instrument, the better you will become. You will make faster progress, and you will enjoy playing much more. Aim to practice at least four to six days a week, or every day if you can. In general, younger students will need less practice time, but older students will need more practice time as they start to work on longer, more advanced pieces. Shorter practice sessions interspersed with frequent breaks is the best practice schedule for each day, for example practicing for 15 minutes, taking a five minute break, then practicing for another 15 minutes, then taking a ten minute break, then practicing for another 15 minutes is a good practice session. Spacing out your practice sessions throughout the day can also be an effective method.
Playing through a piece once, or playing the whole piece from beginning to end several times is not an effective practice method. Playing the piece once, evaluating what parts need to be worked on, and then isolating small sections by repeating and making corrections is the best way to practice. The goal is to do as much thinking as possible about how the music should go, and what the possible corrections should be before, during, and after playing a segment of music, rather than just mindlessly playing through the music. Sometimes merely thinking about how the music should go while you are away from your instrument is enough to make some improvement later on when you actually play it! The following is an example of an effective practice method:
Play the piece once all the way through. Ask yourself what sections need improvement. You should set goals for each trouble section in the music and think about solutions about how to improve them.
Start with the first small section in the music that needs improvement. Play it once and evaluate how you can make it better. Is the rhythm correct, are you playing the correct notes, are you playing it with the right fingers, is it the correct dynamic level, are you playing with correct articulations or appropriate expression, etc? Slow down to a speed where you can think about all the details in the music and all the movements your hands need to make to play the passage. Write in your music or make notes if you need to. Keep looping though the section while making corrections each time until you have made enough improvement on the current section. Sometimes focusing on one element at a time can be effective, especially when the section is particularly difficult - for example, focusing on just the pitches, or just the rhythms at first, and then later combining them. Once the section has improved, reinforce what you have corrected by repeating the section several times.
Repeat step two for all of the other sections in the music that need work.
Play through the entire piece or larger sections of the music again.
Take a break, because your brain needs rest in order for what you have learned to enter your long-term memory.