What Does Practise Look Like?

 Why practise?

Lessons with me last for 30 minutes or 45 minutes a week. There are 10,080 minutes in a week, which means there are over 10,000 minutes between lessons – that’s a long time to forget what we spent time on in the lesson if it’s not revisited during the week!

Developing a practice routine.

Daily practice should be the aim and definitely at least 4 times a week (ie practise more days than not). Initially 10 minutes a day is plenty - regular short practices are far more powerful than practising once or twice a week for a longer period of time. As pupils progress, the amount of practice needed will go up, but so should their enthusiasm. This is why a routine helps so much. I have seen many different routines implemented; perhaps before dinner each evening or as soon as they get home from school. Others practise before they’re allowed to watch TV or play computer games. Or some practise before they go to school each morning. Every family is different, so working out a practice routine that works for your child and your family is important, and while it might be different for different days to fit in with other activities, it does need to be agreed and scheduled in advance.

‘I’ve been practising, so why am I not getting any better?’

‘Sometimes we confuse practising hard with practising with a purpose. Practising with purpose means planning and reflecting on what you have practised, while doing something different each time, until that specific goal you set in the beginning has been reached.’ (From ‘I wish I didn’t Quit’ by Nathan Holder).

If every time a pupil practises, they play the same pieces or scales in the same way, playing them through once or twice, all that happens is that any mistakes become firmly part of the piece or scale! Before starting to practise, it is necessary for pupils to think about what they want to work on during that particular practise, they should have an achievable target in mind – they could also check the lesson notebook for specific things that need work. Younger pupils may need some help with this approach to start with. Do remember that practice is rarely starting at the beginning and playing all the way through - this should be an occasional treat!

Here are a few ideas to get started:-

• Working on linking a couple of bars together in a piece, perhaps to make a change of hand position happen smoothly without missing a beat? Then just practise the end of the bar into the beginning of the next one, but lots and lots of times, before (or perhaps even instead of) playing the whole piece.

• Need to practise finger patterns of a scale? Then stop on the note that has the thumb & check it’s right before carrying on with the next section.

• Practising the dynamics of a particular section of a piece? Then just play that section, and record it. Play it back – what level of dynamics is there - 100% dynamics, or only 50%? Try again – and compare it. Do it once more to check the improvement can be repeated.

• Finding hands together a challenge for part of a piece? Try hands separately several times for that section. Then slowly hands together. Identify what is making it hard. Try again. Recording can be helpful here too.

• Can’t remember what black notes the scale has? Try testing yourself before checking the music to see if you are right.

• Getting fed up with practising scales? Write each scale name on a separate piece of paper, fold them up & put them in a pot. When practising, pick some out of the pot to do. Try each in turn. If it goes well, put it in another pot, if not, try it a few times, then put it back in the first pot.

• Finding a particular hand position change to grasp; practise the last note or chord of the previous hand position and the first one of the new lots and lots of times, in isolation (i.e. just this, nothing before or after). Once more secure add a little on to each end to get the position change in context.

• Another scale idea - try playing them with different dynamics or articulation (ie staccato, legato or a mixture of both!), or ‘upside down’ (ie starting at the top, going down the scale,back up) – just doing something different makes it more interesting!

Practising like this is far also more rewarding – in each practice session the pupil should be able to see progress in the specific things that they are working on. This is hugely motivating – suddenly there is a point to practise other than just getting through it enable them to get back to what they really want to be doing! 

A regular practice routine helps develop discipline, and aids in the development of music reading skills and better technique, fine motor skills and muscle memory. Students who practise regularly improve far more rapidly than those who practise sporadically, resulting in them enjoy playing more, which in turn reduces the risk of them wanting to give up.

If students haven’t had a chance to practise sufficiently between lessons, it can take almost the entire lesson to get back to where we were at the end of previous lesson – not much fun for them as it feels like wading through treacle and they feel they’re not getting anywhere! If, however, they have practised, using the kind of approach detailed above, they come to their lesson feeling positive and enthusiastic as they know they have progressed (& very importantly, done it without me at their side). This does wonders for self esteem – indeed, I can often tell whether a pupil has practised even before they sit at the piano just by the way they walk through the door! As well as building confidence, self esteem and resilience, practice also builds muscle memory so that playing the notes becomes automatic, leaving the pianist able to focus on communicating the character of the music through dynamics and articulation, and resulting in a much more fluent and rounded performance.

Practice – how to make it happen?

Unfortunately, this is often a challenge! Life gets in the way; they have lots of other activities, or would rather watch TV or play computer games etc. From personal experience with my children, I sympathise! However, establishing good habits early on is vital. As mentioned earlier, developing a routine that works for your child and your family is very important. Try going through the diary together and finding the best time each day in an average week. We always had a stick & carrot approach which worked for us – a system of ‘not until you’ve done your practice’ coupled with stickers gained which led towards a bigger reward was our way of doing it. But basically, whatever works! 😊 Children do love positive feedback from their parents – so this always helps too!

The discipline and focus required to develop as a musician can seem daunting (for pupils and parents alike), but broken into manageable chunks becomes more achievable and rewarding. The joy when a difficult passage has come together a after struggle, or after a performance in front of school, family or friends, or having realised that they a piece that they’ve always loved is within their grasp, or having passed an exam they’ve worked hard for is definitely worth the effort! Rewards do come with music, but sometimes we just have to keep going and wait a while!

Finally, let me leave you with this quote from Brian Tracy, a Canadian/American motivational speaker and author:- ‘Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor.’