How They Practise
I’m just sending out my May edition of “Notes from the Harp” (are you getting them? Why not?!) and I wanted to supplement my thoughts in it on redeeming the time.
As a music teacher, I’ve found that the single factor that makes the biggest difference in a student’s progress is:
Talent
Musicality
Hard work
Those are all great, but no cigar.
It is:
How they practise.
Here’s an excerpt from my article to expand on that:
When you play a musical instrument, planning makes the difference between self-defeating practise sessions and transformative practise sessions.
Once I became a mother, I was amazed by how much I could accomplish at my instrument in 30 minutes, or even just 10 minutes, compared to the less structured way I used to practise when I had all the time in the world.
Here are some practical questions to ask yourself if, like me, you are not a planner by nature (it took a blitz of small children to force me to start planning well):
- What is the hardest part of my day?
- What makes it hard?
- If I can’t change it, can I change my attitude?
- Can I change my strategy for dealing with it?
Now apply this to music practise.
- What is the worst part of this piece?
- Why is this hard?
- What strategies am I employing to deal with it?
- Am I breaking it up into the smallest possible units?
- Am I analysing what techniques are used?
- Do I have a plan for how I will gradually master this?
- How would I tackle this passage if I could only spend 10 minutes focused wholeheartedly on it every day?
No matter how long you’ve been playing the harp, it’s a really good idea to assess yourself on this.
How do you practise?