Ten Steps to a More Joyful Music Practice
In my yoga studio hangs a photo of a woman landing a perfect downward dog pose. A caption beneath it says. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” If that advice was good enough for Aristotle, it’s good enough for me.
Discover the joy, wonder and mastery in your music practice with consistence and commitment.
We pursue perfection in a hurry at our own peril. It’s the rare person who masters any discipline in three easy steps, while watching an episode of The Real Housewives. Excellence or mastery takes time, attention and practice. With our ever-diminishing patience and ever-decreasing attention span, practice for anything from learning a foreign language to developing tennis skills can feel like punishment. When it comes to mastery, we want it, and we want it now.
This holds true for learning to play a musical instrument, or enhance our own personal instrument, our voice. Like anything else in life, our performance is 90 percent perspiration, and ten percent inspiration. But wait, this is supposed to be fun, right? Here are some ways to set yourself, or your student up for success - and re-discover the joy of music - by practicing some simple steps to keep you on track.
Successful music practice starts with thoughtful preparation and commitment.
Create a dedicated space. Find an appropriate place to practice. Is the room quiet enough to concentrate? Is it clear of distractions – including TVs, radios, mobile phone, other people? Neatness counts, so clear any clutter from the floor and surfaces.
Prepare. May go without mentioning, but have your music books, or sheets set up, a music stand if needed, a metronome. Bring paper and pencil for notes you want to make on music. Be open and receptive.
Set a consistent time for your practice. Schedule your practice. If it’s on the calendar, we often tend to honor the commitment. Speaking of time, for beginners, start with 20 minutes a day at least four days a week. As your skills progress, increase to 30 to 40 minutes, then up to 60 minutes a day.
Be goal oriented. Specific goals help us improve. Would you like to learn a new skill? Tackle that new song? Learn a new skill/technique?
Keep a practice log. It helps keep you organized, accountable, and demonstrates physical evidence of your progress. Show me a person who logs their meals and activity to achieve weight loss, and I’ll show you someone who has consistent and healthy results. Track your practice, and you’ll gain. More skill, more confidence and more mastery.
Strategize a music practice that works for you, and stay with it.
"Photo by Richard Clyborne of MusicStrive"
When you find the instrument you love to play, you’ll keep playing, and master your music practice.
Divide and conquer. So, you think you can cram weekly practice into a marathon session, typically the day before a lesson, and sound great? Uh, no. First of all, you’re not kidding anyone. And you won’t build the ‘muscle memory’ of shorter daily sessions. Shorter, consistent practice succeeds because you maintain focus and energy. Ultra-long workouts lead to fatigue and frustration, and you may experience diminishing returns.
Record yourself. It’s good to be able to review how you performed during music practice. You can hear what works, what needs improvement, perhaps find ways to approach a piece differently. It helps you experiment with more confidence next time around.
A note about repetition. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell put forth the theory that 10,000 hours of practice – about 20 hours a week for ten years – can turn anyone into an expert. Although the theory has been disputed - more on that here - repetition, i.e. practice, can’t hurt. Expertise also includes factors like personality, life circumstance, what age you start, and natural talent. What is true is that practice often leads to mastery, which builds the confidence that ignites enthusiasm, which ultimately motivates more practice.
Listen to others. We often mimic people we admire. Who do you enjoy listening to? Listen to them often, discover new artists to appreciate, perhaps emulate. What do you hear in their technique, their craft? On days we’re not feeling it, take that time to be inspired by someone else’s artistry.
Make a love connection. Love is the basis of all good relationships. Maybe you thought the saxophone was a great idea. Turns out the piano is your jam. We don’t always find our match first time out. This doesn’t mean you can pick up and toss off instruments or teachers on a whim. But if there’s no love, time to move on to an instrument or vocal genre that’s ‘the one.’
Be realistic. About your talent, about the time you have to practice and your true level of commitment. Set expectations so you don’t aren’t disappointed or undermine your talent or confidence.
Whose music practice is it anyway?
When you remember that it’s your child’s music practice, and not your own, it creates a motivational win-win.
Speaking of expectations, how do you motivate your child to practice? No, you can’t ‘make’ them. When your child’s reluctance to practice becomes a battle, you’ve lost the war. This is their practice. If you try to control it, you may get them to practice, but they’re merely through the motions on your behalf. Then practice, music becomes a burden rather than a joy.
You can however, provide incentives, like a half hour on TV or a video game after they practice. Motivation also comes in different flavors. Maybe you want them to play cello, they want to rock out on a bass. Learning an instrument should be fun, so invest in your future rocker, and restore household sanity.
Don’t let ‘lessons’ become one more subject. Your child may be at their limit with classroom activity. Music is something they get to do, not have to do. If music includes an element of fun, they’ll anticipate practice with excitement, not dread.
It’s true for young and older students alike. Music is a joy, a privilege and a gift.
So, let’s play.
Find more ways to a joyful music practice and its benefits
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