What Part of What you’re Doing is Practice?
Because I know that correct and efficient practice is essential for progress, I work to help my students achieve optimal practice skills. When someone feels frustrated or stuck in one place on a song, one of the things I ask about is the frequency of their practice and the number of daily repetitions. What I invariably discover is that even when they employ the positive practice techniques they’ve learned, they aren’t always clear on what qualifies as practice. And because of that, they’re not really practicing when they think they are.
When you sit down to practice, you’ll be working in one of three categories: learning, practice, and maintenance. Read about each of them below, then go back and reread the section on practice. That’s probably your weakest area.
Learning
The first phase of playing something new is the learning phase. That’s where you discover the notes and chords you need for your new piece and learn how and when to play them. You’ll focus on the timing of the single notes and chords, and you’ll learn any appropriate rhythm and accompaniment patterns. Once you bring these components together correctly, however slowly, you’re ready to move on to the practice phase.
Practice
In this phase you’ll take the piece you’ve learned and smooth out the rough places, regulate and finish the tempo, and turn it into something musical. Then you will log in enough repetitions to ingrain what you’ve learned. It will probably take more repetitions than you bargained for in any session, and there’s no way to predict the amount of time that will be required.
I’ve noticed that a lot of my students like to count their repetitions. I’ve never done this—I just repeat until I’m getting the results I’m looking for. If you feel that you want to count, though, that’s fine, but make it a big number. (10 – 20 is a good start for most things.) I think using a timer is better than counting repetitions, because it enables you to more easily stay immersed in the practice experience.
As you log in your repetitions, avoid pausing or stopping after each one. Playing something over and over without pause enables you to listen to it deeply and discover patterns and tendencies that you can correct the next time around. It also helps you learn to evaluate while simultaneously dropping self-judgment. As you progress, you’ll ingrain what you’re practicing and your body will begin to relax, which will encourage sensitivity and invite expression. None of these things are likely to occur from playing two or three repetitions.
Maintenance
You’ll need to revisit songs you’ve learned to keep them in your memory and under your fingers. You may only need to play something once or twice to keep it current, but if you’ve gone more than a few weeks without playing it, you might need to go back to the practice phase to bring it back up to a finished piece again.
The Takeaway
I write a lot about how to practice effectively and it’s all important, but you won’t be successful without investing time and attention. Don’t expect to play something two or three times in each practice session and make any noticeable progress. That amount may keep you from losing ground, but it won’t propel you forward. Instead, continue until you’ve made progress, and then do some more to make it stick.
