More effective practice specifics

In my previous post, I outlined some general practice guidelines that have produced the best progress for me, and for the students I have worked with.  Here is a more specific sequence or routine to help focus and accelerate your technical skills, as well as build a solid repertoire.

A. Warm up (2 to 10 minutes).
Warm hands up by practicing rolls, technical exercises, scales, rudiments, etc. This prepares the hands as well as the mind for challenging material ahead. Be cautious, though, not to practice technique exercises blindly with no thought processes involved. Focus on form.  Careful attention and evaluation should be given to technique in each practice session in order for maximum improvement to take place.

B. Learn and refine new techniques (10 minutes to one hour).
When learning new techniques, practice motions very slowly.  Only increase the speed or tempo gradually once the technique is mastered when played slowly.  “Speed to succeed.”   The muscular memory of our bodies allows us to physically carry out patterns of motion with little or no conscious involvement. Examples of muscular memory include walking, riding a bike, typing, and of course playing a musical instrument.  In order to develop this memory, the muscles require training in the form of repeated conscious guidance. First the mind must learn the pattern. Then the mind must “teach” the pattern to the muscles.  The mind initially must control all the motions of the muscles. The more controlled and precise the motions, the more quickly the muscles will develop muscle memory.  Slow practice also allows the mind to teach “antagonistic muscles” to relax. Antagonistic muscles are those that move in opposite directions. By relaxing antagonistic muscles you can reduce tension and facilitate faster and easier performance and avoid potential injury.  Musicians are ‘small muscle’ athletes. Learning a new instrument or a new song involves physical skill training, just like learning a sport.  Imagine the practice routine of Olympic divers. There are hundreds of repetitions of every aspect of the dive: learning flips and twists independently, then learning to combine them. And finally once the dive is perfected, to ensure consistency and reliability, they practice the perfected dive hundreds, even thousands of times.

Be careful not to practice mistakes!  For every repetition required to learn a pattern of motion, it takes many more times that number of repetitions to change the  previously learned pattern. If in the course of your practice you make an error, stop. Review the pattern correctly in your mind. Reduce the speed of your motions until you play the part correctly.  Do not practice when you’re extremely tired.  You will make more mistakes.

Pause between repetitions.  When dealing with repetitive activities, the mind is better able to focus when the repetitions are broken up by short pauses. After several correct repetitions, pause for about 10 to 15 seconds to regain focus.

Sometimes this is the most frustrating segment of practicing.  It is frequently difficult to work on new or challenging music.  But remember, miracles can”t happen overnight, so be realistic. Don’t attempt too much in one practice. Take big problems and break them down into a bunch of small problems, then convert them into short-range goals, and attack them one at a time. It is much better to take a difficult measure and practice it again and again, until played perfectly, than to stop every time that measure is encountered and say, “I always have trouble with this part.”

C. Learn new music/correct problem spots (10  to 30 minutes).
At this time, the mind and hands are the most alert. Use this time to learn new music and correct problem spots in old music.  Clean up the two seven-stroke rolls that are always sloppy. Practice the sticking on a fill that is a critical queue in a transition spot.  Maybe the new technique is ready to add into a song.  Try it here.

D. Review previously learned material (10 minutes to one hour).
This is the time to “run through” at least a portion of your repitoire.  This can be music you learned last week or last month.  Practice planned groups of tunes so that you keep all the tunes and techniques you have learned fresh in your mind and muscle memory.  Plan the groups so that you review all your tunes at least a couple times a month, if not once a week.  You can run through ten 3-minute tunes each day, five days per week, and keep a list of 50 songs per week fresh in your mind.  The main purpose of this segment is to keep all previously learned material fresh and ready to play when you need to.  Another purpose of this practice segment is to reinforce skills and concepts you’ve just learned and refined, and apply them to a tune.  Remember to practice dynamics and phrasing. Use a click track or a metronome as often as possible.  Go back and play the newest piece that you have been correcting all the way through so it becomes part of your repertoire.

Don’t over practice.  Know when to stop. Focused work for a short period is better than playing through for longer less productive sessions.  During practice sessions longer than an hour, take a short break (5 to 10 minutes). After an intense practice, you will need one! Let your mind and your hands relax a bit and refresh for what is ahead. After a break, your mind is clearer and can function more efficiently. Long practice sessions go more smoothly if interspersed with regular short breaks.  Some research shows that studying too long (i.e. more than four hours) can deplete chemicals in the brain necessary for learning. Therefore, it is best to take frequent breaks and practice no more than 4 hours consecutively.

E. Conclusion of practice.
When concluding practice sessions, review and reflect back over the session, and think about what was accomplished and where you still have to go.  While everything is still fresh, plan sort-range goals for tomorrow,  It’s better to work out your goals when you have a chance to realistically monitor your progress.

F.  Play!
Sometimes it’s good to just let go and have some fun.  Fool around with your own ideas.  Improvise.  Don’t make practice a chore. If regular practice becomes a dreaded chore, you will find ways and reasons to avoid it.  Look for ways to keep it enjoyable and fun!  Play with other musicians whenever you get the chance.  Play along to tunes on an i-pod, radio, or any music source.

Tips:
Have a Pencil    In your practice area… at rehearsal… at lessons… always have a way to write down notes!  Yes, I know we all have astounding memories, but a pencil never forgets. A mistake such as a wrong note or incorrect dynamic is forgivable ONCE! Mark it and it won’t happen again. Besides these obvious mistakes, a pencil can remind you of alternate positions, or certain inflections in a given phrase. In short, the pencil IS your memory! Many great players have developed their own “shorthand” of symbols and markings they use to help them in performance.

Record practice sessions and performances, and listen back to them regularly.  More than any other single activity, listening can help you learn music easily and quickly.  Schedule some listening time into your day.  The biggest advantage in listening is that it helps you prevent making rhythmic mistakes.  Rhythmic mistakes are often the hardest to fix.  Listening will help you avoid some of the worst pitfalls.

Visualization – practice mentally.  This is a technique used by champion athletes world wide.  Focus on a tune and rehearse the entire piece in your mind from start to finish.  This can even be done while riding in a car or bus, while waiting in a line or any time with an extra 5 minutes of normally lost time.  This can also be a good test of how well you really know a tune.

Review your practice plan with an instructor or a mentor.  Get the best advice you can on how and what to practice, and your efforts will be much more productive.  Pick a partner or find a playing friend to keep you going.  Friends who play together help each other and bring each other up level by level.  Either get a friend to start playing, or make a new friend with someone who already plays.

There are many good practice methods. Take some time, and concentrate on methods that work best for you. Then, plan out a personal practice schedule to produce the maximum results.  Use your time efficiently and effectively.  By applying these techniques, you can maximize the effectiveness of your practice.