Practicing Tips
Practice daily rather than one long session right before your lesson. Daily practicing is much more efficient for learning and retaining new material. Even if you can only squeeze in 20 minutes one day, it’s amazing what you can accomplish in that amount of time!
Pick a practice time you will be able to use every day, or make a practice schedule.
Find an area to practice away from other distractions.
Always warm up with long tones and scales before beginning a practice session.
Use your practice journal.
Practice in front of a mirror occasionally.
Practice efficiently! It is often much more beneficial to work on a few measures at a time, and solve those issues rather than always running through things.
Practice slowly! It is much easier to hear and fix our mistakes at slower tempos. I will always be happy to hear a piece under tempo and played well, than fast and sloppily. Speed will come in time…
Listen! Always be sure that you are relying on your ears as much as the muscle memory it takes to play a passage.
Don’t forget to use your metronome. Although annoying at first, the metronome is your best friend when it comes to playing rhythmically and is a great help when working up fast passages to tempo.
Think creatively! My job is to teach you how to teach yourself, so think of your practice time as personal lessons. How many solutions can you come up with to solve a problem?
I am always available for questions that may arise in between our regularly scheduled lessons. Please do not hesitate to call or email with any questions you have and I will make my best effort to get back to you as soon as possible.
Ultimately, music is a way to express ourselves, and practicing technique etc, is all about giving ourselves as many tools as possible to create what we hear in our heads. Never forget you are playing MUSIC!!!