About Practicing

 Let’s talk about the P word… Practicing!

Halloween is coming up, so this scary topic is right on time!


I’m joking. Practicing doesn’t have to be as scary or intimidating as it may sound.


Practicing is simply going home after your lesson and playing your instrument because you want to learn how to play your instrument. And you can’t learn to play your instrument if you never sit down and play your instrument. And the oftener you play your instrument, the easier it gets, and the easier your songs/pieces get. And then you get better and better and you play more and more fun music. And it’s all because you went home and played your instrument.


So how do you know what to play when you’re home? Open your lessons book(s) and find what pages your teacher assigned. If they write in a notebook, open that and read what they wrote. Play through all of your songs, and if you struggle in one spot, take a look and study it out. Try again. If it gets frustrating, it’s ok to put it away until tomorrow. But you make sure and try again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.


You know Michael Jordan, the super-famous basketball player? The one who won 6 NBA championships and is worth over a billion dollars? He didn’t become a great basketball player because one day he woke up and realized he could suddenly play amazingly well. He said, “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” He didn’t mess up once and give up forever. He tried again. And again. And again. And that is what you must do when practicing and learning how to play an instrument. Learn from your mistakes. Mess up. Try again.


Practically speaking, a practice session might go like this:
- open books, find assigned songs
- play through each song at least twice
- do any assigned theory

It might last a beginner 10 minutes. An intermediate player- 30 minutes. An advanced player-an hour. And it must happen most days of the week for it to count.


Parents, if you have to remind your child to brush teeth, take a shower, or put on their shoes before school, then they still need you to remind them to practice. Sit down with them and be involved. Have them teach you what they learned and give it your best shot. They will learn it so much better if you do this. Set a daily timer on your phone to help you remember to do it!


A wonderful resource to help parents get their kids to practice are these books:
101 Piano Practice Tips: How to get your Kids to the Keyboard! or the similar book,
101 Music Practice Tips: Practice Tips for ANY Instrument both by Tracy Capps Selle. Available on Amazon, these books have many clever tips for getting your child to practice.


“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” 
Malcolm Gladwell (author and public speaker.)

Photo credit Natascia Jones