This is something I created last summer to help with teaching instrumental lessons this year. Students really DO NOT know what methodical, effective practice is. I list my thoughts below and ask for YOUR feedback as well as I go into teaching next year:

What Exactly is Good Practice?

Example #1 Jane liked to be the best at everything. She signed up for trumpet in 4th grade and was excited to get started at Wampus. After her first group lesson at school, she raced home, put together her instrument and practiced all night. She had a great sound on the low notes, but she struggled to produce the higher notes the way her teacher at school had instructed her. She worked on all of her songs, but whenever a high note occurred in the song, she skipped over it and went to the place in the song where the low notes occurred. After all, she was good at the low notes¡Xshe liked playing them. Her teacher told her though that she needed to work on higher notes at home, but she avoided them because they were very difficult. She practiced 45 minutes a day and came into lessons with the highest amount of practice every week, yet after awhile she found that she was behind in class. The other students, who practiced only 20 minutes a day, could play more than her and could play higher notes more easily. Jane became frustrated, and eventually she quit, even though she ¡§practiced¡¨ more than anyone in the 4th grade.

Example #2 Ethan was a naturally talented clarinet player. Everything came easy to him. His sound was big and round on the clarinet and his fingers worked faster than almost anyone. He found that he didn¡¦t even need to practice as much as the others and he was still the best player in the class. In lessons he received a zero for his practice grade every week, but he thought to himself, ¡§Why should I practice when I can play better than anyone in my class? I¡¦d rather be doing something a lot more fun like playing video games.¡¨ And so he did¡X he played video games for an hour each night after he got home from school. After awhile though, the music became more difficult in lessons. He couldn¡¦t play everything that the other students played on their clarinet, and since he only practiced only 10 minutes a week (whenever he felt like playing for a little), he lost interest in the clarinet. He kept playing into 5th grade, but 10-15 other clarinet players became much better than him.

Example #3 Barney liked the flute, and he was very neat in writing down the practice assignment every week so that he could practice at home. He sat down in his quiet place at home and went through the assignment quickly. If there were three things to do for his assignment, he would play those three things and be done in less than three minutes. Sometimes he would play things right, but most of the time he did not play things right. In fact, it often was downright ugly! ¡§Oh well!¡¨ Barney thought. ¡§At least I¡¦m practicing at home!¡¨

Example #4 D.W. was not very good at trumpet when he started, but he sure liked playing the instrument. The first couple of lessons he could see that he was probably the worst player in his lesson group. At the end of the second lesson he ran out into the hall and cried. ¡§I¡¦ll never be good at this instrument!¡¨ he said. His teacher found him and talked with him. ¡§Don¡¦t give up yet, D.W.! You¡¦re doing fine! Just be consistent at home and work on the things that are hard for you.¡¨ D.W. went home and set his mind to become ¡§better¡¨ on his instrument. He was not very good at remembering the fingerings, so he worked on these at home. He also was not very good at playing higher notes, but he worked on them every day, slowing down at times to make sure he was playing correctly. Some days he really didn¡¦t feel like practicing, but he practiced anyway. Some days he did really well, and other days he played very poorly, but he kept working on those things that were difficult for him. Over time he found that he was playing much better on the trumpet. He became the best player in class by the end of 4th grade, and other students were amazed at his progress, especially since he only practiced 20 minutes a day four or five times a week. For his 5th grade birthday he received an audio tape of a famous trumpet player playing really amazing trumpet music. D.W. loved the trumpet after hearing this, and he began to practice even more. He became the best high school trumpet player in Colorado when he was 15, and he won a scholarship to a music college. He won many trumpet competitions, played in many professional orchestras and eventually became a music teacher.

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The main goal of practice is to become better on your instrument. To do this is not automatic. Some students "practice" an hour a day, seven days a week and get nowhere on their instrument.

Good practice is NOT going home, pulling out your instrument, and playing whatever comes out (and then being done). This is making noise! Good practice is NOT playing the things that are easy for you while neglecting the hard things. Good practice is NOT playing your instrument one day for 80 minutes and then not playing the other 6 days. This will not make you a better player.

Musicians who become good (or great) on their instruments do at least three (3) things well when practicing. These are GOOD practicing habits you can develop at home:

1. REFLECT - To reflect means to think about what you just played. You ask yourself questions: How did it sound? What should it sound like? What did I do well? What needs work? Why doesn¡¦t this sound right? What did my teacher say I should do if I encounter this problem? When you reflect, you are being honest as a musician. It may sound great, good, or terrible.

2. REVISE - To revise means to change or correct something. If something is wrong, you should try to fix it and play it better. This is a difficult thing to do at first because you will find yourself working on those things that are hard for you to do. Are you willing to work? This may mean taking a small section of your music and working on it until it becomes better (or perfect!). It may mean slowing the music down, looking up fingerings, or clapping the rhythm of the music, or singing the melody before playing it again. If you are willing to say you made a mistake, and if you are willing to take the time to correct it, you are on the right path to becoming better, especially if you do this:

3. REPEAT - This means that you play something over again correctly, perhaps four or five times. It is not good enough to see an error you made while playing and then play that music over again correctly only once. Your brain and your body need to repeat something correctly several times before it becomes something you do all the time. You know you have your music down pat if you can play it through perfectly four or five times in a row. Repetition is absolutely essential to become a player who plays well all of the time!! WARNING: Make sure though that when you do this step you are playing the music correctly when repeating!!