Upgrading Your Practice Habits
Tags: creative process, deep practice, deliberate practice, how to practice music, music practice, practicing music, problem-solving, self-motivation, The Musician's Way
“We first make our habits and then our habits make us.”
–John Dryden, poet (The Musician’s Way, p. 20)
When you practice, are you consistently focused and productive? If not, the reason may lie in chronic habits that undermine your attention and creativity.
Here are 7 ways to replace unwanted practice habits with those that foster deeper learning and higher creativity.
- Reinforce Positive Thoughts and Actions
To acquire effective habits, we have to cease repeating unwanted actions and steadfastly employ desirable ones. A classic example would be when we want to undo habits of excess physical tension: we need to remind ourselves to stop forcing and, at the same time, take pleasure in releasing. Overall, then, we need to practice joyfully yet deliberately, emphasizing habits of excellence. - Work On Accessible Material
Choosing accessible material permits us to learn music quickly while allowing for the mental space we need to be spontaneous and monitor ourselves. Conversely, overly difficult music floods our capacity, making it impossible for us to be creative and evaluate how we’re doing. - Set Specific Practice Goals
When we identify small goals and attain them one after another, we boost our productivity and fuel our motivation. The free downloads at MusiciansWay.com help musicians itemize their practice aims.
- Employ a Deep Learning Process
Given that our brains and bodies imprint, it’s crucial that we’re accurate and expressive from the start of the learning process. Then, to bring music to concert level, we need comprehensive approaches to practice that enable us to truly master our material. The Musician’s Way spells out deep practice methods that empower performers to become one with their music and their listeners. - Alter Your Practice Environment
We can support fresh habits by adjusting our practice spaces, even if we merely point a music stand in a new direction or slightly modify the decor of a practice room. - Keep to a Schedule
Consistent practice sessions are far more productive than scattershot ones. To stay optimally focused and imaginative, we do well to work in 20-25 minute episodes with breaks in between. Ideally, we’d practice multiple times per day. It also helps to mentally review our objectives before we sleep and then act on them soon after we rise.
- Enlist a Teacher
Like athletes, we musicians benefit from the feedback of coaches. But beyond mere advice, skilled teachers help artists stay motivated and, over time, achieve their dreams.
See Part I of The Musician’s Way for comprehensive practice tips and guidelines.
Related posts
Assessing Your Practice Habits
Beautiful Repetition
Better than Patience
A Different Kind of Slow Practice
Optimizing Practice Time
© 2012 Gerald Klickstein
Photo © VILevi, licensed from Shutterstock.com
Sue Hunt said:
Oct 20, 12 at 07:13You have made 7 brilliant points here.
I love your first point. A healthy, positive mindset makes all the difference.
I find that having a specific sequential practice instructions is vitally important when helping a young child to practice. As a teacher, I used to be guilty of giving very sketchy instructions. Students don’t need to hear, “Practice this bit and make it better.” They need to hear something more like, “Play the section in the green box, 10 times, on open strings only, making sure that that the bow stops between each note. Then add the fingers, listening for the ringing tone on A and D.”
Instead of continually nagging to play more slowly, I tell my students to play at Practice Tempo, the speed at which you can’t get it wrong.
Gerald Klickstein said:
Oct 22, 12 at 09:56Thanks for the supportive words, Sue, and for contributing such valuable examples! We all benefit when you share such insights.
For more info about how positivity affects learning, check out my post summarizing the research of Barbara Fredrickson: http://musiciansway.com/blog/2010/09/positivity/