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How to improve your practice results

How to improve your practice results

Posted in Teach: October 2015

Because I experienced this with my students many times, I can tell you what inefficient practice means. If you are a student and you recognize some of this habits also in your daily practice, please stop immediately! You are wasting your time and in this case is better to take a walk or to read a book.
Now, please read carefully the examples bellow:

1. You just start to play the piece without looking at: tempo, measure, tonality.
2. You just play the piece through from A to Z no matter what happens inside.
3. You don`t play the right notes but you don`t stop to correct them. You just go until the end...
4. You don`t play the right value of the notes but you don`t stop. You just go until the end....
5. You play the note without a sharp or a flat more than 3 or 4 times but you don`t take the pencil to make a notation.
6. You don`t stop when you see a difficult passage to work on it. You just go until the end....
7. You think that you have practiced and you know the piece!

Well, from all this examples the number 7 is the worst. Your practice was inefficient, because you just played the piece from the beginning to the end. The truth is that you have learned maybe 10% of it.

Now, read this advice for efficient practice and apply! I try to give you the essence of my ideas:

1. Before starting to play, take a look at: tempo, measure, tonality.

2.Don`t play the piece from A to Z without stopping. You`ll be able to play the piece form A to Z without mistakes later. Now you are learning the piece, so be ready to stop many times.
3. Try to play the right notes and to correct the wrong ones immediately.
4. Play the right rhythm and don`t go further if something is not clear. Stop and think about the right value of the notes. If you don`t understand something, ask your teacher.
5. Take a pencil and write the sharp or the flat if you forgot it more than once.
6. Stop when you see a difficult passage and work on it. Try to learn and to reproduce it as good as you can now and later.
7. You feel tired and maybe you think that you don`t know the piece yet, but you have learned more than 50% of it.

You can apply this advice for studies and pieces. To practice in this way is not easy, but I can tell you from my experience and from the experience of others that the result is much better than before. Maybe you can`t apply everything what I wrote, but also a small change in your daily practice it matters. Take from above what you like and what do you think it can help you to improve your results.

You can read also this article about efficient practice:
http://www.essential-music-practice.com/faster-progress.html 

For more information about efficient practice you can contact me at: lidia@fluteandmore.com

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