#practice inspiration

[violinandchill]

i'm going to be performing this bach on monday, and i've been practicing like crazy. it really payed off! this performance will be great. also my teacher added to my journal "good intonation!! keep it up" and i'm honestly so proud of myself.

[howtomusicmajor]

How to Practice During the Summer

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Over the summer, it can be difficult to maintain your practice routine. With the sudden lack of structure, the work hours that are all over the place, and the disappearance of your practice room, you might find it near impossible to actually get yourself to do anything. That’s normal.

Heck, I find it hard to make myself write during the summer, and writing is a lot less stressful than practicing sometimes.

So how to practice over the summer? Here are some suggestions!

Find a time when your home is emptiest. Personally, I find it really hard to practice when I know someone is going to be listening to me. It’s different in the practice room. Then everyone outside is definitely just worrying about their own practice, or their next class, or lunch. At home, though, my family tends to listen. Which is nice! But also nerve-wracking!  I make all the bad-sounding noises when I practice. Practice leaves only good-sounding noises once I’m on stage. That’s not something I like others to pay attention to. So what I do is wait to practice until basically everyone has left the house, and then practice my heart out. If there HAVE to still be people around, though, no worries: I head to the attic or the basement.

Find a room where you won’t be disturbed. Yes, I’ve practiced in my attic. It’s calm, it’s separated from the rest of the house, it’s well ventilated, and the door locks so people can’t come bug me. You may not live somewhere with such a nice setup, but the same overall principles still apply. Find somewhere out of the way, preferably with a door between you and everywhere else, and ask to make sure you aren’t disturbed. I don’t ever actually lock the attic. I’ve just asked my family to please not bother me when I’m practicing, and for the most part I’m left alone. Hopefully, your family will do the same.

Set an app on your devices that blocks you from doing stuff during your designated practice time. If your schedule is really irregular, then you’ll want to do this the morning of the day you decide to practice. There are plenty of apps that will block you from using the internet for a specific amount of time. One that I like is Forest, which keeps your phone on that specific app and allows you to grow a tree. If you leave, your tree dies - don’t kill your tree! Having something specifically to prevent you from goofing off instead can really help you focus.

Have someone remind you. Both my Mom and my SO can attest - I use them as external sources of discipline. I often just don’t waaaaanna practice/do X chore/sit down and write. However, it’s much easier for me to start when it’s someone else telling me to do the thing. So external reminders it is.

Set up summer lessons. This is the extreme of just having someone remind you. By maintaining lesson deadlines, even during the summer, you force yourself to keep practicing. Otherwise all the money that went into your lesson just goes to waste. That can be painful, as can disappointing your teacher. Sometimes you need those negative consequences to keep you going - that’s okay! Do what you have to in order to keep improving!

[howtomusicmajor]

Seven Ways to Actually Start Practicing

So everyone knows that the hardest part of practicing is actually making your way to the practice room. Even this semester, with my recital coming up, I’ve made it all the way to the basement of the music building, totally intending to practice, then turned left and wound up in the music lounge and not practiced/practiced way less than I should have, instead. Getting into the practice room is 80% of the battle - now, how to actually get yourself there? Well, here’s seven ways how to do that.

Have a countdown on your lock screen to when your next performance is. Not gonna lie, knowing that my recital (yes I’m going to keep mentioning this it is my life right now) is in 25 days really keeps me focused. Knowing when you’re going to be performing that stuff helps keep you on task, because you know where you want to be and you know EXACTLY how long you have to get there.

Get some Bribery Tea. Or chocolate, or mints, or some other small but tasty thing. Be strict with yourself and only consume the Bribery Tea (/chocolate/mint/cookie) AFTER you’ve practiced for a decent amount of time in a day.

Be super consistent with practice times. The days I get the most practicing done are Tuesdays and Thursdays, because I have a two-hour, uninterrupted stretch of time both days which I have dedicated, 100%, to practicing. That’s all I’ve used that time period for for the past semester. I may not practice consistently other days, because stuff creeps into those other times, but by golly Tuesday and Thursday practice will happen. See if you can do the same thing,

Set an alarm on your phone and don’t let yourself turn it off until you are IN the practice room. There’s nothing quite like a never-ending repetition of the Marimba ringtone to bring even the most ardent procrastinator to their knees. If you don’t turn it off until you get to the room, you’ll get there pretty goshdarn quick just to have an excuse to turn it off.

Have your best friend promise to irritate the heck out of you until you practice. They will JUMP at the chance if your best friend is anything like mine. That’s what best friends do - irritate each other out of love. Having an actual human holding you accountable on a daily basis can work wonders.

Think of that one pianist who’s so dedicated that they’re still at the practice room until 9pm on a Friday night - don’t let them show you up toooo badly. Pianists, pretend I wrote “violinist” up there. If they can spend 3/4ths of their waking hours in a practice room, you can probably manage an hour or two a day.

Remember that you actually LIKE YOUR INSTRUMENT. I presume you chose to major in music or take lessons because you actually like playing your instrument, right? If not, go take some time to reevaluate what you’re doing. If not, go do that thing you like doing! Maybe at the start or end of every practice session, work on a piece you enjoy that you aren’t doing in lessons. Do it for the love of it! That will help a lot, I think.

And there’s your tips. Don’t get too down about not practicing as much as you think you should! Just try to make tomorrow a better practice day!