The Best Way to Practice Your Instrument
Believe it or not, the biggest reason why some students make such slow progress on
their instrument is not that they aren’t practicing enough; it’s that they aren’t
practicing correctly. Many students waste valuable time trying to get their music to
sound right, but often feel that their progress doesn’t reflect the time they’ve put
into it.
Bad practicing doesn’t just mean that you are not solving your problems, it often
means that you are reinforcing errors, and actually making it more likely that you’ll
make those errors again. In that regard, you might actually be worse off after a bad
“practicing session” than if you were to keep the instrument closed and in its case.
The main culprit with bad practicing is the reinforcing of errors. It happens this way:
the student plays through the music until a mistake is made. He stops because he
hears something wrong. He then fixes that note, and continues on from that spot.
And that is the error!
This is what’s really happening: when a mistake is made, the error really happened
on the note or two before the mistake. Our brains are always thinking ahead, usually
by three or four notes. So if you make a mistake, whatever your brain told you
regarding getting to that note was the actual error. When you make a mistake, you
need to go back several notes, slow things way down, and program into your fingers
how to get to the next note.
When you fix errors in this way, it will sometimes surprise you how far back you
need to go to solve it. But if all you do is fix the note that you heard being played
incorrectly and then move on, you are only reinforcing the error, and actually
making things worse. Students with bad practicing technique actually spend more
time trying to undo mistakes caused by bad practicing technique than they do any
other kind of mistake.
So here’s a summing-up of what you should be doing, as well as some other hints
that will allow you to use your time more efficiently:
1- Don’t just “play through” your music. When you make a mistake, go back a few
notes, and play through the trouble-spot at half the tempo. Do this several times,
deliberately and slowly placing the fingers until the trouble is worked out. Then
slowly increase tempo.
2- Do some silent practice. Do the fingerings while singing through the music,
especially if you play a brass instrument, where constant playing can be tiring.
3- Use a metronome. A metronome will not result in an unmusical performance.
The metronome will keep your tempo steady, and will greatly discipline your use of
practice time.
4- Play your instrument every day. You will begin to lose the fine muscle-control
you’ve been developing by skipping days. Once in a while, you need a break, but try
to practice six out of every seven days.
There is another aspect of music performance that holds musicians back, and that is
the inability to hear oneself objectively. If your practicing technique seems fine, but
you just don’t seem to be improving, it’s usually because you are not really aware of
how you really sound. The best way to hear yourself the way you truly sound is to
record yourself. Get a digital or tape recorder, set up a good microphone, and play.
The first time you hear yourself playing on tape is usually a negative experience, but
don’t let it discourage you! Try to listen critically but constructively. Instead of
getting down on yourself, think of the ways you want to improve, and then go back
to practicing. Diligence is the key. Practice every day, and record and listen to
yourself at least once a week. You’ll reap the benefits almost right away.
Gary Ewer is a veteran music teacher, clinician, composer and arranger. He is most
well known as the author of The
Essential Secrets of Songwriting and
Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory
Gary has taught music to students of every age group, from five-year-olds in
elementary school, through to university-level musicians. This enormously wide-
ranging scope has given him a unique perspective on how people learn. Teaching is
his passion.
He is in demand as an adjudicator, clinician, conductor and composer. His music
has been commissioned and performed by ensembles from amateur level through to
professional, including the world-renowned Elmer Isler Singers, The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, Symphony Nova Scotia, and others.
He currently teaches orchestration, theory, ear training and choral conducting at
Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
