Back-To-School Practicing Advice

Hello everyone!

As kids go back to school this week and we all settle into our new Fall routines, its important to get back into regularly practicing our instruments. Here are five great tips on how to set up a regular practice routine that is effective and enjoyable:

1) Pick a Location

Sometimes the hardest part about practicing is finding a good place, as our homes are often full of people and distractions like pets, computers and televisions. Always choose an area to practice that is somewhat isolated from the rest of the house, where you will have some privacy and not be interrupted. This may be your basement, your bedroom or even your garage! The best part of practicing is getting lost in what you are doing, becoming so focused that time passes you by without even knowing it. This can't happen if you are playing in the main room of your house as family members traipse up and down stairs, clatter pots and pans and watch television. 

As well, you want somewhere comfortable - not too cold so you're hands are stiff, not too cramped so you have to peer at your music around a corner, and always with a comfortable but upright chair to sit on while playing. Posture is important!

2) Pick a Time

Just like when choosing a location to practice, you also want to choose a good time to practice. This means pick a convenient time when you are not disturbing other people (5am may not be the best time for your family and neighbours) and again, when you are not going to be interrupted (starting to practice right before dinner means you won't get much done before you have to stop). If possible, make practicing a regular part of your day or week. 30 minutes every day right when you come home from school might be a nice mental break before you start your homework. And if you're practice time is a regular part of your routine, you won't have to scramble the day before your lesson to learn and prepare your music homework.

3) Plan your Practice

Before you begin practicing, it is always important to have a plan in mind of what you are going to work on. Pulling out your instrument and opening your book to the last place you left is not the most effective way to improve your skills. Always start with a good warm up to get the blood flow moving in your fingers and the air moving through your diaphragm and lungs. This may include scales, arpeggios, a short tonguing exercise or longtones. Whatever works best for you and gets your body and mind ready for practicing. This also gives you time to think about your embouchure and tone before you begin working on more technical passages. 

Next, review what was covered in your last lesson. There may have been things that you have forgotten and will need to know in order to correctly prepare your homework.

Lastly, after working on your homework, play something a bit more fun and interesting as a reward for working hard. This could be a song you make up, a song from the radio, or a fun piece given to your by your instructor. 

4) Take Breaks

Taking breaks gives your body and mind a chance to let what you've been working on sink in. Without breaks, we tend to work ourselves to exhaustion so that our brain and fingers don't have the ability to retain any of the information we've just worked on. This doesn't mean you should be stopping every five minutes to check your phone or watch some TV. I like to take a short break after each section of my practice: warmup - break - technical work - break - preparing homework - break - fun piece or song. This allows my muscles to rest a bit and for my mind to stay focused for longer. 

5) Have Fun

If you're not enjoying yourself when you practice - what's the point!?! You are much more likely to learn and improve your playing when you enjoy working on it and are motivated to continue. Of course, we all have days where we have other things on our mind or we are not feeling well. Often, these are days when we might just need a break. We are not going to get much done if we do practice and we are not going to enjoy ourselves. So make sure you're enjoying your practice sessions and enjoying playing and learning music - if you're not, talk to your instructor and hopefully together you can find a new way to make learning music fun.