Three practice mistakes that KILL your progress

I know firsthand how frustrating it is to spend the time and energy practicing but not see any results. It’s easy to feel like giving up when the fruits of your labor aren’t coming into fruition. These three practice mistakes will

Mistake #1: Repeating things incorrectly.

You’ve probably heard that repetition is a key part of practice, which is true; however, you only want to repeat passages that sound exactly how you want them to. For example, say you play a passage and it takes six tries to get it to sound how you’d like. At this point, you’ve played the passage 5 times incorrectly and 1 time correctly. This is where most students stop. They think: “yes! I’ve got it right!” and move on (which I have certainly been guilty of myself!) At this stage, the next time you play that passage is it more likely that you’ll play it incorrectly or correctly? Incorrectly! In order to increase the odds of playing the passage correctly, you need to play it 4 more times (5 times total) correctly, but ideally 9 more times (10 times total). Is it tedious? Yes. Is it effective? Also yes.

Mistake #2: Using the wrong practice techniques.

If you want to improve your intonation, use practice techniques that target intonation. If you want to improve your rhythm, use practice techniques that target rhythm. Sounds simple enough right? In theory it is, but in practice it’s not. In order to be sure you’re using the correct practice techniques, you have to first correctly identify the issue, which can be really hard, especially for beginners! Even when you do correctly identify the issue, you must have a toolbelt of different practice techniques that help solve that particular problem.

Mistake #3: Infrequent and unfocused practice sessions.

The unfortunate thing is that if we are not practicing consistently, our muscle memory will decrease (aka our playing will get worse!) When I was going to college, my teacher at the time, Frank Huang, told me specifically to spread my practice out over the week and not try to cram it all in one day. Guess what I ended up doing for the first year or two…and my playing seriously suffered!

When you’re practicing, your mind has to be present. I believe that any time you pick up the instrument it’s a good thing, but if you actually want to progress, you have to set clear goals for your practice sessions and evaluate those goals to make sure you’re moving forward. Treat practice as a study and not just a jam session and there’s no doubt you’ll improve.