Have you ever wondered what an ideal practice set up would be? If anyone else has issues with practice location? What should you be practicing? How long should you practice? Or does anyone else actually practice?
Yes there is, yes they do, to everything yes, yes, yes!
In this next series I’m going to explore all the different aspects of practicing and even some tried and true practice techniques to help you achieve your practice goals.
First and foremost: let’s talk about practice mindset, and to do that let me tell you a story.
A long long time ago…In a university not that far away…There was an undergraduate clarinet student who hated practicing…For every time she practiced she became so frustrated that no matter what she did she felt like she never got any better and that seemingly easy technical passages just got worse and worse.
This was me, until I figured out the “practicing mindset.” Until then practicing was not only a chore, but a dreaded chore filled with anxiety, frustration and anger.
How did I overcome that you ask?
Well I went to my professor, Dr. Tom Bergeron, and basically told him “This sucks, I hate practicing. What am I doing wrong?!”
His answer, your perfectionism.
Perfection, although the goal we all strive for as musicians, is unrealistic in our day to day practice. Practice is not about being perfect he said, it’s about practicing to “suck a little bit less before you leave the practice room each day.”
At the time I thought “wow that’s such a negative way to look at it,” but as time got on it started to resonate with me. Just like learning to walk, ride a bike, or any other mental or physical task it takes practice and time to master a skill. Practicing your instrument is the same way. You practice everyday to be better than the previous day. Not to be the next virtuosic player overnight. That’s not how music works, or how life works for that matter.
So the first lesson I want you to take away from this series is this: it’s ok to not be perfect.
Music practice is about being better than when you started. Eventually perfection comes as a result of continued work and dedication, but it’s not something that I encourage my students to strive for when starting to practice.
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