10 tips for making your practice time really count!
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Do a simple warm up at the beginning of each practice session to get your hands ready to play. Loosen up your wrists and warm up your fingers with stretches and hand exercises. Then warm up your fingers with scales.
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Practice a little every day; this is far more beneficial than one or two practice sessions a week
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Have a certain time each day that is set aside specifically for your practice.
It will then become part of your daily routine.
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Practice slowly: Slow practice means fast progress. When you practice slowly, your mind gets more time to concentrate on each section of a piece.
As opposed to slow practice, when you rush and speed up for practicing a piece, you often make errors with rhythm and notes.
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Listen to and watch yourself ( use a mirror especially at the first stage of learning the instrument).
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Regularly record yourself and listen carefully to it. You’ll hear new things about your playing by listening to the recording.
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Practice in sections/ blocks.
Sometimes it makes sense to play the piece all the way through from start to finish, just to get a scope of the piece you just started learning.
However, when you’re ready to get to work, break your music into small sections. Focus on practicing phrases.
Remember that starting at the beginning of the piece and playing through to the end each time is not an effective method!
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Use a metronome! This magical device is (should be) every musician's best friend.
A metronome can help you quickly and easily improve your timing and technique.
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Be patient! It takes time to learn to play musical instrument well.
Don’t worry if there are things you can’t do straight away.
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Listen to your pieces being played by the great players!