Effective Practice - How and What to Practice on Your Instrument

How and what to practice on your instrument and how to make your practice time the most effective. Learning how to practice effectively is an absolute must for those who want to make the fastest progress. We discuss how much time you should spend practising as well as what you should be doing in that practice time. Having a good balance between technical exercises like scales and arpeggios, sight reading, aural skills and music theory is a must. Most of your practice time will be spent playing pieces and learning new repertoire, but learning how to practice these pieces effectively and not just playing through repertoire will also speed up your progress.

🕘 Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction to effective practice
2:20 - How long should you spend practising?
6:37 - What should you be practising?
7:33 - Warm-up and technical exercises
13:50 - Learning and practising pieces
18:51 - Practising sight reading
22:10 - Developing aural skills

🎓 Effective Practice Course
Make your practice time more efficient and your progress faster with the Effective Practice course. If you're learning an instrument then you'll already know just how much work it takes, but how do you make sure you're using your practice time most effectively? If you're a parent whose child is learning to play an instrument then you want to tool up and work out how best to assist your child in their learning. Adult learners who are wanting to learn a bit more independently need to know how to go about practice and improve what you’re doing. This course will show you how best to go about practice and exactly what you should be doing.

👥 Social Media

🔗 Affiliate Links

#MusicPerformance #LearnMusic #TheAllRoundMusician

[MusicMattersGB]

Effective Practice - Get the rest of this course here!

[bustabass]

In retirement, going back and pick up where I left off with music fifty years ago. I find your channel an excellent resource to begin the journey. I've already improved my knowledge of theory with helpful applications such as this that I've gleaned from your tutorials.

[jossecoupe]

This video is seriously perfect for the situation I find myself in, thanks!

[sandragayle]

I happen to love to play scales and arpeggios. I study theory harmony and the like. Because I play the harp I love the opportunity to study advance theory and harmony. And my sight-reading is coming along nicely.

[materdeimusicd.buckley]

Love the comparison to pet dog. I'm using this for my future students. A dog will starve if he gets nothing for 5 or 6 days. Giving him extra food on the 7th day won't save him. So many fall into this trap. I also advise practicing in the morning. It also gets everyone up. Great alarm device for busy family.

[johnwest]

ah yes, listening to music.
The rite of spring... one of my favourite pieces, top 5 for sure, of any music.

[ericlubisse]

This is great channel. You explain things very clearly and it's always a joy to learn a thing or two from you.

[nightowldickson]

0:57 that's me for many years! and I absolutely agree with what you are saying, it's better to do more short sessions than one big session before a lesson with very little chance to progress

[daveduffy]

What I do is learn a new tune and where I get stuck, that is my lesson. I play the scale and arpeggios of the song I am working on as my warmup.

[kachiyoungsoul]

Hi Gareth! I really love your channel and I'm learning so much. However, I'm a guitar player and I'm struggling to apply all this to guitar playing, seeing as your videos are all with a piano. I'm wondering if you've got any tips. 🙏🏾

[ppff]

Your channel is a treasure of knowledge. Thank you for your marveleous lecture!

[harrietschack]

Hi GG your dry humour is gorgeous - excellent video

[mattes]

Last Friday I sat at my piano keyboard from 1:00 am until 6:00 pm (17 hours). Around hour #10 I was exploring the keys like I never have. Been playing for 10 years now.

[lawrencetaylor]

Merci beaucoup for this video.
I've been watching your videos about Bach chorales since I started one year ago. I was lost since I had never studies theory in my life. The most recent one I was able to follow along and identify the chords along with you. What grade level would those analyses be?
I don't think I am ready for music maestro, I need to develop my technique first. But it is definitely something to think about in the future.

[daveduffy]

Record your practice and listen to it after practice. Then swiftly delete it when you hear your mistakes. 🙂

[mrslornamae]

As a teacher, I'm not quite sure that 10 mins a day is enough for grade 1 preparation when there are several elements to cover. I suggest 110 mins a week minimum and increase by another 10 mins for each subsequent grade. However, some may need more time and others a little less and that can be individually assessed.

[thisin.]

"little and often" is indeed the best apraoch, BUT, dormant memories solidify. Practicing weeks 1, 2, 3, 5 may be better than practicing weeks 1, 2, 3, 4.


The brain improves at whatever you try to make it do. If you practice once a week, youll be much better at absorbing information weekly than if someone who practices daily would suddenly try to absorb something weekly. A mix of everything is the best appraoch.

[YvonneSchwartzYVON]

trying to figure out how to apply this to Musical Saw practice. of course, sight reading doesn't fit for the musical saw but I think much of this can be incorporated into the practice

[barathrk]

What if I made my own technical exercises based on stuff I see in pieces? Maybe with the sequences you notice in them, like an alberti bass.

[AJ-kzrg]

Lol I used to just practice the day of my piano lesson ahah