Establishing a practice routine
If you've started guitar lessons or singing lessons it's a great time to establish a practice routine. Most of us know that we should be practising our instrument at home but what should this actually look like? How long should we practise for? How often? What should I practise? How do I help my child to practise?
How does practising actually help us improve our skills? Decades of scientific research has meant that we now have a thorough understanding of how our brains interact with our bodies when we are performing motor tasks like playing a musical instrument. In the TedEd video below, Dr Don Greene and Annie Bolser DMA walk us through how the myelination of neural pathways caused by practice creates faster and more effective neural pathways, resulting in improved performance of a given task. Don’t worry, they break it down so you don’t have to be a neuroscientist to understand!
What is practice?
When you are learning a musical instrument, it's really important to consolidate what you learned in your lesson, so you are ready to absorb new concepts in your next lesson. This means you will need to go over what you did in your lesson independently. This may include: doing targeted exercises to develop a specific area of technique; playing through repertoire; using a particular strategy your teacher has suggested (such as counting to help with tricky rhythms, playing with a metronome to improve rhythmic accuracy, using speed bursts to increase the tempo); or rehearsing elements of a performance. I always tell you during the lesson what I would like you to focus on during your home practise sessions. Students who practise regularly invariably progress and develop skills more quickly.
How long should I practise for?
This depends on many factors including age, stage of development, your musical goals, the repertoire you are playing, which instrument you are playing and which areas of technique you are developing at a given point in time.
For very young beginners, this may be as short as a few minutes every day. For intermediate students 20-30 minutes most days is a good goal. Advanced students or those preparing for performances and exams may need to practise for an hour or more in some practise sessions, or broken up over the course of the day. Often several short practice sessions is more effective than a single session. I can always guide you on the ideal practise time for what you are working on and what your musical goals are.
For singing students there are important considerations around vocal loading, which determine how long your practise sessions should be. Similarly for instrumental students, there are limits for what is safe for our body. I can work with you to determine what is appropriate for you at any given point in time.
How often should I practise?
Practising for a short time regularly (most days of the week) is always more effective than one long practise session. This is because the neural pathways formed in the brain when you learn a new skill are solidified with repetition, and also with rest in between sessions where the brain consolidates new learning.
What should I be practising?
An important part of learning an instrument is learning what to practise and how to practise. Many students think they should just start at the beginning of a piece and try to play through until the end. This is often not the most effective use of your time unless you already know the piece very well. As Greene and Bolser highlighted, practice sessions should usually be deliberately targeted at the content or weaknesses that lie and the edge of your current abilities, that is, the aspects you are finding challenging. Identify the parts that need work and isolate them from the rest of the piece. This kind of focused attention will ensure you improve in the areas you have not mastered yet and don't waste time on the things you can already do successfully. I guide all my students on identifying sections that need targeted practise and how to approach them.
In addition to repertoire, other important parts of a practise session include warming up, technical exercises and cooling down. If you are preparing for a performance you may also need to rehearse elements of your stagecraft.
Research has also demonstrated the effectiveness of mental rehearsal for enhancing performance. If you have not undertaken mental practice before I can teach you how.
How do I encourage my child to practise?
Children usually need support from an adult to establish a practise routine, and encouragement from family members really helps to motivate students to practise.
Playing an instrument should be fun! Children are much more engaged in learning if they are enjoying the process, so I always try to make learning fun and play lots of games during lessons. Try to include an element of play when you are encouraging your child to play their instrument at home. Maybe your child could play a song and you guess which one it is, or challenge them to see if they can play a song without looking at the sheet music. If it feels like a game, children will find it more enjoyable.
It's also really encouraging for children if families engage with them while they are playing. Something as simple as saying "I really loved it when you played Twinkle Twinkle yesterday, could you play it for me again?" offers positive reinforcement that motivates children to practise. You could ask your child to play you a song while you cook dinner, or ask them to show you what they learnt in their lesson.
Every child is different and as a parent you will know what kinds of approaches are the most motivating for your child, so harness the strategies you know will work for them.
Tips for helping your child to practise:
Help your child identify a time each day to do their practise
Routines really help children to remember to practise (e.g. come home from school, have a snack, music practice, play outside, do homework, have dinner, etc)
Set an alarm or reminder on your phone or your child's iPad to remind your child to practise
Have a designated space in the house where your child can play their instrument in an ergonomic setup without other noisy distractions like the TV.
Practice strategies
While it depends on what you are focusing on in your practice session, these are some strategies to try:
Play with a metronome to improve rhythmic accuracy
Practise slowly to improve accuracy of pitch, rhythm and tone
Use speed bursts
Focus on one thing at a time (for guitar this may be right-hand technique, left-hand technique, strumming pattern, or fingerpicking pattern and for singing this may be breathing, support, or resonance) and combine when each aspect is secure independently.
Use mental practice
References and Further Reading
Bernardi, N. F., De Buglio, M., Trimarchi, P. D., Chielli, A., & Bricolo, E. (2013). Mental practice promotes motor anticipation: Evidence from skilled music performance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00451
Cahn, D. (2008). The effects of varying ratios of physical and mental practice, and task difficulty on performance of a tonal pattern. Psychology of Music, 36(2), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735607085011
Driskell, J. E., Copper, C., & Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(4), 481-492. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.4.481
Hunter, E. J., Cantor-Cutiva, L. C., van Leer, E., van Mersbergen, M., Nanjundeswaran, C. D., Bottalico, P., Sandage, M. J., & Whitling, S. (2020). Toward a consensus description of vocal effort, vocal load, vocal loading, and vocal fatigue.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(2), 509-532. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-19-00057
Iorio, C., Brattico, E., Munk Larsen, F., Vuust, P., & Bonetti, L. (2022;2021;). The effect of mental practice on music memorization. Psychology of Music, 50(1), 230-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735621995234
Theiler, A. M., & Lippman, L. G. (1995). Effects of mental practice and modeling on guitar and vocal performance. The Journal of General Psychology, 122(4), 329. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/scholarly-journals/effects-mental-practice-modeling-on-guitar-vocal/docview/213646203/se-2?accountid=14543
Toth, A. J., McNeill, E., Hayes, K., Moran, A. P., & Campbell, M. (2020). Does mental practice still enhance performance? A 24 Year follow-up and meta-analytic replication and extension. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 48, 101672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101672
