Practice: The Basics

Qualities of Perfect Practice

Effective practice is in some ways a personal matter. Techniques that work like magic for one person may be less effective for another. But certain general qualities should be present in all of your practice:

• Regular practice (daily, that is), at the time of day when you are most alert
• Musical playing
• Intent listening
• Playing slowly enough to stay in control
• Always a state of relaxed concentration
• Deep learning at each repetition
• Enough repetitions at each step to make technical challenges easier
• No stops or pauses if mistakes occur
• Mistakes are never practiced, but quickly identified and replaced
• Consistent fingering and pedaling