How to Make Practice Routine for Music Lessons
Practice Routine Friend or Foe?
Finding time to create a practice routine or schedule is one of the most critical components of music lessons that a student can develop. Keep in mind that process is more important than outcome. If you develop a productive practice routine everything else will fall into place.
Here are some elements that should be incorporated every time you practice your:
Regular practice times
Goals
Warm-up
New Songs/Materials
Sight-reading
Cool-down
Evaluation
Goals: Each week your music instructor should help you set goals, things that the student should learn, master or accomplish during the practice week. Before sitting down to practice, the student should have a clear understanding of what he/she wants to accomplish for that one practice session.
If a song or piece of music is new, perhaps the goal of your first home practice would be to learn all the notes and rhythms first. When starting a new song the student may learn the notes or rhythm of the song only one line or a measure at a time, but eventually a student would be able to play through the entire song in one sitting (but that may not happen the first practice session with the song).
Regular Practice Times: Habits take time to develop, and regular practice is a habit! Experts say if you want to develop a habit, new routine or a regular practice schedule, you would need to do it every day for 30 days. Now you may not have the time every day to practice your musical instrument, but what if you consistently sat down 4-5 days a week the same days, even better and made an effort to focus and learn something? The result: practice sessions would become a natural part of your routine there’s that word again and you would be constantly improving your musical skills.
When it comes to setting a regular practice time, consistency is everything. No matter the age of the music student, practice sessions should be at the same time every day. This way it becomes a habit almost a reflex to go and play. Parents frequently ask me if there is a particular time of day that is best for their child to practice, and I tell them it depends on the family and the child. If your child is a morning kid and is always up and ready to go early, try practicing before school. If your child is more energetic in the afternoons, try after school hours, but donate wait until too late at night. Having a snack and practicing right after school can be both a break from academics and a productive musical skill-building session.
Warm-Up: This is the time of your practice routine to get your brain, fingers and voice going! Depending on what your teacher is working on with you in lesson, you can use scales, chords, technique or old songs to warm up your fingers. (Be careful not to play the old songs you know for the entire practice session. You are supposed to be learning new skills.)
New Songs/Materials: After you have finished your warm-up, the next part of a good practice routine is working on the new songs or materials that you have been given during your music lesson. This should be the longest part of your practice session.
Sight-reading: Each practice session should include sight-reading time. Sight-reading is playing a section or piece of music well the first few times you see it, and that means playing the correct rhythm, notes and fingerings the first time. Keep in mind that sight-reading is a skill that students develop the more they practice. Strong sight-reading skills allow you to learn music faster because you donate waste as much of your time as trying to read the notes or rhythm.
Cool-down: Spend a few minutes at the end of each practice session in cool-down mode.This is the time to relax and just have a little fun. Perhaps play a small part of your new music that you have mastered during your practice session today. Or play songs that you have learned in the past and enjoy. Consider using this cool down time at the end of your practice to work on composing and making up your own songs.
Evaluation: It is important at the end of each daily practice session to evaluate how the practice session went. What did you do well today? What do you need to improve upon for tomorrowes practice? Looking at your progress toward your weekly goals after each practice session will help both parents and students decide if they are on track for reaching their weekly goal or whether and how they might have to change their practice sessions in order to achieve the goals.