{"id":1866,"date":"2020-02-11T20:51:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T20:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/?p=1866"},"modified":"2021-01-07T19:11:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:11:37","slug":"art-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/2020\/02\/11\/art-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Practising \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The first thing to recognise is that practice means repetition.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In reality the time we spend on practising is becoming more and more limited due to the busy lives that we now lead. For this reason alone it has become even more essential to learn how to practice efficiently and effectively. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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It is through habit <\/em>that we learn most of our life skills. To form a habit <\/em>we use a great level of concentration<\/em>. In doing this we can effectively make actions a muscular habit. The same rule applies when practising a musical instrument or singing. If we play a phrase enough times then we can learn to do it more automatically without the conscious direction of our brains. This does not mean our brains are then left to wander \u2013 instead they can focus on other musical directions such as articulation, dynamics and interpretation. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Numerous short, concentrated bursts of practice are often much more efficient than fewer, longer sessions. <\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here is a list of ways to increase your practice productivity:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

  1. Make sure your environment is quiet <\/em>and your mind is calm<\/em>.<\/li>
  2. Choose a section<\/em> of your music, not the whole piece, that you wish to improve. This can be 4 bars or one phrase or a particularly awkward section that keeps making you stumble.<\/li>
  3. Repeat slowly<\/strong> for as long as it takes to fix<\/em> any problems<\/em> that arise. These could be examples such as fingering issues for pianists, or pitch issues for singers.<\/li>
  4. Move on to another section of the piece and work in the same way.<\/li>
  5. Repeat and repeat <\/em>until you feel a sense of automatic muscle memory<\/em> kicking in.<\/li>
  6. It is always <\/em>important to end a session with a good play or sing of a piece that you can already play well. This will boost feel good<\/em> endorphins<\/em> and make you return more regularly to practice. <\/li>
  7. Reward!! Rewarding<\/em> yourself for a good practise session is a priority for boosting a sense of achievement. As simple as a good cup of coffee or chocolate digestive nibble can really encourage practice.<\/li><\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    It is important that any student, whether adult or child, feels that they are supported in practise by either a parent or their teacher. How to get into the habit <\/em>of practise is a whole new topic and much more related to routine, discipline and commitment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    This blog only brushes the surface of many different ways to practice. In exploring just these basic rules of practise you will start to see progress more quickly and this will lead you a much more rewarding learning journey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \u2026..and now I\u2019m off for a good cup of coffee! Happy practising \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The first thing to recognise is that practice means repetition. In reality the time we spend on practising is becoming more and more limited due to the busy lives that we now lead. For this reason alone it has become even more essential to learn how to practice efficiently and effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahgjeloshaj.co.uk\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}