Not Just for Musicians

As an aspiring musician, I knew that one of the greatest challenges I would face in high school would be finding time among the Mount Everest-sized piles of homework. In fact, I’ve often wished that I had Hermione Granger’s time turner so that I could practice as long as I wanted while simultaneously managing ten hours of sleep each day. However, as I’m obviously not enrolled at Hogwarts, I decided that I needed a more realistic approach. That is, I needed to learn how to practice and thus improve more efficiently using the techniques in the music I am currently playing. I also needed to understand how to focus on details and how not to get distracted.

A lot of people ask me how many hours I practice. And, I’ll be honest here, I practice quite a lot. But it’s important to keep in mind that quality, and not quantity, is important. For many musicians, there are two ways to practice: deliberate (good) and mindless (bad). Mindless practicing (specifically, just repeating a phrase over and over again and hoping that it magically gets better) is tedious and boring. When practicing “mindlessly,” people lose confidence and are unable to consistently produce the desired results. Obviously, mindless practicing is bad, and a waste of time.

Through my research, I have become increasingly aware of the importance of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice in musician-land includes the analyzation and monitoring of sound, slow, repetitive practicing of small but difficult phrases, and understanding strategies on how to improve weaknesses in technique. By practicing deliberately, I can improve much faster in a set amount of time than I would through mindless practicing.

~Satoka