Practice is that inevitable “dues-paying” time that everyone must invest to pursue music. In the self study approach, the most difficult aspect of practice is the organization of musical and technical principles. Too often the player works in circles not really progressing, not knowing what to practice.

Becoming aware of this lack of progress, he begins searching for sources of information. Books, recordings and other musicians are primary sources. Though these approaches are sometimes helpful, they are not flexible enough to solve specific problems for specific students. An individual can form habits from misinformation that can be detrimental to his progress for years.

Studying with a qualified teacher solves the organizational problems and provides a type of security for the student. Having dealt with so many self taught players and their problems, I encourage any serious players to find a qualified and creative teacher to assist their development. Every player is comfortable with and responds to varying programs of study but most can be helped by the right teacher. I do not deny the difficulty of finding this teacher but the effort required is worth it.

Assuming that the player is involved with a teacher on a regular study program, the following practice problems are common. The traditional school system has affected the attitude of many toward learning. It has traditionally been a matter of remembering enough to assure a good grade or at least to pass the course. The larger more important sense of education tends to get lost in the pressure for marks.

Education in the long run is intended to broaden the interest and awareness of its students as well as to develop the individual’s ability to think and to reason. However, so much emphasis is placed on the specifics of a required subject that the student frequently loses sight of the long run and the deeper objectives of his study. It is at varying degrees of this state that the “student of education” becomes a student of music.

The teacher of music and the lesson itself often become identified in the student’s mind with the traditional concept of school.The teacher becomes a rather dogmatic authority figure, the lesson becomes class and the practice material becomes homework. Of these, the last point seems to create a sense of urgency, even panic, in many students. This feeling works against the sense of freedom, flow, exploration and joy which should be within the study of music. Many students seem to feel that there will be terrible repercussions if every assignment is not done “perfectly”.

Some of these repercussions are teacher disapproval, a “failing” grade, being “dropped” from the teachers’s schedule or worse. These are among many possibilities conjured up in the student’s conscious or subconscious mind. In objective disciplines like math tables, formulas or facts of history, the task of recalling something specific by a certain day is not unreasonable. It is sometimes difficult to see the importance of these specifics but it is usually not an overwhelming task. However, music and the study of it is not so objective, not quite so specific. Time is needed to explore, to listen, to develop and that cannot be geared to a specific day. The student should explore his studies as guidelines, organizations of material.

The purpose of performing the lesson is not to put the a student under the pressure of a deadline but to allow the teacher to check for problems, listen for progress and to determine the next direction for continued development. There is pressure in the teaching situation but it is part of the education. Music by its very nature involves pressure on the professional level. Audiences, conductors and time limits are only a few of them. Learning to cope with pressure in the lesson situation is a first step toward coping with the professional pressure that lies ahead.

There are no demerits in the study of music, no necessity of marks and competitive grading. The student’s individual development is the only consideration. Naturally, if the student is avoiding practice consistently over long periods of time, he should re-evaluate his thoughts about pursuing music in general. However, most student problems in practicing are more commonly related to very normal conflicts of time and priorities. The student’s complaint of a lack of practice time in his schedule is common and understandable.

After making a serious attempt to streamline time obligations, the student must concentrate on the quality of his practice time. Too many aspiring players confuse the importance of concentrated efficient study with the self proclaimed necessity of quantity practice. For most, quantity practice is not as beneficial as it may seem. Span of attention being what it is for most students, long periods of practice are rarely concentrated and directed toward the most important material.

Far more common is the following pattern: ten minutes of structured practice, twenty minutes of playing what has already been mastered, ten minutes of “lost” time, twenty minutes of emulating recordings. This “schedule” is most typical of those pursuing Contemporary forms of music but it is loosely equivalent for students of all forms of music.

Each student must determine a schedule and an approach to practice that suits his individual situation. Many have developed severe problems with their practice consistency because they have failed to deal with the variables of practice. These variables include the length of practice, time of day, what preceded practice and the rotation of the study material.

Consider the effectiveness of morning vs. night practice, one hour vs. fifteen minute practice sessions, practicing after work or before it and practicing two, five or seven topics per day. The student must develop a personal program that will lead to the greatest efficiency and progress.

Students at all levels, even the most elementary, seem to have an instinctive awareness of how much there is to learn, how far they have to go. For many this awareness, even if it is subconscious, becomes overwhelming. The student may respond to this in a most illogical though thoroughly understandable way. He practices less, fearing on some level his own ability to cope with the vast field into which he has had a glimpse. It is certainly a common human maneuver to avoid or delay that which lies beyond one’s ability to accomplish. At least, this is the fear.

In order to understand and overcome these problems, they must be faced. Though music is depressingly in the future for many aspiring players, it also provides unique and exciting challenges in the present. The student must relax and learn to enjoy each stage of his development. There must be a balance achieved between what one can accomplish now and what one wants to accomplish in the future. Concentration must be placed on specific material with the realization that everything becomes cumulative. It is the exploration and development of specific skills and general principles that create an essential balance helping the student to maintain his equilibrium.

Approaching any new topic of music, the student should realize that it involves several levels. Awareness, physical and aural development, creative exploration, practice, application and “mastery” are most important among these levels. Most students want all these levels to happen simultaneously or at least within a short span of time. This is, to say the least, unrealistic. One level leads to the next in a type of evolution. This development of levels is exactly how the individual’s progress can be measured. A student first becomes aware of something to practice. With a clear idea of what to do, he begins to physically execute it, listening carefully as he does. This is nothing but an exploratory stage and should not be confused with anything else. Getting a grip on the execution side, the student begins to accelerate his work exploring the creative possibilities — original themes, interpretations of themes, dynamics, spontaneity, etc.

The next question is how can it be used? Considering the uniqueness of the principle, the student begins to explore the possibilities of integrating it into his playing experience. Practical application is nothing more complicated than using a principle in performance vehicles which takes it out of the theoretical realm. It is something like the addition of new words to one’s vocabulary. It allows greater expression. Since the primary goal of music is self expression and communication, the parallel to language is a good one. If one improves the control of language, one has a much greater opportunity to express oneself to others with a finer degree of assuredness and subtlety. In a similar way, every musical technique that one has developed allows a greater flexibility and depth in the communication skills of music.

It is most important that the student should concentrate on specific musical techniques and not get overly discouraged by the long run musical objectives. Mastering specific techniques will lead effortlessly to all long run objectives.

Students seem to think that they should be above low points of practice enthusiasm. They are perhaps unknowingly denying their own humanness. No one is perfectly consistent. Musicians are not machines. There will be peak periods and the opposite. The true measure of one’s potential is not the consistency of highs but rather the ability to recover from low periods. During periods of depression and sagging enthusiasm, students often begin to tell themselves that they must not have the ability to achieve in music.

Because if they did, so their reasoning goes, they would not have any difficulties with their own motivation toward practice. They tend to look at an established player and assume that this player never had problems like theirs. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is their assumptions only that is giving them their “information”. If the established player were to be questioned and if he were to be honest and open with the inquiring student, he would reflect the same problems as the student himself. Naturally, it must be looked at within the framework of the established player’s development.

The player has passed from level to level in his own development and if he has achieved a balance within himself, he will not be facing the same type of problems now that the student is facing. However, he did face them at one time. I have never met a player who could say that he was equally motivated to practice at every point in his development. Being aware of this, it should be easier for the student to cope with the peaks and valleys of his own development. Straight line, uniform progress happens to no one. There are always setbacks followed by advances.

The tragedy is when a student overcome with depression about his playing and guilt over his lack of practice motivation abandons music. As long as the long term trend is upward, the specific setbacks have no significance at all. The true measure of a student is not his avoidance of problems but his ability to overcome them. The peaks of progress do not last forever nor do the lows of practice problems. As long as the student wants to play and develop, there is no limit to the number of times he can rebound from setbacks.

Any student who has an authentic interest in music and his own development will practice. However, practice is not the only consideration in pursuing music. Many students have convinced themselves that practice and practice alone leads to successful performance. If they are not able to spend a great deal of time practicing, they tend to develop guilt feelings which naturally make relaxed practice a difficult thing to achieve.

Music is basically a type of self reflection, a communication form intended to convey the uniqueness of the individual player. The uniqueness of an individual is the sum total of his experiences. These experiences shape the personality of the individual to a great extent and it is this personality which is reflected through music. The importance of life involvement and life experience is greatly overlooked. Many have confused the reality of music with the theories of music. Music is part of this world. It is not above, beyond or outside of it. It is so integrated with day to day living that it should not become separate.

Those who have decided that a four, six or eight hour practice day takes precedence over or eliminates the need for other experience should think again. Based on the thought that isolated practice is the key to success, all great players should be single, unattached, without responsibility or pressure and totally free to devote all their energy to music. However, the smallest investigation reveals the opposite facts. Great players throughout history have been human beings fully involved in the business of living as well as in the pursuit of their art. They have married, divorced, had children, mortgages, debts and emotional trauma. In short, they are exactly the same as non – players except for their specific ability and direction.

Every day is filled with alternate ways to spend one’s time. They can be loosely divided into two categories– those which are an obligation and those which are discretionary. One’s family and one’s work are most commonly in the first category. Social contacts and recreation are among many alternatives in the second. It is important to note that the term “discretionary” does not mean unimportant. It only implies that the individual is able to exercise more control in those areas. After taking care of obligations, an individual’s determination to excel in music will generally guide his priorities for discretionary time.

Progress is in direct proportion to the time spent on disciplined practice and creative performance. But a musician’s growth is not determined by practice and playing alone. Life experience is an integral part of a musician’s development. As an individual matures, the learning experience requires increasingly thoughtful decisions. The musician must learn to decide when practice is most important and when the value of other pursuits outweighs the value of specific practice. Many people do not achieve their goals because they use time unwisely. This is a most common source of frustration. But it often takes this frustration to enable the individual to see the necessity of making better decisions on his own priorities of time.

Practice should be approached as a means and not an end. Music should be a personal expression and not an endless series of exercises. With this in mind, it becomes easier to trust the intuition for pursuing interests other than practice for its own sake. Unless this is done, the student begins to resent practice even if it is only on a subconscious level. This resentment ultimately makes the practice and the resulting progress less effective.

Practice leads toward performance. Keep an open, searching mind in regard to different types of music and innovative new forms. This openness keeps interest fresh and often leads to interesting original ideas.

Practice should be considered in all its aspects. The technical, aural, theoretical and creative facets of music must be explored to discover the possibilities of expression through discipline. There is no freedom without discipline and no useful long term discipline without the freedom of creativity. To practice is to search and to search with motivation, dedication and determination is to achieve.

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