Piano Lessons in Tampa, FL

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What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
Everyone loves to say, "Practice!" Few people seem to want to translate this idea into something manageable, practical, encouraging, realistic, psychologically fitting, etc. Furthermore, many (young) people who are interested in music are also NOT naturally inclined towards discipline or "high-energy" goal-setting; therefore, they could use even MORE help than normal to actually DEFINE what it means to "practice." (Hint: It doesn't mean just looking at your music and trying to "get through" a song or piece -- although that's better than nothing!) Here's something I recommend to almost all of my students. Try 15 minute chunks each day. See if you can ACTUALLY get through a week doing this EVERY DAY (with perhaps one day off), instead of just telling yourself you "practiced this week." Getting motivated to do these 15 minutes is pretty easy when you know WHAT TO DO with the 15 minutes. Here goes: 1 Take stock of whatever you're working on. How many pieces or exercises are there? If one, that's no problem. 2 Rank these "pieces" by difficulty (and be honest, and don't overthink). "What do I not feel like playing?" Start with that one. If have only one piece, continue to Step 3. 3 Continue the same process WITHIN each piece. "Which part of this do I not feel like playing?" Do it!!! Your "dessert" will be playing the parts you DO like better for now. 4 The first 10 minutes of your practice time should be spent on Steps 1-3, repeating as much as makes sense. There is almost NO LIMIT to how "small" you can get while focusing on "difficult passages." 5 Try to insure you have time (within the 10 minutes) to reincorporate these "trouble spots" into the surrounding material. Hopefully, play/sing through the whole piece/song (assuming it's short enough), so you can enjoy the satisfaction of seeing what your very recent work afforded you. 6 (IMPORTANT AND UNDER-RATED) Spend 5 full minutes playing your instrument with "no rules," except the rule that you "can't" play your "actual pieces." Get to know your instrument on more personal terms: "What happens if I do this? What does this sound like? How does this feel physically? How do I play that thing I heard from a friend the other day?" If everything you do on your instrument was "following directions," you are missing out on creativity, on freedom, on mastery, on expertise, on enjoyment, on MUSIC. If you don't SET ASIDE TIME to have fun on your instrument, you may never do so, and you may "rebel" and use other time that should be used on your pieces to have fun instead. Besides, knowing that it's "play time" at the end makes "working" on your pieces less of a threat to the lazy part of your brain. Notice, please, that I recommend 1/3 of your DAILY music time to be spent in a "free" way. This wasn't an accident. Notice also, that I didn't recommend 1-2 hours' worth of daily practice time. Also not an accident. . . . If you've ever seriously taken up a fitness routine, you may have encountered the advice that you should "leave yourself wanting more" as opposed to constantly draining yourself and inviting burnout. I believe it's the same with music. I also believe that anyone who ASPIRES to an hour or more of practice time should have no trouble committing to 15 minutes . . . and that our beliefs about how we're spending our time are often far removed from reality . . . ! Therefore, make yourself "faithful in small things" before moving on to bigger things.

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