5 things you can do to practise more effectively (Part 2)

As musicians, we spend literally thousands of hours practising. We often measure our practice in quantity (e.g. “I practised for 2 hours today…”) but it is important that we practise effectively.

Apart from being a waste of time, ineffective practice can actually hinder your performance. You are also likely to practise more to compensate for your inefficient use of time, and over-practising can lead to injuries.

So how can you practise effectively? Here are 5 things you can do to try and improve your practice sessions. Also, check out more tips in Part 1 of this article if you haven’t already!

1. Make use of non-play strategies: Practice is not just about physically playing your instrument

Music students often feel that if they are not playing their instrument, they’re not really practising and are therefore wasting their time.¹ But there are a variety of useful practice strategies which do not involve playing that have been linked to effective practice and performance success including:

• Writing in score^2–5
• Score study: going through the score, thinking about the music and how you want it to sound. (Note that this is different to score analysis, which involves analysing the piece structurally and harmonically, which can also be helpful.)^5,6
• Singing⁵
• Silent fingering²
• Listening to your own recordings^3,5
• Mental practice: imagining playing the piece^7,8

Not only are these strategies helpful, but they also reduce your physical playing time. This can reduce risks of over-practising, making it less likely for you to be injured or fatigued.⁸

2. Pause regularly to think about what you’re doing

Following on from the previous point about practice strategies which do not involve playing, pausing is another important aspect of practice.

One group of researchers⁹ followed a professional pianist for 10 months as she prepared a piece by video-recording every practice session. They found that the pianist frequently took short pauses during which she sat in thought, wrote in the score, or talked to the camera (to explain her thought processes). Similarly, an interesting finding from my recent article⁵ was that the pianists who performed better in the study tended to pause between periods of playing.

Pausing stops you from going on ‘autopilot’. Instead, it allows you to be mindful and deliberate.

Verbalising (i.e. talking aloud) can be a good way to get into the habit of pausing to think and reflect. Try saying out loud exactly what you’re doing during your practice sessions.

💡 Tip: Set a timer that goes off every 15 minutes during practice. Every time you get interrupted by the timer, pause and ask yourself, “What am I exactly trying to achieve right now?” If you don’t have a clear answer, then your practice is probably not focused enough. You can improve this by setting clear, specific goals.

3. Do not practise mistakes

One study¹⁰ looked at 17 piano students as they prepared a short excerpt for a recording, which were evaluated. They found that one of the characteristics associated with those who performed better was the way they handled errors: these students tended to identify errors and correct them rather than leaving them. The top two students also showed another trait: when they engaged in slow practice, they played it slow enough that they did not make any errors.

‘Practising mistakes’ is a common trait of ineffective practice.¹¹ This may seem obvious but it’s so easy to put off working on errors and continue to play through them (‘I really should work on that bit but I’ll do it next time…’) But if you play a passage in the same incorrect way many times, it’s going to become a part of your memory… and you can’t be surprised if it crops back up in a performance.

4. Identify reasons for why things go well or not so well

Effective learning in any field (including music practice) requires self-evaluation: looking at what you have learnt or achieved, and what you need to do next.

An important part of self-evaluation is identifying reasons for the results of your practice session:¹² if you managed to master a passage successfully, what was the reason for this? On the other hand, if your practice felt unproductive or you didn’t make any progress on a certain piece, why was that?

If you know why your practice session was successful, then you know that the strategy you used was effective and can use it again in the future. If you know why your practice did not go as planned, you can aim to change your strategy next time.

This ability to know why you played well (or not) is known as causal attribution, and causal attribution is one of the characteristics which differentiates practice sessions of experts and non-experts.^13–15

Not knowing why you’re not improving can leave you feeling frustrated and helpless. You may even start believing that the reason for your lack of progress is due to a lack of skill or talent,^5,16 which can have detrimental effects on your motivation and self-confidence.

Next time you finish your practice session, take a moment to think: ‘Did I achieve my goals?’ If the answer is yes, ask yourself – ‘What did I do which was effective?’ If the answer is no, ask yourself – ‘Why was I unable to achieve my goals? What can I do differently next time?’

5. Reflect on your practice

Have you ever watched yourself practise? Or thought about how you practise and how you could improve? It is important to periodically check in with your practice. Which practice habits work effectively? What are things you could do better?

Here are two possible ways to reflect on your practice:

Video record your practice session

In the previous article on tips for practice, I mentioned that recording yourself is a valuable practice strategy. Similarly, recording your practice session and watching it can be a useful way to see exactly how you practise.¹⁷ You may find that you repeat things unnecessarily or that you’re not as focused as you think you are. Or you might find that you focus better because you know that you’re being ‘watched’¹⁸…either way, it can be a great learning experience.

Keep a practice diary

Another way to reflect on your practice is by writing things down. Keep a practice diary for a few weeks where you write your goals, what you achieved, how focused you felt, and so on. This way you can see how your practice fluctuates, notice any patterns, and identify areas for improvement. You can download my free PDF template for a practice diary in the resources section!

Regardless of whether you use the recording or the diary method (or both), you can see how your practice changes over time – becoming a better musician does not only mean improvements in your technical and performance skills, it should also means improvements in your practice!