Practicing with Intention: Part 1

Have you ever found yourself in front of your music stand playing through a piece, then suddenly you realize that you've been thinking about that episode of Bridgerton that you watched last night instead of the rhythm?

We have ALL been there.

There's a lot going on in the world, and it's easy to get distracted. But, the tighter we hang onto these habits that make our practicing less effective, the longer it's going to take us to make real progress.

Plus, the more success we have during a practice session, the more likely we are to actually enjoy the process!

"Practicing is about quality not quantity." Yo-Yo Ma

Practicing with intention is a mental shift designed to help us be efficient, productive, and successful while also saving precious time and avoiding frustration.

How to Practice with Intention

1. Actively Listen

As I have talked about in a previous blog post, I don't think anyone needs to practice for a specific number of hours in order to be successful. It's how we practice that really matters.

If we don't make an effort to listen to ourselves—I mean really examine our sound and technique carefully—we can't expect to make strides in our playing. Everyone has something they could do better, but if we aren't able to deduce what to work on from what we are hearing, we won't have the slightest idea what to do next.

We are our own teachers for a majority of the time that we spend playing, so we are responsible for our own growth and musical voice.

Take ownership of your role in your own progress by investing your undivided attention.

2. Diagnose Your "Stuck Points"

When we listen to ourselves, we are looking for places that are difficult to play or sing; places that cause us to pause, crack, or slip up. I call these "stuck points."

"Stuck points" is a term used in therapy to describe thoughts that stop us from making progress toward recovery. I borrow this term to describe weak points in our skills or a tough spot in a piece that needs special attention.

If we don't have an awareness of where we can improve, how can we know where to focus our practicing?

3. Isolate Stuck Points

It's very easy to get side-tracked with fun or "easy" sections of music, but if we really want to advance our skills, we have to buckle down and focus on the techniques that challenge us the most.

Once you've identified a "stuck point," you'll need to isolate it and get to the bottom of what's happening there. Work on it alone using tried and true techniques, like you're interviewing a suspect in an interrogation room (any Criminal Minds fans reading this?).

Tackling the hard stuff in isolation will help us to grow a lot faster than focusing on the things we already do well. But we also need some special tools to break up our mental blocks. Don't keep running into the wall, take a step to the side and go around!

I'll be sharing some of my favorite practice tools in a follow-up post. You won't want to miss it!

4. Practice Smarter, Not Harder (or longer)

At this point, you may be thinking, "So many of these points are just common sense." And that's true! But we all need reminders from time to time, and sometimes the best solutions can hide in plain sight.

Unfortunately, many musicians often forget that practicing doesn't have to mean running through from beginning to end on repeat. Especially in virtual learning, it's easy for many of us to fall into SmartMusic syndrome; we set the music on loop, hit play, and follow the metronome cursor for repetition after repetition.

It's important to remind ourselves that this isn't effective for addressing our stuck points that arise as we are learning a new piece. Practicing smarter means practicing with more awareness, but we must also address issues with creativity rather than brute force or mindless repetition.

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Stay Tuned for Part 2!

Over the next few weeks, I'm going share some tips for each of the steps I've outlined here. I hope you will find these ideas helpful in your own practicing or share them with your students!

Stay tuned for Practicing with Intention: Part 2: Active Listening.

Be safe, kind, and well,

- Focus

- Thoughtful practice vs. disordered/random practice - https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fmea/rpme/1990/00000001/00000001/art00003

- Breaking old habits - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wander_Jager/publication/251477649_Breaking_'bad_habits'_a_dynamical_perspective_on_habit_formation_and_change/links/0deec53b4f882d03b0000000/Breaking-bad-habits-a-dynamical-perspective-on-habit-formation-and-change.pdf

- Neural Plasticity - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073858410377805

- Persistance

- Patience