31 Days to Better Practicing: Build a Regular Practice Schedule

If you're learning an instrument and you want to improve your playing, learn music, or get more enjoyment out of playing, the one thing you need to do above all else is practice. This means setting aside some time nearly every day for quality work on honing your craft. Many of the things I would like to impart this month deal with fun ways to make your time spent in the practice room more enjoyable.

However, the one thing that must already be in place before any nifty practice techniques will actually work is a regular practice schedule. In fact, today's theme is probably more important than anything else I'll be talking about this month, and if you get nothing else out of this series, this is the concept that will yield the most growth in your playing:

The most important element of practice is that it be a regular, fulfilling, and disciplined time spent with your instrument on as regular a schedule as possible.

Showing up is half the battle.

Here are some ways that people of different ages and schedules can fit practice time into a regular schedule.

Students 12 and Under

One of the most valuable things that parents can impat to their children in musical study is a sense of schedule and structure in day-to-day musical life, and that time be rewarding and fun. I see too many young students fall by the wayside simply because their parents didn't want to have any kind of engagement in their kids' musical activities.

Here are some optimal practice times in a young student's daily routine:

• First thing in the morning before school. They'll need to get up earlier to do this, but work it into their schedule and you'll have kids bursting with mental energy as they head off to school.
• First thing after school. As soon as they come home in the afternoon, getting them into the habit of practicing will also fit nicely into a regular schedule without taking significant time away from homework or other activities.
• Right before dinner. An okay time, but not optimal because of obvious hunger issues.
• Right after dinner. Also a good time.
  
• Mid-evening. Another very good time, and takes planning fitting in homework. Beware of the seduction of television and computer games at this time.
• Right before bed. A possible time, but not optimal unless there is no other time to fit in the practice session because of other activities. Some kids that have a lot of energy at this time of day might actually benefit from practice before bed.

Although mixing and matching practice times will work, for younger students it is probably a better idea in the long run to stick with one or two regular times of day.

High School-Age Students

As students go through high school, their hold on a regular practice schedule can be tenuous, with competition from homework, sports and other activities, social time, internet time, and computer games.

Here are some optimal times, bearing in mind that more practice time will be needed for advanced students:

• Before school at home.
• Before school at school. Many schools have practice facilities, and teachers gladly let responsible students use them. This is a great time, because they are at school, can usually concentrate if they have privacy, and have a chance to get away from parental supervision (very important).
• During free periods at school. Again, it takes discipline, but these can be profitable time.
• Right after school upon arriving home. An excellent time of day to practice as long as there are no conflicting activities.
• Mid evening. Another useful time, but faces stiff competition from Nintendo and Facebook.
• Late evening. This starts to be an excellent practice time for teenagers once they get into the zone, especially for those who will eventually become nightowls. Warning: can distract siblings.

There are two things I notice with my students that get in the way of regular work:

1. Not enough parental engagement at an early age. I can't stress how important this is. Music teachers are not babysitters, and parents often don't realize how much of a positive model they can be through taking an active interest in their son or daughter's musical life.

2. Extreme overbooking. The opposite problem. I also see a great many students who are involved in way too many extra-curricular activities for their own good that never get to develop any sort of process in working at any activity because they are always being shuttled to the next one.

For the parent, it is good to develop a sense of balance, remaining engaged in getting their kids practicing and thinking about music, but with the ultimate goal of letting them do it by themselves without the prodding. Proud indeed is the parent whose son or daughter works hard at their instrument, has fun at it, and feels the satisfaction that they did it for themselves.


Tomorrow I'll be looking at how adult students can fit regular practice times into their schedules, given an entirely different set of life challenges.

Yesterday we looked at ways to build a regular practice routine into the day of a moderately busy young student anywhere from ages 5 to 18. Today we will be looking at possible practice schedules of college age students and adults.

University Music Majors

When a student enters a university, college, or conservatory as a music student, a certain amount of commitment is already expected given the amount of time and money needed to obtain a Bachelor's degree in music. Here are some optimal practice time allocations for the college-age student:

• Early morning before classes start. Let's face it--looking for practice time in a school of music sucks. Everyone wants a room, and not many are available at peak times of the day. A great strategy is to arrive at school first thing in the morning and start practicing before anyone else arrives and before classes start. That way, you can take advantage of optimal early-morning concentration and embark on going to classes with a fair amount of work already done.
• Between classes. If you go to a school that schedules regular practice room times, you can take advantage of holes in your schedule to book practice time at the beginning of the year and plan practice time just like you would any other academic commitment. This is a bit more difficult if you attend a school that has first-come-first-served unbooked practice rooms, which sometimes require the creation of secret practice room societies in order to actually acquire a room.
• Weekends. The weekly prime practice time, especially if you don't have to go to work. Show up in the morning and practice until you drop.
• Late nights. For college students, often the best practice work gets done in the evening, as students adjust to the night-owl schedule. Arrive at your room right after dinner and keep on practicing until you and your buddies decide to go to the pub. Works every time.

Adults

One of the largest groups of people learning how to play an instrument or sing these days consists of adults, some of whom come back to it after years of hiatus. What makes matters harder for many adults is how to fit in caring for kids with fitting in a practice schedule. This is a big issue with many of my semi-professional advanced students. Morning for parents and working adults can be sheer madness and practicing tends not to be an option unless you are retired. Here are some ways to make a grown-up practice routine happen:

• Practice for short durations when the kids are sleeping or involved in independent activities. For parents of babies and toddlers, the mid-afternoon nap is a great time to have some quality time to sit down and get some work done.
  
• Practice when the kids are at school.
• Practice in the evening. Early bedtimes are useful for this if you have younger kids.

Yesterday, I received a comment regarding how "super-busy" music teachers can schedule practice time. Here is my response:

• If you're a music teacher, one of the best times to schedule quality practice time is an hour or so before a block of students. Practicing beforehand will not only warm up your playing mechanism, but get your mind going as to how you can better impart ideas. Practicing after teaching is another okay time to get work done, although you might not want to think of anything music-related once your last student leaves. It's important to remember that every successful music teacher must still move forward artistically and regular practice is the place to do that.
  

Above all, learning to find practice times as an adult requires advance planning and a clever balancing act...


Tomorrow I'll talk about how to warm up at the beginning of a session.