Planning your practice
If like most of us, you find yourself short on time to practise as much as you should or want to, you might want to start planning your practice. By doing this, you will be able to dive into practising knowing exactly what to work on and for how long. Your practice time will as a result be much more effective. Sounds like a good idea? Let’s find out how to plan your practice.
Start with an over-arching goal
Ask yourself the question, “what do I want to achieve?” and see what large goal comes up. This could be something like learning an entire piece of music, performing a piece of music for some event, exam or performance.
Break down this goal into small SMART goals
In this step, we take the over-arching goal from Step 1 and break it down into SMART goals. SMART goals stand for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound. For example, if my over-arching goal is to learn a piece of music, my SMART goals might be:
Learn the right hand
Learn the left hand
Play hands together
Add dynamics and phrasing
Memorise the piece
If these smaller goals still feel overwhelming to you, feel free to break them down into even smaller ones. Taking the “learn the right hand” goal, I might break it down into:
Figure out fingering
Learn the 1st page
Learn 2nd page
Learn 3rd page
Assign a time duration for each SMART goal
Once you have created a step-by-step process for achieving your over-arching goal by having it broken down into smaller SMART goals, assign a time duration for each SMART goal. The time you spend on each SMART goal will be very personal to you as it will depend on your strengths and weaknesses as a musician. Taking the SMART goals from Step 2, I might assign the following time durations:
Figure out fingering - 1 day
Learn the 1st page - 2 days
Learn 2nd page - 2 days
Learn 3rd page - 2 days
Get practising and stick to your plan
By this stage, you should have a plan outlining what you should be doing each time you practise. So no more wondering what to do when you sit down to play! Stick to your plan as best as you can and you will find that you can achieve any goal you set yourself to achieve.
Good luck!
If you need anymore inspiration to practise, check out our free online webinar!
Eliza & Darryn
