Practice makes perfect

You've probably heard this saying 100 times before.

But I am here today to tell you why this saying is actually spot on and why it is so important to establish a regular practice routine.

A good musician practices every single day to develop discipline, skills and define better techniques. It is discouraging when you feel like you're not improving quick enough. However, when you practice regularly, you are likely to improve your skills a lot quicker and when you can see the improvement it's motivation to get even better!

A question I am often asked is ‘how do you find the time so practice so much?’. The most difficult part of practicing is establishing a regular routine. We all have lives, right? You go to school/ work, you come home, do your chores, make dinner and have a chill before bed. And the weekends… pfft… the weekends are for having fun and meeting with my friends. Let’s be honest, you could make up every excuse under the sun to not practice!!!

What you first need to decide is whether or not you enjoy playing your instrument enough to practice it frequently. If the answer is ‘yes I LOVE playing and performing’ then great! But you need to understand that you will not become the best musician in the world over night.

1. Set yourself some short-term goals. Whether it’s to learn a scale off by heart or to be able to improvise for 5 minutes without stopping. It doesn’t matter, just make sure it’s realistic!

2. Set yourself some longer-term goals. i.e. to work towards taking a graded exam or live performance.

3. Add in a regular practice time every single day on your phone calendar and make sure you set it as a reminder. I put mine in for every day at 8pm for an hour because I know I will always be at home. Make sure your practice suits you. If you can only manage 10 minutes a day… that’s better than not practicing at all! You can do it in the morning before school or work or just before bed, wherever it suits you best!

4. Try and actually book an exam or a live performance. Knowing you have an exam or a performance coming up will give you extra motivation to work hard and practice

Nowadays I teach singing and piano and I can see myself in so many of my students! When I was younger, I never used to practice throughout the week because watching the telly or playing a game seemed much more appealing at the time. I was always caught out by my teacher because I hadn't practiced enough and so many of my students are the same but I can see right through them. Eventually I realised that wasn't good enough and I would never get better without putting in the effort.

I try every week to inform my students how important practice is and I love watching their happy faces when they practice and they see themselves getting better! Without the right amount of practice, performing was nerve racking and I would often get things wrong. But when I put in the practice, performing was less scary and I would actually get it right! Go figure!

It’s important to realise that your teachers know what they are talking about and I wish I had known back then what I know now… I would be an even better musician than I am today.

My top tip for today is to set yourself some achievable goals and set an alarm for each day to get your practice in! Try not to miss a day if you can help it! Happy practicing! :)