Effective Practice Makes Successful Performance

Author(s): David Pedrick

Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 85, No. 2, (Sep., 1998), pp. 33-35
Published by: MENC: The National Association for Music Education
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3399170
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 MAKES
PRACTICE
EFFECTIVE
SUCCESSFUL
PERFOR
Instrumental
musicteacherscanhelpmanystudents
them activelyin a five-stepprocessfor effectivepractice.
~~~We have all heardthe age-
old joke in which the cab
driveris asked,"How do
I get to CarnegieHall?"
He of course responds
without missing a beat, "Practice,prac-
tice, practice."But do we really know
what practiceis? Moreover,can we con-
vey to our students the importance of
daily practice without first teaching
them how to make effective use of the
largeamountsof time they arespending
in this necessaryendeavor?
According to Webster's, "to per-
form or exerciserepeatedlyin order to
acquire or perfect a skill" is what
"practice"means.1 There is no deny-
ing that repetition is a necessary tool
for the practicing musician. However,
without proper instruction in practice,
students will almost invariablymisuse
precious practice time by repeating
their mistakes. Teachers must in turn
correct these and students must then
methodically unlearn them before
anything new can be attempted. This
tedious process can gravely impede
students' progressand lead to frustra-
tion and a lack of confidence.
DavidPedrickis anactiveperformer
andinstruc- room, students can increase their
torof guitarwhomaintains a private
teaching chances for successful public perfor-
studioinOxford,Pennsylvania.
SEPTEMBER 1 998
performsuccessfully
byengaging
Withoutproper
instruction in practice,
students will almost
invariably misuse
preciouspractice time by
repeatingtheir mistakes.
Performance
IstheGoal
Before practice can be truly effec-
tive, students need to understand its
goal. That the goal of practice is per-
formance may seem to be mere com-
mon sense. However, students can
benefit significantly from understand-
ing this objective very clearly before
embarking on their first practice ses-
sion. Moreover, if the experience of
performing music in the presence of
others can be simulated in the practice
mances, whether on the concert stage
or in a studio recital for friends and
relatives.
Accepting performance as the goal
of practice preparesstudents to com-
mit themselves to a practice routine.
Because daily practice is essential for
consistent musical progress, practice
time should be scheduled accordingly.
Teachers and students should first
agree on an amount of time to be
allotted for practicing, and students
can then set this aside in their daily
schedules. Once a mutually acceptable
schedule is in place, students should
make every effort to stick to it.
Although this responsibilitylies largely
with students, encouragement and
thoughtfully sequenced instruction on
the part of teacherscan be key to stu-
dents' making effective use of their
practicetime.
of Practice
Components
Music educatorsrecognizethat stu-
dents learn through a variety of styles.
Nevertheless, teachers can help many
of their students by engaging them in
a processfor practice.An effectiveprac-
tice session can be considered to have
five components, or stages: setup,
preparation, warm-up, maintenance,
and advancement. Students who con-
sciously involve themselves in the first
stage will become readyto move on to
the second stage, and so on, through
the sequence. When students routine-
ly follow the sequence, their practice
33

I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..,.,8# ',% :v
Thestudentshould findaquiet
placetopractice,
where
sessions tend to become more effi-
cient, productive, and conducive to
successfulperformance.
* Setup. There is a great deal for
students to do at the beginning of a
practicesession before playing a single
note. First, they remove all distrac-
tions. Telephones, televisions, and
other devices that can hinder their
concentration on the task at hand are
turned off or put at a distance. The
practice room should be a quiet place,
free of interruptions.Second, students
assemble all materials for the practice
session in addition to the instrument
itself. These materials may include a
music stand, metronome, tuning
device, recordingdevice, pencils, sheet
music, or method books. Finally, stu-
dents see that everythingis in working
order, including the instrument,
which should be well-maintained and
clean. Having everythingwithin reach
will minimize students' time away
from their instruments once they
begin to play, thereby sustaining con-
centration and focus for the duration intensively on the practice session at niques already presented by the
of the session.
* Preparation. With distractions
removed and the materials gathered cessful practice may involve their
together and in working order, stu- blocking out a bad
dents prepareto practice. This prepa- the frustrationof a personaldilemma.2 technical challengeslying in the week's
ration is mental as well as physical.
34
goals for the session by asking such
questions as, "What do I need to
accomplish this week?" and "How
much of it can I accomplish in this
session?"
To prepare physically, students
relax their muscles and free themselves
from any physical tension in their
necks, shoulders, backs, and limbs.
This process promotes correctposture
and playing technique and can aid
subsequently in the avoidanceof such
debilitating health problems as repeti-
tive-straininjury and tendinitis.
.-'3... '""'.':. '''' * Warm-up. Only now, with the
tasks of setting up and preparing to
f~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:~
~~~~~~~?~~~~~~ ~ .~'.. ' ':.% ....:-~.'Jt . rs~
X;;-
....':?x
- practice completed, are students ready
to engage their instruments. If the
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
..., |f|;Z/.,-5',..:,
..' instrument requiresdaily tuning, now
Tetesdindepleto -whres is the time for this, for it is vital that
students maintain correct intonation
heorsheisfreeofsuchdistractions astelephones. during the entire practice session.
Then, at last, students are ready to
begin warm-up exercises. These exer-
cises serve the simple purpose of rein-
troducing students to their instru-
ments; therefore, basic fingering exer-
cises such as scale patterns are appro-
priate at this stage of the practiceses-
sion. The students' approachto these
should be neither precipitatenor per-
A completereading functory. Rather,students should per-
form these exercisesin a deliberateand
allowsstudents togeta calculated manner, giving special
attention to technique, form, and pos-
senseof theworkasa ture. When students feel sufficiently
whole,togaugethe reacquaintedwith their instruments,it
is time for them to proceed to the
staminathatthepiece most important phase of the practice
session.
demands of them,andto * Maintenance. This is the area of
notesections thatthey practice that students most often
neglect. This stage of the practice ses-
needto isolateand sion provides time for students to
review material that their teachers
refine. have alreadypresented.Too often, stu-
dents skip this phase, erroneously
thinking that they can use their prac-
tice time more efficiently by proceed-
ing directly to new material. The
problem with this thinking is that
To preparementally,students focus without first maintaining the tech-
hand. Engagingtheir minds in the con- instructor,time spent working on new
centration and focus requiredfor suc- material is often unproductive, and
progressmay be hampered.Reviewing
or
day setting aside allows students to confront the new
This is also the time for students to set assignment without suffering the
MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL
inevitable lapse in concentration that
occurs when students find that they
must backtrack and spend time
acquiring or refining skills that they
supposedly masteredin the past.
During this stage of the practice
session, students work to maintain
technique, but this should by no
means be the exclusive focus of their
attention. This is also the time to
practice skills in rhythm, sight-read-
ing, theoretical analysis, and tone
color and dynamics. Maintained daily,
Thepracticeroom
shouldbe a quietplace,
free of interruptions.
all of these skills give students the abil-
ity to proceed with new material effi-
ciently and confidently.
Advancement. Students are now
ready to work on new material.Their
first task is to examine the assigned
exercise or composition and garner as
much information as possible about
the piece before transferringit to their
instrument. They look at the key sig-
nature, time signature,dynamic mark-
ings, phrase structure, and any possi-
ble trouble spots lurking on the page.
Once students consider all of these
elements, they read the piece from
beginning to end, "warts and all."
Most likely, they will be painfully
awareof hesitations, wrong notes, and
rhythms played incorrectly.A perfect
reading of the piece, however, is not
the primary goal here. Rather,a com-
plete reading allows students to get a
sense of the work as a whole, to gauge
the stamina that the piece demands of
them, and to note sections that they
need to isolate and refine.
SEPTEMBER 1 998
Students' next step is to read the
piece through again. In this second
reading, it is important that they not
regress. Far too often, students need-
lessly repeat passagesby stopping and
returning to the beginning of a piece
whenever they make a mistake. This is
a habit they should break as soon as
possible. Mistakes need to be isolated
and addressed immediately. Students
accomplish this by taking the prob-
lematic passageout of its musical con-
text and repeatingit slowly and delib-
erately until they can perform it three
times in a row without error. Once
they can do this, they should read on,
following the same procedure when
confronting the next musical dilem-
ma. Approachingnew materialin this
way minimizes the time needed to
learn the piece. Moreover,it ensures a
better performanceby diminishing the
number of incorrect notes and elimi-
nating the hesitation between phrases
that resultsfrom insufficient repetition
of specific sections of a piece that
requireparticularattention.
Finally, when students feel com-
fortable with a piece of music, they
should perform it for the most unbi-
ased audience available-the tape
recorder. Recording helps students'
musical progressin two ways. First, it
simulatesa performance,and therefore
students experience some of the pres-
sures that go along with performing.
Second, listening to the recording
serves as an effective way of assessing
the performance objectively, enabling
students to identify flaws while
strengthening critical self-listening
skills necessaryto evaluate future per-
formances.
forTeachers
Implications
It is important for music teachers
to take the time to discuss the value of
daily practice with their students.
Moreover, it can be extremely benefi-
cial for instructors to teach students
how to practice. Often teachers
become frustratedwith students who
practice daily but fail to complete the
week's assignment satisfactorily. This
shortcoming might well stem from the
poor quality of their practice time
rather than its quantity. Teachers
should take the time to question stu-
dents in this situation about their
practice routines and be prepared to
analyze them and offer suggestions for
improving their effectiveness. While
ineffective practice can be discourag-
ing enough to teachers, it can defeat
students altogether. An instructor's
failure to discuss, demonstrate, and
analyze practice habits can produce
such frustration and lack of confi-
dence in students that they may give
up their instrumentsunnecessarily.
Mistakesneedto be
isolatedand addressed
immediately.
Merely talking about and demon-
strating effective practice procedures,
however,may not be enough. Properly
sequenced instruction can help to
ensure the series of successesnecessary
to bolster students' confidence. For
each practice session to be productive,
the material assigned by instructors
must be organizedhierarchically.That
is to say, students should learn to
crawl before they attempt to walk. It is
the responsibility of instructors to
design a curriculum that allows each
weeks materialto build upon the pre-
vious week's. Only such a curriculum
is conducive to the confident, effective
practice necessary to elicit successful
performancesfrom students-perhaps
even a successful performance at
CarnegieHall.
Notes
1. Anne H. Soukhanov, ed., Webster'sII
New RiversideDictionary (Boston: Houghton,
1984).
2. Aaron Shearer, "On the Primary Intent
of Learning the Classic Guitar," Soundboard
23, no. 1 (1996): 17. ?
35