Have Fun, Get Better: How to Practice
The Practice Rainbow, Pt. 1
Questions I’ve heard in January from wonderful parents and violin and viola students:
I practice every day but I don’t sound better. What am I doing wrong?
What is my child supposed to practice?
How much should my child practice every day?
How do I know what my child is supposed to practice?
There’s so much to practice, where do I start?
I’m also ALWAYS asking how can I as a music educator make personal music practice fun, engaging, rewarding, and a regular habit for my lesson studio.
When I was younger, I was forced to practice, so I naturally hated it. Also, I was often made to play very specific pieces and technical exercises that I didn’t like and/or didn’t make sense to me. The repertoire regularly felt much too hard for my current problem solving skills. Who wouldn’t hate practicing with those factors working against them?
Fast forward about twenty years. Now personal practice is a friend of mine- quality time with an instrument nobody forces on me, playing music I want to play, and solving problems that are, indeed, solvable. If there is anything I can do to help my students and the greater music world make practicing more organic to daily life, more fun, and more brain-stimulating, I want to do it!
Today and for the next couple of weeks, we are going to be exploring a brand new way of looking at practicing. I’m calling it The Practice Rainbow. Get ready for vibrant colors, simple concepts, and a lot of positivity and flexibility in a space that can often feel neurotic and negative. (I have to thank my sister Athena for suggesting a rainbow as our practice organizer. It was her idea!)
Here’s our practice rainbow. We should fill our rainbow just about every practice session. I realized, after walking a bunch of students through this new concept this past week, that even MY rainbow wasn’t complete. Here’s some examples of what students shared with me this week.
What do you think? What does your practice rainbow look like? Tune in next week for an explanation of what Red or “Warm-Up” means and looks like in my lesson studio. We’re going to explore each color for the next couple of weeks here on this blog. If you have ideas or thoughts, contact me.
Meanwhile, happy practicing!
