5 Basic Practice Tips for Musicians of All Levels

Whether you’re new to learning an instrument or a seasoned professional, it’s great to remind yourself of the basic practice tips to keep your progress steady.

I love thinking about how to practice as efficiently as possible, and helping others get better. Here are five basic practice tips to help you stay on track with your practicing.

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Take the Time to Warm Up

It’s so important to take the time to warm up both your body and your instrument before diving into your practice session.

Many instruments require physical strength and stamina, so preparing your muscles for this experience is important to stay healthy and comfortable. Warming up your body before practicing is also a great way to prepare mentally. Your brain starts to adjust to this routine and will know that once you start stretching, it’s practice time!

On your instrument, it’s great to get your fingers moving or air going through your instrument. Check your tuning, work on a technique that comes up often in your repertoire, and practice a scale.

When I’m warming up, I like to choose a scale that coordinates whatever repertoire I’m working on. So, if I’m planning to practice a piece in E flat Major, I’ll practice the E flat Major scale, arpeggios, and some double stops.

Warming up in the same key your repertoire is in will help prepare you for finger patterns and other sequences you might encounter in the actual repertoire.

Practice with a Purpose

It’s so helpful to go into every practice session with a goal, especially if you have an audition, performance, or even a lesson coming up soon.

Before you start to practice (or better yet, at the end of your prior practice session), plan what you should work on to move closer towards your goal. Are there any techniques you’ve been struggling with lately? Any piece or excerpt that’s fallen behind lately?

Focus on that, and you might find that your practice session is much more productive than usual!

Break Down Your Music into Chunks

Whether you’re practicing a concerto, a symphony, or just a short song, it’s helpful to break down the piece into small chunks. You’ll stay focused for a longer period of time, and you can analyze your playing better this way.

It can be overwhelming to practice/play through an entire piece in one go, so practicing just one chunk at a time will help you feel more in control.

Depending on the overall length of what you’re working on, you might want to go in 1-line chunks, 4-measure chunks, or even 1-measure chunks. Pick a section that’s short enough for you to analyze in depth. After you play through the chunk, you’ll want to be able to remember what happened so you can work on making things better. If you play for too long, you might not remember what happened, and won’t know how to make it sound better.

Take Breaks

Be sure to take breaks when you start to get tired either mentally or physically. The more often you take breaks, the better stamina you should have overall, and you’ll be able to focus over a longer period of time.

Our brains like to work in short bursts, so take a water/brain break whenever you need one.

You can also experiment with practicing in short chunks through the day. This might keep you feeling more inspired, and you can compartmentalize different focuses through the day.

Record Yourself

My final basic practice tip is to record yourself. It can be so difficult gaining the courage to actually commit to it and watch it back, but it’s such an informative way to track your process and see/hear what’s really going on.

Listening to yourself can be very difficult because it’s honest. Hearing yourself play can build you up or completely tear you down—sometimes at the same time!

Build up to recording yourself and listening back. It’s one of the most helpful tools we can use while practicing.

Those are five basic practice tips to help you stay on track while learning an instrument. These ideas have helped me go from someone who would just play through my assigned pieces a couple times, to a musician who analyzes and works on what’s needed most.

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I hope these tips will help you practice smarter, not harder, and add to your learning experience. Want even more practice tips? Check out the full dedicated section on the blog!

Did I miss any super important basic practice tips? Let me know in the comments!