How to Practice When You’re Drowning in Music

Have you ever looked at your music stand and just gotten so overwhelmed by all of the books and all of the music that you have to practice this week? I’ve felt that, and it’s completely normal.

Especially if you’re a college music major, you have so much to work on. You might have scales, etudes, repertoire, chamber music, orchestra, or larger ensemble music. You could be in an opera or musical pit orchestra, or even have a gig coming up.

There’s so much that you might have going on every single week and especially different points of the semester when performances are coming up. It can be really, really overwhelming. So, today I’m going to offer a couple quick-fire practice tips to help you get through all of your music and feel as prepared as you possibly can.

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Common but Ineffective Practice Habits

As a music major, you probably feel like you have too much music and not enough hours to practice it all in. Unfortunately, that’s totally normal and you just have to find ways to manage your time as effectively as you possibly can so that the overall level of everything is getting better. That requires some planning ahead and getting used to different ways of practicing that will speed up the entire process.

Some common ways that we tend to practice if we’re stressed that do not help us at all would be:

1. Just running through everything without fixing little details.
2. Practicing the same exact thing every day while ignoring the other things that you have going on.
3. Spending a little bit too much time getting caught up in one thing while accidentally ignoring everything else.

So, let’s get into some ways you can change those habits and replace them with newer, better ones.

Change Your Mindset

First we need to do a little bit of a mindset shift.

You do not have to do every single thing every single day.

Even though that might be ideal, realistically, you probably can’t do that and do your homework and get to all of your rehearsals and eat and sleep. Those are all important things, and you want to have a well-rounded life! The more life that you live, the better music you can make.

The better understanding you have of life and how the world works, the better you’re going to understand your music and portray the ideas in your music to everyone else. So don’t forget to live your life!

Now for the mindset shift: rotate your focus.

One day you might focus a little bit more on your orchestral music and then another day you might focus more on your repertoire. Maybe every day you practice scales because that’s always a good foundation that you want to have, but maybe you don’t get to your chamber music on one day. You make sure that you can rotate and do it on another day.

Practicing in this way is smarter because you’ll go in depth in your music instead of just getting to the surface level on absolutely everything. You can really take the time to zoom in and focus on a couple things on one day. You’ll make those things better and then the next day zoom in and focus on something else. It’s going to snowball in a good way and make everything better overall.

Break Your Music Down into Categories

If you try to do every single thing every single day you’re only going to break the surface and you’ll see progress a lot slower. To keep yourself organized, separate the repertoire you’re working on into three different categories.

The first category is maintenance. This is music that you want to keep going or just sustain. That might be scales, an etude, or something you’ve already performed.

The next category is rotation pieces. These are things you need to work on that aren’t the absolute top priority, but still need consistent work. This could be something like orchestral music, where you know what you’re doing but still need to get better; or even a movement of a concerto you’re planning to perform. These pieces need some work, but aren’t the most urgent.

The third category is priority music. These are the things that are urgent and the highest stakes. If you have a solo recital coming up, that music is probably top priority. Maybe your string quartet is playing in a masterclass and you need to drill a section that feels unstable. This is the music you feel that you absolutely need to practice.

It may feel very difficult to split your music up and to decide that some things don’t need to be practiced each day. Be ruthless and cutthroat when you split your music into these categories. You’ll find out what does and doesn’t work. If you find that you actually do need to practice something more than you’d decided, you can always move it to a different category.

Being able to handle all of the music that you have as a music major requires a lot of thinking and planning ahead, but it’s really going to set you up for success if you do.

Use Time Management Skills Within Each Practice Session

Even after categorizing your music, you might not have the most leisurely amount of time to work on every single little thing.

Setting a timer or using even the Pomodoro technique can help you stay focused in shorter amounts of time. It can also help keep you on track if you have to get off to a rehearsal or another class!

Set a timer for 15, 20, or 30 minutes to focus on one thing. That could be one scale, an etude, a piece… no matter what it may be, set a timer or plan how long you want to focus on just one thing.

If you’ve got a tricky measure, tell yourself you can focus on only this for 5 minutes. You can actually get a lot of work done on a short passage in 5 minutes! It can totally transform things.

Use some time management within the practice sessions as well, not just overarching for the week, and you will be able to get things done quicker.

Keep a Practice Journal

Another practice technique that does take up some more time, but I felt was truly helpful was keeping a practice journal.

There are many different ways you can do this! You can write it down in a notebook (which is what I used to do), you can use the notes app on your phone, or you can use a dedicated practice journal app like Andante Practice Journal.

Writing down what you’ve worked on and what you need to get done in the future is so helpful because you can keep track of what you accomplished, what you struggled with, and what you need to do next time.

Then you can come back the next day and remind yourself of what actually happened the day before. With a crazy schedule, all of the rehearsals, and all of the information that’s being thrown out at you as a college music major, it’s so helpful to write things down because you very well might forget by the next day.

Especially if you go to practice a rotational piece and it’s been a couple days since you last practiced it, it’s probably going to be super difficult to remember what exactly went on in your last practice session.

Although it takes up a little bit more time on the front end of things while you’re writing your thoughts down, it can really be a lifesaver when you go to practice again.

Your practice journal can even be short bullet points like:

• Worked on this section
• Struggled with the bowings
• Next time I want to focus on the bowings

Here’s a glimpse into one of my practice journals! I just used bullet points to keep track of important work I did, what my progress was like, and goals for next time.

Your practice journal can be as detailed or as not detailed as you would like. It’s just to keep some order in your mind with everything else that’s going on.

Want to learn more about practice journals? I have a full blog post to help you out!

Final Thoughts

Feeling overwhelmed with all that is asked of you and all of the music that you have to work on is completely normal. I think that basically everyone who has majored in music has felt this at least at one point or another if not through a lot of their time at college.

With some time management, planning ahead, and smart practicing, you will get through it and you will succeed and learn your music.

It’s very hard at first to figure out all of this, especially if you’re a new music major. It is a huge adjustment from anything that you might have come from before! But as you go, you learn how to manage it. You learn how you work the best and it all becomes easier to handle, even if the music does get harder s you go. Eventually it will feel like something that you just do.

If you’re really struggling with feeling very overwhelmed or if your mental health is not good, please talk to someone. Whether that’s your private teacher, a therapist, or a doctor, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Feeling overwhelmed is normal, but if it is costing you your mental health, then please do whatever you need to get some help and figure out some plans ahead.

Even though it’s overwhelming, you will get through it and you can do it.

If you have any questions or if you have any tips that you’ve gained through college that you would like to share with others, please leave them in a comment down below! I would love for the comment section to be a space for new music majors to come to to get some practice tips and overall time and mental management skills for being a music major.