Planning Your Practice for a Performance: Plan for a Performance with a Practice Schedule

Planning how much to practice leading up to a performance can be a little difficult to judge. Knowing how much you need to practice, and when to start, can help you adequately prepare with less stress.

Today I’m sharing one way that you can plan your practice for a performance. This’ll help you learn everything you need, give yourself small weekly goals, and feel organized!

Watch the Video

Grab a Blank Calendar or Piece of Paper

I like to plan on either a blank calendar, or just a sheet of paper (or in GoodNotes, on my iPad). We’ll plan week by week, so first find your concert date, then label the weeks backward to either today’s date or when you’d like to start practicing.

Watch the video to see how I do it!

Create Weekly Goals

Working backwards from the performance date, create goals for yourself. What would you like to accomplish or have ready each and every week?

I personally like to be as concert-ready as possible about two weeks before the concert, if it’s a solo performance. From there, I work backwards: when should I learn and master each movement or page of music?

Don’t forget to add other tasks, like recording yourself and listening to other interpretations!

Re-evaluate if Needed!

If you find yourself lagging behind the schedule or working ahead, feel free to adjust the plan as needed. The first few times you do this will be an experiment!

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I hope this gives you some ideas on how to plan for and organize the way you want to work towards your next performance! If you’ve tried anything like this, please let me know how it went for you. I always love hearing from you!