One of the most important things in learning how to play an instrument and making music with it, is practising the right way. When starting to play, your motivation to practise is very high but a year later the ‘I don’t have enough time’ problem comes up. Below a few tips that can help you!
1.
Practice everyday at a fixed time en keep it up for at least a few months to make it into a habit. Use the power of a habit to remind you of playing and not postpone it.
2.
Always make your practise a combination of both having fun in playing music that you are familiar with (or improvising) and practising new stuff. You become what you practise and making great music is the most important thing. If you only do exercises and don’t apply them into music they have no meaning!
……In addition it is more stimulating for most people to pick up your horn in order to make music than to do just exercises or practising a new piece.
3.
Make a plan before you start playing.
An example:
a. Start with 5 minutes of playing long notes/scales or something that can make you aware of your attitude/breathing/reed etc etc.
b. Then play something you are good at and really like
c. Practice something new
d. Play something that is going quite ok already and choose a focus (tip 5)
e. End with a favourite piece or improvise.
4.
Practice creatively:
Never repeat something more than three times in the same manner but vary in tempo, articulation, dynamics, colour, timing and other things that you can think of. In that way you get really familiar with the music and you learn how to play it really well. But the most important thing is that you learn how to make music in a creative way.
