Thread by @samaracello

How to practise: a thread of practice tips I wish I’d worked out when I was younger 🧵

Being kind and patient with yourself is way WAY more effective and generates much more actual progress than beating yourself up. If you have no idea where to start with this, imagine how you might encourage a gifted but not very confident child

If you’re SUPER struggling with a simple passage, that’s GREAT! That’s your brain showing you what it needs to work on today. It will suck for the whole practice session, but just keep at it for a while. When you wake up the next day after sleeping on it it’ll probably be fine

Are you a bowed string player? Do you think you’re having a technical issue with your left hand? Really? It’s probably your right. Try changing the bowing, or just shifting mental focus to the bow.

Don’t compare yourself to others in terms of how much time you spend practising. Everybody is different, everybody learns different things at different paces, and everybody works at a different intensity, there is no universal optimal amount.

There is no universally correct length of time for a single practice session. Some people are cool doing 3hrs in one chunk. I very rarely do more than 30mins at one time. Whatever works for you.

Try not to have performance anxiety in the practice room. Be HAPPY when you make mistakes - every mistake you make now, in this time you’re taking for yourself, is an opportunity to fix it now before you’re in a space where you *don’t* want to be screwing up

Do you see practice time as a punishment for not being good enough? Like putting yourself in detention for being a shitty musician? Yeah, you need to stop with that 💅

Spending some of your practice time in front of a mirror to check your technique = good. Filming yourself occasionally = a better test because you won’t be correcting yourself by watching in real time

Jaw tension will screw you over good and proper. I’ve no idea how to fix this for wind/brass players but for strings/piano… try practising whilst pulling lots of faces, shaking your head around, chewing gum, anything to keep everything relaxed and mobile up there

Never be afraid of spending time on basics. It’s really easy to look at the bazillions of notes you have to learn and think you don’t have time to work on open strings, or stabilising your intonation in 1st position. Always take the time, fundamental basics feed into everything

Make sure you have everything you need to be physically comfortable before you start. Wear comfortable clothing, make sure your seat is the correct height, get yourself a glass of water, etc

Don’t only work on the difficult bits of whatever you’re learning. Bring the same level of focus and commitment to every bit of a piece, you don’t want to find yourself on stage suddenly realising the supposedly-easy bits feel insecure…