Normally, I’ll have parents ask me how much students should practice. My somewhat sarcastic answer is “24 hours a day”. The reality is that isn’t possible. We have to eat, sleep, work/school and many other things. So, the question still remains. How often should students practice? As often as possible.
Being consistent helps to build habits and help grow abilities. We have plenty of habits, things we don’t even think of. Whether that’s how we put on socks and shoes in the morning, how we eat our food and so on, there’s lots of things that are habitual. Music practicing can definitely be that as well!
Daily practice is going to bring about the most growth. But what if you miss a day? What if you’re able to practice four to five times a week? Well, it’s definitely better than one or two days, isn’t it? Of course it is!
So how do you bring about consistency? Well, you add it to your schedule. In his book, “All It Takes is a Goal” (I referenced this book in my previous blog post, author Jon Acuff talks about creating charts and making a game out of your goal. So if the goal is to practice five out of seven days, create a chart! Mark it off. Soon you’ll find that you won’t need the chart because the habit will be ingrained. Or set up a reward. If you hit that goal for two or three weeks, maybe four, you get a very special reward.
Something is better than nothing. The thing that is so essential is building those habits. In my post on Monday, I talked about how practice brings progress. The more time you spend in practice, the more consistent you are, the more progress you’ll see. So get to work!
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