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Practicing music doesn't come naturally for most - it certainly didn't for me. It's too easy to confuse "playing through" a song with actually "practicing" it. That was my problem. If I sat at the piano and played songs for an hour, I could easily claim that I had "practiced" for an hour. In fact, I was just reinforcing the bad habits that I had been working on all along. My music got mediocre at best. But never perfect.

The problem with "playing through" a song is that the tendency is to do exactly the opposite of what is required. You tend to spend more time on the "easy" stuff. And virtually no time on the "hard" stuff. You don't foster much virtuosity do that.

The best way to practice is to make a "love sandwich" out of it. Start and end your practice session with the easy stuff. Playing easy music at the beginning gives you a chance to "warm up" and puts you in the music-making mood. Playing easy music at the end gives you a sense of accomplishment and leaves you with a good feeling toward music in general.

That leaves the middle of the session. That's where the work actually happens.

Consciously identify the parts of the song that need the most work. That's what you need to concentrate on in this part of the session. Just as you eat an elephant one bite at a time, you need to practice a song in very small chunks.

How small? Maybe a measure at a time. Maybe just a couple of notes at a time. Is there a difficult fingering? Perhaps something that's "almost" a major scale, but just a little different? A chord spelling that isn't quite standard or that's a little awkward. Don't ignore them. Don't think that they will "work themselves out". Those are exactly the things you should be concentrating on.

Isolate a difficult phrase and play it over and over. Always keep it in rhythm. The tempo isn't important - it's just important that the relative rhythm is correct at all times.

And what about that tempo? When you are first learning a difficult section, I suggest that you start at "half" tempo. Does that seem too fast? Then make it one-quarter tempo. That's right, keep cutting it in half until it can be played perfectly. (Remember, we're only dealing with one measure or phrase at a time here.)

And that brings us to the importance of a metronome. Probably 85% of all your practice should be done with the metronome ticking away - especially when you are first learning a song. Don't use the excuse that the song is full of rubato. Ignore the phrasing for now - you're only learning notes at this point. The "musicality" can come later.

Pay close attention to the suggested tempo marking. If it suggests m=160, start with the metronome at 80. Only after you can play the song at that tempo should you increase it to 85, then 90, then 95. It will take a while to get all the way up to tempo, but when you get there, you will be performing flawlessly.

If you have to cut the tempo in half (and then half again, as previously suggested), you may not be able to set the metronome that low. That's okay, just use the clicks to represent the subdivision (eighth notes instead of quarter notes) until you work the tempo back up to a reasonable mark.

Remember that practice doesn't make perfect - it only makes permanent. Only when you decide for yourself that you are actually going to "practice" with the intent of "perfecting" the song will the time actually be worth the effort. If you just want to "play through" songs, that's fine. Just don't convince yourself that you actually practiced anything.

Learn more about this author, Joe DeShon.
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