If we could acquire cool skills without taking the time to practice them that would certainly allow us to have a multitude of abilities that would otherwise be impossible. Maybe in the future our brains will download information and allow our bodies to know the necessary actions to perform such abilities. As of right now we know that while some may learn things faster than others it is not possible to treat our brain as a computer and simply attain information without the proper discipline of practice. Many people fancy the idea of learning a musical instrument at all different age levels. Learning music is attainable for anyone who is willing to put forth the effort to practice consistently. Taking time to practice your guitar, piano, drums, singing or whichever you are trying to learn will quickly produce results. Practicing should be done everyday without excuses. It should be like taking time to shower or eat or sleep or even breathe! Without practice your music ability will suffer by not getting the proper nourishment it needs to continue it’s growth. I won’t take the time to name off the excuses that we all use to say why we didn’t or couldn’t practice our music today. There are way too many of them and they are pretty much all nonsense! Even picking up your instrument and playing for 5 minutes is better than nothing. We all have 24 hours in one day in which we choose how to use them. It’s true some people have busier schedules than others but if you really analyze your behavior throughout the day you will realize that you there is always a couple minutes here or there that you can find to practice. One way to ensure that you get practicing done in some capacity on a daily basis is to make sure the area that you practice music is always organized and easily accessible. If you carry an instrument that’s in a case to your lesson or wherever then make sure when you come home to take it out and place it on a stand or somewhere in site. Most of us mess around playing video games on our iPhones for 15 minutes just because it’s accessible and we are bored. Keeping your instrument accessible is absolutely a key to good practice habits. If you continue to practice daily even for short amounts of time then soon it will become second nature. Of course the more you practice then better skilled you become. The more skilled you become the more fun you will have. The more fun you have will result in more time doing it. We all know that it’s fun to do the things that we are good at. Once you’re good at playing drums or playing piano it is no longer a burden to practice. Eventually you’ll have to remind yourself that it’s time to eat or time to sleep. It’s ok to set a specific time aside for practice but it’s important to do it spontaneously for a few minutes here and there as well. If you practice etudes, scales, chord changes, sticking patterns, or whatever you realize how tiresome they can become after just a few minutes. The more you play them the easier they will become and the quicker you can be playing effortlessly on your instrument. Quite frankly if most of us could sacrifice 15 to 30 minutes of television or internet surfing daily we could all have the time to practice music! Challenge yourself and take the time to practice. The reward will be all yours.
by Henry Bahrou
Grosse Pointe Music Academy
School Director
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