How to practice your instrument

How to practice

Practice Makes Progress

Plan your practicing

• What is your band/lesson assignment?

• Where is it? Band folder, Google Drive, email?

• Do you have everything you need?

Multiple Select

These tools are important for a good practice session (select all that apply):

• music stand

• tuner and metronome

• pencil

• your music

Things to consider

• Practice more days than not

• You don't need to practice everything every day, just most things most days

Multiple Choice

True or false? You should ALWAYS practice EVERYTHING you need to in one practice session each day.

• True

• False

More things to consider

• Go slow to go fast

• Chunk the music

• If you get frustrated, stop and come back to it later

Multiple Choice

Chunking is when you.....

• play something six times perfectly

• break the music apart into smaller sections

• switch to something different

• sing the exercise

Multiple Choice

If something is frustrating you when practicing, you should.....

• keep working on it

• quit

• walk away and come back to it later

• get angry and quit band

Mark in your music:

• accidentals

• where the beats are

• new notes

• important changes

• ANYTHING THE BAND DIRECTOR SAYS TO MARK IN YOUR MUSIC

Multiple Select

Which of these are things you should write on your music? (Choose all that apply)

• ANYTHING THE BAND DIRECTOR SAYS TO MARK IN YOUR MUSIC

• where the beats are

• new notes

• important changes

• accidentals

Find the problem and isolate it

• Find a rhythm, a measure, or a line that is giving you trouble

• Repeat it over and over many times

• Practice slowly first, then gradually build up the speed on your metronome

• Keep working on it until you can play it three times in a row correctly

Other suggestions

• Change up the rhythm

• 5 penny practice

• Roll a die

Practice tips

• Always end with something fun or easy that you like

• Work on the hard stuff the most - WE CAN DO HARD THINGS

• You CAN practice silently!

• A practice session should include a warm-up, assignments, scales, and something fun

Multiple Select

Practice sessions should include these parts (select all that are true):

• something fun

• warm-ups

• scales

• band music

• lesson music

Multiple Choice

True or False? You always have to play your instrument to practice.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Students like to play ____________ the most, but this is not the way to growth!

• the part they know

• the new part

• the hard part

Multiple Select

Practice can be challenging so you should always end with one of these (select all that apply):

• a song that frustrates you

• something fun that you like to play

• something you can play well

• a song that is really hard