Music Practice and Performance Strategies

Which of the following are practice strategies?

• Write letter names under notes

• Looping

• Circuit training

• Play a whole song

• Listening to rap while practicing

Which is a more effective practice strategy?

• Playing an entire song in one sitting

• Breaking music into smaller sections

Which of the following is are good pratising strategies when using a backing track?

• Use earphones

• Play the track in super low volume

• Practice in a noisy environment
• Set the backing track speed at 0.75

Answer explanation

If your backing track is on Youtube, you can easily set your playback speed to 0.75 to help you figure out cues and when to come in earlier in the game.

True or False

Being able to begin playing your piece from different sections is a good idea

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Practice starting different sections of your piece. It means when you make mistakes or go blank on stage, you can pick it up from the middle of the piece as opposed to starting over again.

True or False

It is a good idea to practice music in a fast tempo immediately

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Practising fast immediately will sometimes create bad habits and errors that are hard to fix later. Always try at a slower tempo but encourage yourself to gradually raise the speed. When you start making mistakes, drop the tempo slightly and repeat to process until you reach the tempo set for your piece.

What can you do if you start experiencing pain from practising?

• Take a break

• Keep practising. You are only feeling pain because you didn't practice enough.

• Talk to your teacher to figure out the cause of the pain

• Check your posture

Which is the more efficient way of practice?

• Practising once a week - 3 hours on a Sunday

• Practising 15 mins every day

Answer explanation

Music practice is like sports where continuity matters. Running a marathon once a 1 week is better than no running, but jogging short distance 15 mins every day will get you further overtime.

What is stamina?

• Your ability to play loud

• How strong and muscular you are

• Your ability to sustain prolonged physical/mental effort

Answer explanation

Stamina is something that trips a lot of musicians. Typically in instruments that require breathing, understanding your limits can help build confidence and change your way of practice immensely.

What should you do if you keep making mistakes in the middle of a piece?

• Start again from the beginning every single time

• Only practice that particular bar

• Practice the particular beat, then the bar, then the bars before and after so you learn that phrase.

• Ignore and keep playing

You are on stage and made an obvious mistake. What you should do?

• sign loudly and make a face about it

• Stop playing and ask the teacher if you can go again from the start.

• Immediately start dancing to sidetrack the audience from the mistake

• Act like nothing happened and continue playing your piece to the end.

Answer explanation

Stopping because of one mistake and asking to start again is NOT the way to build a healthy mindset to performing. Learn to accept mistakes and overcome fear. Understand that no matter how much you practice, you may necessarily deliver a 'perfect' performance. If you make lots of mistakes though, then it is a wake up call that you didn't practice enough.