5 tips for productive practice
- You will learn more from practicing a small section of music than you will trying to improve an entire piece at once.
- When diagnosing problems in your playing, always start with sound production. Nothing else can improve if you are not making a quality sound! (For us string players this means checking bow hand/arm)
- Mindless repetition is not an efficient way to learn. Make sure you have a plan before you repeat a section.
- Once you feel you have improved a section, make sure to give your muscles an opportunity to learn what your brain has already figured out. This means repeating a section many times after you have made an improvement.
- While picky, meticulous practice is very important, we also need to give ourselves time to just play for the enjoyment of playing. After you have done careful work on a small section, make yourself play a larger section (or the entire piece) without stopping.
Articles from the internet about good practice habits