Practicing is a daily part of any successful musician’s schedule. How much we practice? When? How frequently? Etc. Are all decided by the musician themselves. There have been many teachers and books that suggest scheduling one’s practice. I attempted this many times in undergraduate, but was often unsuccessful because I was too aggressive in my scheduling, and gave up. Once I got to grad school, and had much more time to practice, I knew I would get about 3 hours every day, but never really made a concrete plan. This is taxing on the brain and the body. I was waking up everyday, thinking about when I would practice that day, and frequently having to restructure my day.
Recently I had an amazing conversation with my fiancé where she encouraged me to schedule my practice time weekly. Weekly!? This was a revelation to me. I’ve been doing this for a two weeks now, and I love every bit of this. I spend Sunday evenings now scheduling my week of practice, and a few other important, weekly tasks (it’s like a big puzzle). I wake up every morning now, not having to think about when I’ll practice (sometimes I still do though… but I don’t have to). I can go throughout the day (week), trusting the plan I made for myself. I do take time after my warm up to plan what I will be practicing during those ~3.5 hours each day. My mind is much more free, I feel much more rested, and I am much more likely to go to bed and wake up around the same time.
Time to keep learning,
Adam C White
P.S. what about when things come up and disrupt my plan to practice? We will touch on that soon!
Practicing is a daily part of any successful musician’s schedule. How much we practice? When? How frequently? Etc. Are all decided by the musician themselves. There have been many teachers and books that suggest scheduling one’s practice. I attempted this many times in undergraduate, but was often unsuccessful because I was too aggressive in my scheduling, and gave up. Once I got to grad school, and had much more time to practice, I knew I would get about 3 hours every day, but never really made a concrete plan. This is taxing on the brain and the body. I was waking up everyday, thinking about when I would practice that day, and frequently having to restructure my day.
Recently I had an amazing conversation with my fiancé where she encouraged me to schedule my practice time weekly. Weekly!? This was a revelation to me. I’ve been doing this for a two weeks now, and I love every bit of this. I spend Sunday evenings now scheduling my week of practice, and a few other important, weekly tasks (it’s like a big puzzle). I wake up every morning now, not having to think about when I’ll practice (sometimes I still do though… but I don’t have to). I can go throughout the day (week), trusting the plan I made for myself. I do take time after my warm up to plan what I will be practicing during those ~3.5 hours each day. My mind is much more free, I feel much more rested, and I am much more likely to go to bed and wake up around the same time.
Time to keep learning,
Adam C White
