LearningUkulele.com - Practice, Practice, Practice?
Learning the Ukulele — Invest 80% of your learning time in the fundamentals of music, the basics, the principles of music - the chords, the scales, rhythm, etc... Leave 20% for the songs.
Practice, Practice, Practice
When it comes to practicing, put in as much as you can. Realize that there are many things and activities that are competing for your time and attention: work, family, school, money, etc. It is imperative that you persist in your pursuit of progress. The rate of progress is solely contingent on the amount of time and effort expended. Regardless of what you put into it.
First, let's stop calling it “Practice” and start calling it “exploring.”. We are exploring and developing our musical abilities using the ukulele as our main instrument.
With that out of the way, here are some tips and guidance:
10 Exploring (Practice) Tips
- Keep a long-term musical goal in mind at each practice session and establish a long-term musical goal.
- Instead of focusing on your strengths, focus on your weaknesses. Work only on what is relevant to your long-term musical goals (Principle No. 1).
- Before each practice session, establish a short-term objective. Don't compare the end of a previous session to the start of a new one.
- Practice what you do not know, not what you do know. If your practice sounds good, you're doing something you already know and can do.
- If your practice sounds good and is error-free, it doesn't count as a practice session. That should be saved for rehearsals and performance.
- Don't practice anything wrong, not one note or one beat. If in doubt, triple-check the note or beat it. Then double-check it again.
- Work on parts or pieces of songs instead of playing songs from beginning to end. Save the full song for rehearsing for performances (see no. 4). My Dad told me he had to hear me in public before he ever heard me finish a song. - Curt
- Leave your instrument out, or if you're a singer, leave your music out on a music stand, in a place where you'll see it every day. Your instrument is your voice, it is always out and with you: great for anytime practice.
- It is recommended that you practice at least 10 minutes every day. Short sessions are better than no sessions. If you miss days, don't give up. Just get back on schedule. Away from your instrument, work on the musical things that don't require you to be with your instrument.
- Avoid doing the same thing, in the same order, that you did the day before. Explore all possible variations.
NOTE: These 10 tips are adapted from my years of study with Chuck Anderson and my years of teaching 40 to 70 students a week over the years. You learn a lot from your students, as well as from helping, guiding, and helping them with their goals.
Links and Resources
- 10 Practice Principles ⇒
- Practice, Play and Rules (Theory) ⇒ — The Three Words guest lesson by Chuck Anderson
- The Learning Process — The Mind, Hands, and Ears ⇒
- What’s Bad About the Internet? ⇒ — guest lesson by Chuck Anderson
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