How To Practice Music

Fiddling with life and learning with the occasional dad joke thrown in…

 

 

Fiddling With Desirable Difficulty

You’ll see more results if you learn to practice well.  One way is to find that perfect level of challenge so that you’re neither bored nor overwhelmed. Enter the “Goldilocks Zone,” where you’re totally engaged and practice in a state of flow.  The scientific term for this is “desirable difficulty.” Find the right level of … Continued

Musical Conversation

  You can approach music practice and creation as a conversation. In the conversation, you continuously alternate between areas of practice. Musical conversation generates insight. It helps you to break through obstacles and it makes daily practice fun. Call-and-response is a simple form of conversation. You hear something and then play it back. You can … Continued

Fiddling With A Growth Mindset

What connections can you make between fiddling and the rest of your daily activity? Asking a question like this is the activity of a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is a belief that your abilities are permanently fixed. A fixed mindset says, “I am what I am, and I’ll never change”. A growth mindset is a … Continued

Music is a fun way to upgrade your mind

Why do we play music? For most of the answer is, “I do it for fun and enjoyment.” Here’s another reason people start playing an instrument: they want to upgrade their thinking. How does learning music upgrade your thinking? Here are some cognitive processes that improve as you learn and practice an instrument. Focus Memory … Continued

Ask Questions As You Practice

  Ask questions as you practice. Don’t worry about the answer. The question brings awareness to what you’re doing. Ask questions before, during and after a practice session Asking questions before a session will prepare you, helping you to focus. Asking questions during a session will keep you engaged with the practice. Asking questions after … Continued

How To Build Your Fiddle Skills

You can steadily learn and improve any skill if you move your skills through a series of stages: Can’t do yet Can do with effort Can do with flow   In this lesson, I’m going to give you a method for doing that. It’s based on a framework Kathy Sierra teaches this in her book … Continued

Fiddling With A Master Practice List

Overview A master practice list is simply a big list of everything you’ve learned. If you write down everything you’ve done, you’ll be able to make better decisions about what to practice. The MPL acts as a practice partner. It offers suggestions to enrich the daily practice. Ultimately, your sessions will be more fun… How to … Continued

Alternate between listening and playing

Here’s a simple but extremely powerful practice strategy to develop your ear and improve your technique. Take a small piece of music, and then alternate between listening and playing that piece. If possible, do it continuously in a loop. This practice is training you to listen constantly stop and listen. Do your best to make … Continued

15 Ways To Practice Sail Away Ladies

In this lesson, I demonstrate fifteen ways to practice the tune Sail Away Ladies. You’ll learn the tune more deeply as you improve various aspects of your technique. What I really want you to learn is how to practice well. Take a journey with each session. Learn more about that here: A Travel Guide For Your … Continued

Fiddling With Transposition Loops

Here’s a powerful practice strategy called “Transposition Loops.” Take a small musical chunk, transpose it, and then alternate between the original and the transposed piece. Say you’re trying to learn the first quarter of Shady Grove D0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-G3-1 This is in the key of D Dorian. Once you get the basic idea, then try to start it … Continued