When You Don’t Want to Practice

I’m definitely not the world’s best practicer. To start off with, this is the second year I’ve fallen off the wagon for Harp Column’s #30DayPracticeChallenge (but you can watch of video of my 2018 focus piece here). Sometimes practicing is lots of fun, & sometimes it isn’t. Hopefully some of these tips will help you &/or your students!

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Here are 5 ideas to help make practicing a bit more doable.

Practice in Small Intervals

You don’t need to practice one session of 2 hours straight (in fact, you probably shouldn’t). Try practicing in 5- to 20-minute intervals. If you just get 5 minutes in a day, that’s a lot better than nothing!

Celebrate Small Victories

Don’t be hard on yourself if you practice a small amount of time. Generally, small amounts of practice time daily are more productive than one day of crammed practice.

Celebrate any progress you make! Perhaps use stickers on your practice chart (see the next point), or send me a tweet!

Keep Track of Practice

I recently gave a few of my students calendars to record practice time. They were some of those free calendars that come in the mail.

Depending on the musician, you can mark off practice time. I personally enjoy stickers. 🙂 You could also do check marks or have the parent initial each day of practice, depending on the student’s age. Especially when starting, consider counting lessons as practice time too.

You can keep track of sessions (such as 20-minute practice chunks) or just any practice that day.

Or instead of a yearly calendar, you can print off a calendar or use a practice tracker like the ones I have available in some of the packets in the Fischarper Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Find Something Fun

You might not always have this option. Sometimes you just have to buckle down & do things that aren’t enjoyable. That’s life.

But, if you’re in a position where you can do this, try to find some music that you enjoy playing. For example, I tend to enjoy playing pop-type from fake books. You might really like playing Irish music*, Disney songs*, or hymns*. (I find Sylvia Woods arrangements to generally be a safe bet for students. I also love how she has both a written left hand & chord symbols.) Maybe you like something else. Peruse your local music store or a site like Sheet Music Plus* & see if something catches your eye.

Is there a certain song you want to play, but can’t find a harp arrangement? Think about trying out fake books, or send me a message; I might be able to add it to my available arrangements!

Break It Down & Make A Plan

Sit at your desk (or wherever you want) with your music, schedule, a clean sheet of paper, & a pencil (or a fun pen!).

Write out what needs to be done & when, then break down what & how to practice. Make a schedule. When you sit down to practice, only look at what you need to practice in that session. Rewrite it or fold the paper over so you don’t even have to look at the other parts to practice.

I think there’s something special about a physical piece of paper even if you transfer it into something digital. But if you prefer, you could use a digital tool like Trello* (the free version is absolutely enough for this). Different people prefer different things.

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Looking for more harp education tips? Check out Making Harp Lessons Exciting For Young Children!

Now if I’d just follow my own practice advice… 🙂

-Barbara

*affiliate link

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