Its important to get the most out of your time and effort no matter what you are trying to accomplish,musically or otherwise.

You’ve probably stuff like heard this before but I’ll repeat it for you anyway…You’ve got to plan and then take action to on the plan to get results.  So lets think about how we can apply that to become better musicians

Start by planning our work.  Consider this:

A song,chord,scale, lick or whatever is only as hard as its hardest sequence of notes. Usually these come in the form of physically technical challenges.  Sometimes they can be musical too such as timing or pitch related.

So start by knowing what your biggest challenges are in learning a new piece, Those are going to be those hardest sequences of notes. Also know what parts require little effort to learn.  That’s making the plan.

Now lets apply effort to get results.  Practice those hardest parts alone, away from the rest of the piece.  That is the best use of your time.  No sense putting time into something you can already do.  Anything you can do already don’t spend a second on.

Once you have worked all of the parts to an equal level of performance put them all together.

That’s the big picture.  Hopefully this tip will save you some practice time.  Tune in for my next lesson, Practicing More Effectively Part 2, where we will refine this practice technique to take your practice to a whole new level.

-Bob