How to create a practice plan
It took me until I got to college to realize that I never learned to practice. This is something we work on every week in class with our practice records, focusing on mindful practice. Every week, students answer the following questions for a homework grade:
Time practiced for the week:
Time practiced this session:
Date of practice session:
Goals for this practice session:
Scales practiced:
Technique practiced:
What tempo did you play at?
What pieces did you practice? Something from class/outside of class?
What's one thing you did well this practice session?
What's one thing you would like to do better in your next practice session?
How will you reward yourself for practicing today?
I adapted this from Classical Wellness, one of my favorite Instagram accounts that I follow. My goal in having students do this is to encourage them to focus on mindful practice, like I said above. Many high school students, I have found, believe that practice is just playing their instrument, but if they aren’t changing what they are doing to get better, then their practice becomes a waste of their time and energy, and who has the time for that, especially with high school students being as busy as they are with their other coursework, sports, and other extracurricular activities?
When I was in high school and college, I would sit down in a practice room (or my room, when I was in high school) and pull out a piece I was learning, play through it, correct any intonation mistakes, and pack it up. I never recorded myself, never analyzed my mistakes to figure out why I was making them, never paid attention to how or why I was making mistakes.
Now, however, I record myself more often than not, and not only when I practice violin, but when I sing and practice piano, as well. I set goals for my practice sessions and hold myself accountable for reaching them (which is also my goal for my students), and my practice sessions look like this:
Planning 10%, Physical warmup 10%, scales 20%, repertoire 40%, cool down 20%
I adjust the times accordingly for differently timed practice sessions, but I spend a lot of time on scales, especially when I’m playing piano. I pick scales based on the repertoire I’m working on, and I don’t move on from scales until I play them correctly three times each. I pay close attention to fingerings on piano (and violin of course, but since it’s my primary instrument of 20 years, I don’t have to think as hard about scales on violin).
Some of my favorite physical warm ups include bicep stretches, tricep stretches, and neck and back stretches. I always ease into stretching and I’m extra careful when I know there’s tension in or around a muscle group. Once I feel properly warmed up and ready to play, I’ll move on to scales, then repertoire, then a brief cool-down. But before I even open my case, I plan my practice session, which looks like this:
Step One: Figure out my goals for my practice session. For example, maybe I want to have a more controlled spiccato, maybe I want to make my pinky move faster in a 16th note passage, or maybe I want to establish fingerings for a part that’s up in position. My goal is specific (isolates one skill), realistic for the amount of time I have to practice, and measurable (I do this by recording myself at the beginning and end of my practice session).
Step Two: Figure out how much time I have to practice (or how much time I want to spend practicing) and divide it up. For this example, let’s say I have two hours to practice. That means I have about 12 minutes to warm up physically, 24-25 minutes to spend on scales, 48-50 minutes for repertoire, and 12 minutes to cool down. The rest is for planning, but if I finish planning early, then I’ll add the leftover time to repertoire, scales, or breaks in between sections.
Step Three: Determine which scales I need to work on. I do this based on the key signatures of the piece(s) I’m working on for that particular session, so if I’m working on Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, I’ll work on my G major scale, D major (since the piece briefly goes into D major in the development section), d minor (since it also goes into d minor in the development section), and go through my G major scale one more time. I always practice my three octave scales, as well.
Step Four: Complete some score study to figure out which parts of the piece I need to work especially on, prioritizing the hardest parts. For this example, I would work on the cadenza, rehearsal letters C through D, F to G, and the first five measures of K, in that order. I will also make sure I save time to play through the whole piece before I finish my session.
Step Five: Do it! Take breaks as needed, but keep track of your time. Record yourself with your phone camera and watch it back after you finish each rep to figure out what is holding you back.
Then, once I am finished practicing, I reward myself. It doesn’t have to be something big—maybe it’s watching an episode of Madam Secretary, eating a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, making cookies, going shopping at Target, or scrolling TikTok for a while. I have found that I do better with external motivators than internal ones, but if you do better with an internal motivator, then you do you!
If I don’t have my instrument with me, I will make sure to bring my phone or my iPad with my music on it and I’ll do score study and listen to as many recordings of the piece as I can find. I find that I am able to memorize music more easily by listening than by playing it over and over or reading it. Prime example: our Fall 2021 concert when I completely forgot the score for Harry Potter and had to conduct it from memory… thankfully I had listened to it enough to have it memorized entirely, and didn’t need to use a score! I will usually look for a recording with one of my favorite musicians on it, like Hilary Hahn, Itzhak Perlman, or Ray Chen, but I will also usually listen to at least two recordings. Everybody has a different interpretation of music (think about in theater: every single person who shares a role will sing the songs slightly different; emphasize different words, sing different notes and embellishments, and even give their characters different voices, right?) and one of the best ways we can form our own interpretation is by taking into account what others do first. It’s important to listen with your music in front of you when you’re analyzing what other performers do, so that way you can mark what you like.
I have found that this system works very well for me, but if you have a system you like, then stick to it (and please share it with me via the Contact form). If you don’t have a practice routine, then I hope this helps you establish one and stick to it! Happy practicing!