Learn, Practice, Play

By: Sean Killeen

Many of my students start taking lessons with the mentality that all they have to do is show up. This way of thinking is not effective when it comes to learning to play any instrument. Showing up is obviously step one in the learning process. You must learn the materials, then practice the material. After enough practice is completed the ability to play becomes present. It has to go in this order learn, practice, play. There is no way around it. You can not play without practice and you can not practice without learning.

1. Learn- When showing up for a lesson you obviously should be thinking I am going to learn something new today. The main goal here would be to learn as much as possible in the allotted time. There are many ways to accomplish this goal. One idea would be to pay attention. Now I know this sounds pretty basic but I have students that just stare at the wall when I am talking. After I get done explaining a certain topic I might ask the student what I just said. Student responds ........uuuuhhh. Now 15 minutes in half hour lesson has gone by and nothing has been learned. A way to fix this if you are someone who can't sit and listen that well is to take notes. This will force you to pay attention. Even if you don't use the notes later you are doing a much better job then staring at the wall.

2. Practice- Given that you did learn something in your lesson because you weren't staring at the wall the whole time. You will have something to practice. Many students think that the lesson is practice. A lesson is not in any shape practice. Lessons are for learning. Remember learning and practicing are two totally separate things. There are times when the teacher will give you time to practice in the lesson but it is still practice. For example if your teacher shows you some chords and then tells you to play them. Your teacher is having you practice a little before you leave so you don't have trouble practicing on your own. The goal here is to practice as much as possible. The reason for this is you will never be able to play without practice. Also students often get playing and practicing mixed up. Again these are two completely separate things. When you are doing something that is very hard you are practicing. When you are doing something that is very easy you are playing. You need to practice as much as possible so leaving out some playing time will help you get some practice time. Another way to find some practice time is when your teacher is writing what he/she just explained in lesson, practice while they are writing. That is one of the most important times to practice because the information is fresh in your mind. If you go a couple days without practicing you might forget what you teacher told you. So the best time to practice is as soon as your lesson is over.

3. Playing- This is the fun part. Now all the time learning and practicing has paid off and you can play like a pro. Or can you? One of the biggest things to do as a musician is to criticize your playing because you know others will if you don't sound good. You should analyze every note you play and make sure you are playing it correctly. If not, you have to go back and practice that particular problem. You may even have to go back and learn about it a little better so you can practice it better.

Keep all of this in mind and you may notice that your ability increases greatly.