The act of practicing - actually being in a room with your instrument and applying your musical ideas and instrumental techniques to a work of music - is one of the most innate parts of being a musician. Yet, despite it’s importance in the field, many students don’t know how to practice! They spend inordinate amounts of wasted time playing one thing or another, lofty goals never being achieved. Teachers spend too little time discussing both practice techniques and musical organization, expecting - ridiculously - that their students will simply “find their own way.” Students, on the other hand, don’t realize the progress they could be experiencing if only their practice were more regimented and their techniques more refined.
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