3 Ways to Make Faster Progress in Practice

A few conversations both online and in person, this week had me thinking about my top advice for students and their families if they feel their progress is too slow. Maybe you’re even just unsure about how your progress compares and want to know how to improve it.

First, off while it’s human nature to compare try not too. Do everything you can to give your child the right environment to be successful but then know everyone takes their own time to get to that end result. How fast you go in the beginning stages is really not important in the long run!

It’s like planting a seed in the garden – we can give it good soil, sunlight, water, and may fertilizer, so it has all the right conditions to grow, but we cannot control how fast the growth actually happens.

It’s not productive to compare various seed and their speed of growth to one another. A lot is happening underground that we cannot even see!

That being said it’s always good to take a close look at the conditions we are growing in and to see if there is a way to make them more nurturing to learning and growing.

When worries about progress come up, I always find myself repeating the same advice again and again. Here are my top three tips:

Listen More:

The Suzuki method is based on learning music like we learn a language. The more we hear the language we are learning to speak, the better our chances of learning to speak it well.

If you wish your child was catching on quicker to the music, a sure fire way to help is more listening. Put the piece on repeat and listen over and over. Listen until you can’t get the tune out of your head (or at least they can’t!) and they walk around humming it.

It takes much more repetition than you might think. We want it to seep into our brains not just sound familiar.

Be consistent and put in the work

A few minutes every day is much more effective than a massive chunk of time only a couple days during the week. Consistency is key. Things we do every day are much more ingrained than things we do once in a while.

Some days it may literally be impossible to do anything but most days we can listen, practice our bow holds on a pencil, or do a few minutes on the instrument even if we can’t do a full practice

If you’re wondering if it’s really worth it to do those few minutes it is, it adds up, and this can be the difference between slow progress and steady progress.

Keep it Positive

It makes a big difference if your child WANTS to get better.

Why they want to get better may vary – maybe they want to play something specific, perhaps they want to show their teacher a new skill in the lesson or improve enough to move on to something new.

Maybe they want to earn a sticker or a cookie . . . Don’t worry if the motivation isn’t coming from within them yet. Don’t worry if you feel like they need a carrot dangled in front of them to get the work done.

Intrinsic motivation is the end goal but often comes later. Encourage every bit of progress you see. Believe in your child and tell them so. The best motivation is positive and enthusiastic!

A bonus tip: Pay attention to detail!

Learning an instrument involves many many little details. The closer we pay attention to them, the easier it is to move forward. Take careful notes. Take a video or picture of a new skill if your teacher says it’s ok. Notice the details (or ask what they are!), and you will make faster progress too!

Try to enjoy & appreciate the process but also balance that with doing everything you can to keep progress going! That’s the balancing act of this process and the tips above should help you do just that!