How to practice music at home: a 20-minute routine
To practice well weighs more than to practice a great deal. That 20-minute routine helps you advance with any instrument, with tips for children and families.
A good practice weighs more than a great deal. Twenty minutes about every day, well organized, give up more than a long session at the weekend. The formula is simple: it warmes up, works a single point of technique, advances in your piece with fragments, goes through something that you know and closes with something that you enjoy.
That routine serves as an instrument and as an instrument for singing, from children to adults. Reaping your age and what your teacher wants.
To sum up
- The constancy wins: 20 minutes and more every day they give up more than two hours once a week.
- Divide practice into blocks: warming, technique, piece, review and free closure.
- It practice slow and by fragments and increases its speed with a methonomer only after the passage goes out clear.
- Record and keep a practice record shows you advances and mistakes that you don't notice while playing.
- With children, an adult accompanies and celebrates his or her efforts and does not replace his or her teacher or turn his or her practice into punishment.
The 20-minute routine step by step
| Bloque | Tiempo | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Warm up | 3 minutes | Filling and releasing the body and playing something slow and simple. |
| 2. Technology | 4 minutes | A single exercise: a scale, a chord shift, an arch blow or a vocalization. |
| 3. Piece | 8 minutes | To work a fragment of the play or song that you're learning. |
| 4. Review | 3 minutes | To play something that's good and complete and with intention. |
| 5. Game | 2 minutes | Improvise, get an ear song or make something of his own. |
1. Warm up
Stretch gently shoulders, neck and hands, sharpen the instrument and play something slow: a scale, long notes or a simple exercise. If you sing, start with breathing, vibration of lips and soft sirens. first singing classes We explain why this step should not be missed.
2. Technology
He chose a single goal a day, the one that his teacher gave you. He better have four minutes focused on a chord shift than ten minutes passing through everything without focus.
3. Piece
It's the heart of practice. Don't touch the complete work again and again: identify the passage that costs you most and drill it aside. Below we tell you how.
4. Review
To play something that you already have strengthens memory, gives confidence and reminds you that you are advanced. Take care to care of sound, dynamic and expression.
5. Game
It's a block that makes you come back tomorrow.
how to work the piece without frustrating you
- Divide the work into short fragments, from two to four bars.
- It starts with a difficult passage, and it's not always from the start.
- Play slow, as slow as you need to get her out with no mistakes.
- On piano, first practice separate hands and then put together.
- When a fragment goes well with you several times in a row, join with the next.
- Check with pencil with digitations, breathing or reminders.
If an error is always repeated at the same place, it's not bad luck: it's a sign that that point needs more slow time. Write it down to ask your teacher.
Metronomer, recording and registration of practice
Use the metronome as an ally
He looks at how fast his passage goes out clear and relaxed, even if it's very slow. Touch his foot several times and then put his steamball up a few strokes. If it's broken, turn back a step back. A free application to his cell phone is sufficient.
Filling
While you play, your attention's in your hands and you don't listen to everything. Record a fragment with your cell phone and listen to it later shows you details of rhythm, tuning and sound that escape at the moment. Save a recording a week also let you see how far you have advanced.
Keep a practice register
A single notebook or note on his cell phone's enough.
- Date and minutes of practice.
- What did you work with and what fragment of the piece.
- What's with his methonomal time you came up with?
- That went better than yesterday.
- That's some doubt you're trying to get him to your teacher.
Tips for children and families
- Set a time of day to practice, always the same, as after an ounce or before a bath.
- For the smaller ones, blocks from five to ten minutes can be enough; it's better to end with gain and tiredness.
- Use a schedule with stickers or trademarks to make constancy visible.
- He goes with him and doesn't have to put anything right: ask him what his teacher taught him and ask him to show you.
- It organizes mini family concerts to celebrate what we have learned.
- Don't use practice as a punishment or cancel as an award.
- Keep in contact with the teacher: tell him what works at home and what it costs.
If your child's at his [musical initiation] stage](/blog/que-es-la-iniciacion-musical), practice at home is especially game: singing, dancing, bringing his pulse with palms and exploring sounds.
Warm a corner of practice
The less it takes to get started, the more you'll practice. A prepared corner removes excuses:
- The instrument at hand and at his back, if it's sure to leave him out of his case.
- A attril at eye height and good light.
- A chair or bench at the right height for your instrument.
- Pencil, draft, practice notebook, tuner and metronomer.
- The cell phone's a non-nuisance mode, except for the methonomer or the recording.
If you take virtual classes, that same corner can be useful to connect to you. We tell you how to prepare them in our guide about [home or virtual music classes]](/blog/clases-de-musica-a-domicilio-o-virtuales).
Common mistakes while practising
- Always play the complete piece from beginning to end, dragging the same mistakes.
- Go too fast before the passage's clear.
- Just practice what's coming out and avoid how difficult.
- Skip the warming.
- To sit without a clear goal for the sitting.
- To accumulate all practice of the week in a single day.
Frequently asked questions
How many days a week do we have to practice?
Ideally, most days with one or two of rest. regularity matters more than duration: the brain and hands better consolidate what they have learned with regular sessions.
What do I do if my son doesn't care to practice?
Check if the session is very long, if the repertoire likes and if there's a fixed moment of the day. To cut the practice, add a game at the end and talk with the teacher to adjust the repertoire usually helps more than to insist.
How do I practice without disturbing the neighbours?
Depending on the instrument: a digital piano or an electrical guitar allow them to use hearing aids, violin and other strings have practice sordas and always helps to agree reasonable times. Ask your teacher for alternatives to your instrument.
Is it bad to practice more than 20 minutes?
No. The 20 minutes are a realistic basis to start with. If you have more time, expand the technical and piece blocks and take short pauses to rest your hands or your voice.