The document provides tips for effective music practice. It advises to spend time analyzing pieces by looking at key signatures, time signatures, unfamiliar notes, and difficult sections before playing through. Practicing difficult sections in isolation and then re-recording full pieces allows musicians to focus on weaknesses and assess improvement over multiple attempts. The key is focusing practice time on addressing specific challenges rather than just playing through pieces.

1. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE…
“But I spend 30 minutes every day
practicing…I still can’t play it.”

2. It is not the minutes spent but what you do during the minutes!
t’s look at this piece of music as if it is the first time you have tried to play i
First , look at the key
signature and the time
signature.
Now look over the
notes…are there any you
don’t know?
Do you see any spots
where the it might be
difficult to play the
notes?
By looking for the difficult parts first, you can fix
them before you try the entire piece.

3. Now, let’s try a different song….
1. Before looking the song over or practicing it, play the
song and record it on the computer.
2. After recording your first attempt, look the song over
for notes you don’t know and parts that may seem
difficult to play.
3. After practicing the difficult parts, record the entire song
again. Did it sound better the second time?