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Tips for Great Practice Habits

  • Don’t cram all your practice time into one or two days.  Practicing is like exercise (almost literally).  You’ll improve much faster if you practice a little bit everyday.
  • Set a regular time for practicing.  This helps stop procrastination.
  • Spend most of your practice time on things you do not do well.  If you practice them, sooner or later, you’ll be doing those things well too!
  • Start your practice session with something easy that you enjoy.
  • If you forget a fingering, check the fingering chart in the back of your book.  Always use the FIRST fingering listed for that note.
  • Don’t be discouraged if you don’t sound great when you first try something.  Before you can improve, you will need to squeak, squawk, and play some wrong notes.  Be patient(parents too!).  
  • Brass players:  Start your practice session with some buzzing on your mouthpiece.  How low can you go?  How high?  Try buzzing a song.
  • When practicing, always play with good posture and hold your instrument properly.  Not only will it help your playing, but it will stop any bad habits from developing. 
  • Use a music stand!
  • Try figuring out some songs you already know(movie themes, video game music, pop tunes, etc.)   Look online for music you would like to learn.
  • HAVE FUN!