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!