Practice Post: Music Practice for Beginners

Hi everyone,

In this post I'm going to talk about music practice for beginners, as we've all been there and when you first start learning an instrument it can be a little tricky to get into a nice, easy practice routine at first.

Warm Up

Take your time to warm up your instrument before you start to tackle your practice. You could do this by gently blowing air through your instrument or string crossing exercises.

Keep It Simple

By keeping it simple I mean just practice what your teacher has set you. This could be anything from practicing a simple melody or two, and a few scales or part scales. They may have thrown in a bit of technique as well. Don't stress yourself out thinking you need to get everything done in one practice session, as you don't need to tackle your practice in that way when you are first starting out.

Break Up Your Practice Throughout the Day

By breaking up your practice throughout the day it shouldn't be as overwhelming for you, and you can also each practice session on one area that you need to work on.

Example

- 10 minutes to warm your instrument up

- 10 minutes scales/ arpeggios or part scales/ arpeggios

BREAK

- 10 minutes technique

BREAK

- 20 minutes pieces that you need to work on

This is just an example of a practice session that I've created, but even as a beginner this could be a little too much. Feel free to try it out, but adjust the times to suit you and what your teacher has set you to do. Everyone learns and understands differently, so feel free to swap and change up this routine to suit you.

* The part scales/arpeggios is something I did with my teacher back when I was learning the violin, but I have also used this method on the flute to help me to figure out a tricky scale. Breaking scales up into more manageable chunks definitely helps.

Fun Material

There's quite a bit of fun material out there for beginners, and this should help you to enjoy your instrument in the early stages of learning.

Some of my favourites are :-

- Abracadabra

- A New Tune a Day

- Winner Scores All

- Hal Leonard 'Play a Long' series

Once you have worked through a fun method book or two you might decide that you would like to work towards your grades. But that is completely up to you - you may decide that you would like to learn just for fun for the moment, and look into grades later on. Both of which are completely fine, as you are still developing. Some learners just want to learn for fun, and others want a bit of fun to start off with and then get into a more comprehensive practice structure by doing their Grades.