What is proper, effective practice?

Too many flute players spend too much time "practising" just to tick a box before their next lesson. Do they devote any time to consider what it is they actually need to improve on? Or do they mindlessly run through their pieces and set their eye on the clock so that after thirty minutes they can breathe a sigh of relief and go and watch Eastenders? Or even worse, give up five minutes early so they can brew a cup of coffee before Eastenders....we have all been there!

This is a recipe for disaster. Going on in this meaningless, mind-numbing way not only demotivates a flautist, but often causes bad habits to slip into techinique and posture, breathing to become lazy and unconsidered - and you can wave goodbye to musicality!

It is far more effective, productive, enjoyable and rewarding to take some time before you practise. Consider exactly what you want to achieve today, and then work on these aspects- even if this means focusing entirely on a couple of small sections for half an hour. This sort of practice will be much more time efficient and have long lasting results. You would not go over the same maths equation time and time again when you had already mastered it! You would take time to learn how to do a new one and another... and another. The same is true with flute practice.

Your teacher can help you by working out with you exactly what you need to work on in the coming week, and how you can do best do it.....so why not start today! You will feel so much more confident, improvements will be made much more rapidly, and all that money you spend on lessons will reap rewards!