#139: 7 Ways You Could be Using Your Practice Time Better

At its most fundamental, music is sound over time. When you take away the rich harmonies, soaring melodies, complex structures and intricate rhythms, that’s all you have left: sound over time. It doesn’t sound very creative or artistic, but those two elements are the basis of all music. How any single performer combines them is where the artistry lies.

However, that kind of time, the meter and rhythm, isn’t our topic for today. The kind of time management I want to explore with you today is more about the practical side of our harp experience than the artistic side. It’s about your practice time: how you spend it, what you focus on and how you set your intentions for the day or for the week. 

We’re also going to talk about the time it takes you to learn a piece. I am frequently asked how long it should take to learn a piece, and it’s a question without a simple answer. There are numerous factors to consider, including the amount of time you have to practice and your current skill level as compared to the difficulty level of the piece. But perhaps the most important factor is how well you manage your journey through the different learning stages of a piece. 

That journey is a little different for all of us, but I want you to walk away from this episode with a few action steps that you know will make a difference for you. I want you to get to the fun part, playing music, instead of staying stuck in practice mode. So we are going to review seven ways to make better use of your practice time so you can make progress faster, learn music faster. And one of those ways will be adapting the best practice practices to your own particular learning style. We’ll revisit the German Shepherd, Greyhound and Beagle learning styles and give you some specific strategies that will suit your own practice breed.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• We are starting Week 3 of our 2024 Harp Happiness Challenge in the Harp Mastery® Hub. Jump in and join us!
• Related resource Which Is Your Practice Style: Greyhound or German Shepherd? blog post
• Related podcast: Find Your Practice Style: Style No. 3 “The Beagle”
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]