Practice Like The Pros!

 Most people have plenty of things to practice, but they first need to learn HOW to practice. That’s what we teach our Practice Warriors. So, don’t worry about what to practice until you learn how to practice using the specific music learning strategies that have helped thousands of people all over ...

In our previous blog (Part 1: Why You Won’t Practice), you learned why your “old self” wasn't able to practice in a deliberate, consistent way due to the negative associations you created in the past about practicing.  You also learned about the forces of  'avoiding pain' and/or 'gaining pleasure' t...

Isn’t it funny how impatient we are? We always want to be able to do something…NOW!  This seems especially true even before we undertake any kind of learning process.  For instance, if you throw a basketball towards a hoop and you miss it wildly, what’s the first thing you think?  Most people think ...

When I was in college, I had the great fortune of working with an amazing composer and jazz ensemble director named Stan Gosek.  Stan has nurtured multiple generations of musicians, as well as compose hundreds of songs from simple pop tunes to the most complex big band charts ever written (think Mah...

Dear readers: you will be happy to know that I will not be burying the lead in this article.  I’m going to get straight to the point without any cute or snappy or snarky little comments to warm you up to make my big point.  You want the 3 P’s To Music Mastery?  Here goes:

Practicing, Perseverance, ...

When you are struggling with doing anything physical, whether it’s riding a bike, shooting a basketball through a hoop or trying to do something challenging on your musical instrument, there’s always this great source of pride and joy when you finally get over that hurdle and achieve that goal.  

A...

Of all the questions I’ve been asked from people wanting to start playing an instrument, the one I’ve heard the most is "How long does it take to learn music?”. I also hear “How long will I need to ‘get good’?” and “How long until I’m able to play a song?”

My answer to anything like this is always ...

What’s the one thing people tell you to do if you want to achieve awesome musical skills?  I’ll give you a hint: It’s the way you get to Carnegie Hall.  Ding ding ding!!  That’s right!  Practice, Practice, PRACTICE!

But do they ever tell you HOW to practice?  How about music teachers?  They should ...

Let’s start this conversation out in a rather unique way: I hate the title of this blog!  Well, my parents taught me that I should never “hate” anything.  I could “strongly dislike” something, but you never want to get in the habit of hating.  We’ve all seen the terrible things hate does to people. ...

In all my years of teaching music, whether it was class instruction, clinics, lectures or private lessons, the number one challenge I’ve heard from people who want to practice and get better is finding time to do it consistently.  With work, school, family, and necessary errands, it seems that there...

People get into playing music for all kinds of reasons.  What I find interesting is that most people have a few superficial, albeit reasonable, reasons for starting to learn music.  They think it would be fun.  They want to jam with friends.  They want to play their favorite songs.  They think it’ll...

Oh boy!  There is a mountain and a half of research out there in Internet Land that can tell you how learning music helps with memory, cognition, motor skills, attention spans and all sorts for delicious brain food that will make us smarter human beings.  Music teachers use this as a persuasive mark...