Practice Like The Pros!

One of the biggest questions I’ve gotten in my many years of teaching people to play music is about learning music theory. It seems that most people think of music theory as some mythical language that takes decades to learn and implement, or some wonky, intellectual mumbo-jumbo that has no real app...

 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 ...

 I’ve heard the excuses so many times I can recite them by heart. They fly around my head like songs on a broken record. I’ve heard them for decades, and they amuse me just as much today as they did many, many moons ago. They are all answers to the same question I ask people again and again:

“Why d...

In an earlier blog post, I talked about the Top 5 Myths that people have with learning music. Like most myths, some are True, some are False and some could be thought of as True, BUT… where this is some validity to the myth. 

…but are there only five myths? Of course not! The good folks here at Pra...

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 ...