Creating An Effective Practice Schedule During Lockdown | tonebase Tips
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The strange just gets stranger, we are living through something that none of us ever thought would happen, and yet here we are. We are not apocalypse warriors, we need not kill for food, or fight other people, in fact this period of massive uncertainty requires almost no active agency from us at all.
Whoever thought that in these times we would not be reduced to a battle of survival like in the movies, but that we would still be classical guitarists, sitting on our couches wondering when life will return to normal.
It’s no wonder that many of us are struggling to practice in these times. Not only because such heavy disruption in our lives is inherently stressful, but also because the certainty of our next physical performance goal has, for many of us, now been removed.
So how can we effectively use our time to practice, even when our immediate stimulus no longer exists?
A Healthy Frame Of Mind
- Retrain Your Brain To Non Linear Practice
Perhaps you were working towards your graduate recital, a concert, a festival. This stimulus has sadly for many now been removed as most of us are currently home bound, with not much idea of when the lock down will lift.
Try to think back to when you were first studying guitar. Remember how much time you spent practicing towards just getting better.
Remember how transparent your goals were then, working towards greatness with no physical steps to pin your progress on, only piece related goals.
Remember the freedom that gave you, which things did you find difficult in that time? Which things did you enjoy?
For many of us, practice in our normal professional lives is preparation for a physical goal. But many of us will also remember a time when our practice was purely explorative, the kind of practice where you would ‘finish a piece’.
Now is a wonderful time to harken back to those explorative times, indulging in new repertoire, new metronome markings for technique practice.
Be your own teacher, set your goals, achieve them, make new goals, observe.
Who knows when we will have this much time again.
2. Try To Retain As Much Schedule As Possible
The way we conduct our general lives affects how we practice. We are fully aware of this in our normal daily lives, but how aware of this are we in our lockdown lives?
With such a massive expanse of time stretching in front of us, it is more important than ever to set our schedules and adhere to them.
Are you used to waking up at 8am and having a coffee? Are you used to having a takeout on Saturday? Are you used to meeting with a friend on Tuesdays?
Try to find practical ways that you can structure your life around the schedule that you used to maintain.
Our brains are already doing overtime trying to understand this new situation we are living in, so help your brain out by practising a little normality.
3. Understand That This Time Is Objectively Difficult, Take It Easy
I am sure that many of us are experiencing life inertia. In a job that requires us to always be seeking the next best opportunity, it is very unsettling to find ourselves in a global stasis.
Try to relax. Nobody is getting ahead in this time. If what you need is to take a week off of playing, you will not lose any ground in your career.
You will benefit from listening to what your body needs, remember that your brain is an organ too. There’s no use in beating yourself up over this time.
A Practical Approach
- Self Motivated Goals
Take a piece of paper and a pen and try to write a list of things about your playing that you would like to improve. I do this in a three (and a half) pronged approach.
a. Take a moment to wonder about your long term life goals in your playing. Perhaps you would like to enjoy performing more, perhaps you would like to play cleaner, be able to play a certain genre of music. Underscore this list.
b. Next, examine your more concrete goals. In this section write the physical things you would like to improve, for instance, speed, posture, coordination, tone, playing a certain piece. No matter how difficult you think improving this part of your playing is, write this down.
(b and a half). Examine the things in your b list that you truly want to improve for yourself. In this time it is likely that many people are bereft of their normal teacher.
While unsettling, this is a good time to start focussing on the things that YOU want to improve for yourself. After all, we alone are the ones who spend the most time listening to our playing, we deserve to enjoy it!
c. Define your goals in context. If you have a set repertoire that you are already working on, then try to pinpoint the tricky parts of those pieces.
Collect a list of the things that you are finding difficult, include bar numbers if you can, or the pages of your chosen technique book that you are working on.
2. Combining Time And Goals
Take a highlighter and work through which elements of your C list fits into which elements of your B list, and then which combined elements of your C and B lists feed into your A list.
The things on your list that feed into group A are things that you should weave into your every day practice. These will be the staples, your long term goals, fragmented into things you can reasonably do every day.
Then choose something from your B list. This will be your project for the next two weeks, perhaps it is ‘speed’. Look to your C list for parts of pieces you are playing that will benefit from speed practice or technical exercises.
Write in time to work on these elements every day for the next two weeks. Intertwine your temporary project with elements of your longterm goals.
3. Keep A Journal
Perhaps the most important part of redefining your practice schedule. Track what works!
For every practice session that you do, measure your mood, your efficacy and your energy levels. Do not try to change anything for at least the first two weeks, in order to find what works for you, you must first observe.
At the end of two weeks of practice tracking, observe which times of day you felt most energised, which forms of practice left you feeling most happy, where you got the most work done.
Creating a practice schedule is more than just writing a list on a piece of paper and trying to stick to it. Tweaking your schedule to fit you, will ultimately lead you to more efficient study and will leave you feeling accomplished.
Listen to your brain and your body!
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