9 Ways to Diversify Your Practice Approach!

Feeling a little stuck in how you’re approaching your practice sessions? Been taken off guard by a different environment in a performance or audition? Just looking for new things to try when you’re practicing? Here are a few ideas on how to change things up in your practice to keep it interesting! By varying how you are practicing, this can help to strengthen your flexibility, feel more solid in your preparation, and be more confident and secure in your playing.

🎶Practice at a very different tempo than what you plan to perform something, either much faster or much slower

🎶Change how you are articulating things. If something is legato, try making it super staccato, for example. 

🎶Practice with the metronome displaced from where the big beats are-- take a passage with a lot of 16th notes, try practicing it with the click on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th 16th note

🎶Practice in different rhythms! If a passage has a lot of 16th notes, practice it in triplet groupings and quintuplet groupings with the metronome to improve your evenness

🎶Move where you are practicing to a different spot in your apartment or house

🎶Practice in different temperatures or environments than what you usually do

🎶Practice with really bright lights around you or in a much more dimly lit area

🎶Play in a completely different outfit. Wear what you are planning to wear for your audition or performance to make sure you will be comfortable in it or try out a completely different pair of shoes from what you would normally wear when you're practicing

🎶Perform for different people. Ask your friends, neighbors, or mentors to come over a listen to you play a mock run through of your music before your next performance

By practicing in these different ways, it will help you to be flexible and trust your preparation when something doesn’t go according to plan. It can also make practicing more fun when you feel like you’re in a rut.

Looking for other ideas? Try out these 10 Exercises for an Epic Practice Session or take a look at our Practice Planners!