Practice Planning - For the busy musician

Practice planning - for the busy musician

This practice planning is geared towards a musician or music student with set repertoire and dates where this repertoire needs to be performed. As a neurodivergent person, I need to be my own boss and teacher in order to keep myself focused. Practicing cello was a big mystery to me until I met some really incredible teachers halfway through my undergrad. They equipped me with amazing strategies to learn repertoire but not to plan out practice. Now, as a working cellist, I have a variety of music to perform and not a whole lot of time to do it in.

Within the next few weeks, I have a classical duet recital, 3 hour 80’s themed solo cello set, a big band gig, chamber orchestra concert, string quartet program, and a solo one hour set of music of my choice. All of these programs are completely different and they all require different levels of preparation.

STEP 1: List the repertoire you need to practice.

Let’s be real. When you reach a certain level of playing and you are working as a freelance musician, not every piece of music you play will require practice. For example, my upcoming big band gig, there are several charts I’ve played over a dozen times in the last few years and the parts are very simple. My foundational skills which always need maintenance - intonation, resonance, solid sense of rhythm, make me a reliable player and they carry me through! I do however, really need to practice the recital repertoire which is more challenging and more exposed.

STEP 2: PRIORITIZE YOUR REP

Think about when your rep needs to be ready and how much time it will take to prepare each piece. You may not even need to practice the entirety of a piece - just certain sections. For things like recitals, I will always run the repertoire but I need to prioritize practicing specific sections.

While you’re looking through the repertoire, mark off the parts you need to practice. Use brackets or make an X next to the lines you need to work on.

STEP 3: Make an actual checklist

Make an actual checklist. You can use shorthand and this shouldn’t take you very long. This ensures that when you sit down, you aren’t focusing on the “wrong” repertoire or getting distracted in your practice. This is especially important if you have a limited amount of time to practice.

Step 4: Use rep to solidify foundational skills

Use your repertoire to practice wisely! Taking the time to really break down sections and work on intonation, rhythm, and sound will help ALL of your repertoire - present and future! Take note of any overall patterns in your strengths and weaknesses. Do you consistently struggle with intonation in a certain position? Do you consistently struggle with certain rhythms? Take the time to notice and address these issues - doing it now will save you lots of time in the future.

STEP 5: RE-DO and re-prioritize your checklist

After a few practice sessions, your checklist should start to look different. Hopefully you’ll be able to cross some things off and re-arrange your priorities. You can also re-work your approach to your repertoire. Where you may have focused on bowing and fingerings before, you may now be able to focus more on phrasing and other musical choices.

Practice Tools and Resources:

TE: Tonal Energy App - Probably the most useful tool I’ve ever used.

Notes App - If you use iOS, the Notes app is actually pretty powerful. You can pin a note to the top. If you’re using an ipad, you can also use your finger or your Apple Pencil to write into it like a paper journal.

Doctor Beat: If you don’t want to use your phone or have any electronic temptation, you can use a metronome/tuner that has a lot of complications you can utilize.

Bulletproof Musician: A blog that shares lots of helpful research based information about practicing for optimal results and overcoming stage fright.