Practice Smarter Not Harder: How to Get the Most Out of Your Practice Routine

Most people are aware that to become a master in your craft requires hours of dedicated practice and study. It doesn’t just happen to a select few because they got lucky and were born with inherent mastery in their field.

Although a natural inclination towards a particular subject can exist in some (aka “natural talent”), the good news is anyone can learn how to say, play the guitar or make professional sounding beats. In fact, the person born with a natural inclination towards piano who doesn’t practice will become greatly surpassed in skill by the untalented pianist who practices regularly.

Committing time to your craft regularly is important, but you can also find yourself plateauing big time if you are not practicing efficiently. Here are some tips to help prevent that and to ensure you get the most out of your practice routine. The following are tips that are just as relevant to songwriters, producers, lyricists as they are to traditional instrument players.

I. Frequency Over Duration

Studies show that it’s way more beneficial to practice/study something 20 minutes a day vs once a week for 4 hours, even though the former is less time cumulatively. The brain does a better job at absorbing/retaining information when it’s visited often, and on the contrary can be less efficient at absorbing info if it’s taking on too much of it at once.

Whatever your craft is, practice (just about) EVERYDAY! Not just when you feel motivated or inspired. Motivation will eventually fade, discipline is required to get good at something.

If you’re a producer, make a beat everyday, even if you feel like it’s going to be trash because you’re not feeling creative. If you’re a songwriter, write a song/poem/stanza everyday.

When I say everyday, I mean shoot for 7 days a week, knowing that if you hit 5 you’re still winning. Life happens, maybe your day was legitimately packed to the brim, or you’re on vacation for a couple weeks. But try your best to squeeze in even just 10-15 minutes of practice each day when you can even if you don’t feel like it.

As a bonus tip, this principle can be applied on a daily level via the pomodoro technique. Let’s say you do have 4 hours of time you want to commit to practice on a given day, break up your practice time into 25 minute chunks, with 5-15 minute breaks in between. Set a timer so that you don’t forget to take breaks, because this is truly a brain hack for optimizing your practice/study sessions. Alternatively (and probably more realistically for most), if you have an hour of free time each day, it might be worth experimenting breaking that hour up into a morning session and a night session.

II. Have a Consistent Schedule

This is especially important if you are NOT currently in a daily practice routine. Dedicate a time of the day that works for you everyday to practice. Getting in the mindset of “oh sure, I’ll practice at some point today when I have a sec” is very dangerous.

Studies show that you are way more likely to be more successful at building a daily habit by reserving a certain time of day for said habit. That time of day depends on your schedule, as well as when you feel like your brain is in the best position to get the most out of your practice. Maybe you’re not a morning person so practicing first thing in the morning isn’t ideal (though if it’s your only option, do it anyway!). The point is that the time of day should be consistent throughout the week in order for the habit to really solidify.

Put your practice sessions in your Google Calendar (with a reminder) if you have to!

III. Make Sure You Are Practicing the Right Things

I could have avoided years of plateauing by following this principle. I spent a lot of years as a pianist thinking that working endlessly on my technique via scales, arpeggios, and other technical exercises would magically turn me into a proficient improviser and composer. Not to say that those were the only things I worked on, but I certainly placed WAY too much of an emphasis on stuff I was already good at vs the stuff I really needed to improve upon. This was eventually revealed to me by a mentor who helped make sure I spent my daily practice time doing things that would actually help me with my goals.

Simply picking up your guitar for 30 minutes and jamming over some backing tracks isn’t the most efficient way to improve. You will get locked into certain patterns and licks you already are familiar with.

I always tell my students if you are working on an exercise that is challenging and even causes some mental friction, that’s often when the most learning is happening. There may be times when what you’re practicing is not super stimulating, such as practicing scales, but there are different ways you can practice scales if you are already good at them. Bottom line is, we want to make sure our brains are being stimulated and/or challenged for the majority of our practice.

If you feel like you’re plateauing and you’re not sure WHAT exactly it is you should be practicing to improve the fastest, then…

IV. SEEK MENTORSHIP

This is hands down one of the best ways to make sure you’re not wasting away your practice time and that you can grow the quickest.

Although we are blessed to live in a time where teaching ourselves skills is a lot more accessible than it was prior to the internet, the issue is that there can be TOO MUCH info out there. If you look up piano lessons on YouTube, you’ll find a million and one teachers, most of them who may not even be teaching you in a way that’s suited best for your learning and playing styles.

I’m not saying don’t go on YouTube or don’t invest any money in online video courses, but the downside to that is that the relationship with your virtual teacher will be one-sided. They cannot give you direct feedback on your playing/music which is HUGE. They also will not be able to point out YOUR personal blindspots on areas in which you can improve like a 1-on-1 teacher can. When you're self-taught, you may have weaknesses you don't even know about, which is where someone who’s spent more time on their craft can help identify those for you.

That being said, it’s extremely important to make sure the mentor you seek is a good match for you. Even the best classical piano teacher in the world will be a terrible match for you if what you want to learn is jazz piano. In a similar vein, if you’re a country songwriter, it would probably be ideal to find a mentor whose music you really vibe with that writes in the same/similar genre vs someone who writes jazz tunes.

The truth of the matter is paying for weekly lessons can be costly (although it can be a great investment in your education). If you aren’t able to afford 1-on-1 mentorship, there are tons of Discord communities of music producers, pianists, songwriters. It’s basically like joining an online group class where you will learn alongside people around your skill level and in some cases even still get a little bit of assessment on your playing/music from the mentor running it.

V. Get adequate rest each night

This is a simple tip that gets overlooked easily. Get. Enough. Sleep. There’s more than enough research out there that shows our brains don’t do a great job at learning when they’re tired.

If you’re like me and struggle getting 8 hours of quality sleep on a regular basis, there are numerous things you can try to help with this such as meditating, reducing/eliminating caffeine intake, restricting screen time before bed, reading before bed, daily exercise, night time yoga, not eating/drinking 2-3 hours before bed. The list goes on.

Conclusion

It’s important to know that no matter what learning strategies you apply, acquiring mastery simply requires time, and you must be patient and try your best to enjoy the process of becoming great at something. With that said, these are some tips to make sure you get there faster and don’t waste months or years with an inefficient strategy. If we can view practice as a positive part of our day, we’re more likely to do it regularly. And much like having a gym partner can help you stay accountable for your workout goals, same is the case with music. Seek others in your craft who are also disciplined and will encourage you to stick to your music goals.