Daily Practice Routine

Guide to Practicing Music:
A Model Daily Practice Routine
Robert T. Kelley
January 2000 - May 2001

Note: This is an idealization of a rehearsal session. In reality, one may select one's own schedule that works, adapt this one to one's particular situation, or divide it up into separate practice sessions. No matter the practice strategy, one should always take periodic breaks (to rest the playing muscles, the ears, and the brain). Also, although the concepts given here are applicable to any instrument, some of the material given here is specific to the piano. For some students keeping a practice log is useful, and for others it seems to be less worthwhile. I recommend that all of my students try it for awhile before deciding for themselves.

Warm-up / Preliminary Exercises
1. Make sure hands are warm and limbered-up
2. Block Chords with Inversions
3. Scales and Arps
4. Etudes and Technical Exercises
5. Sightreading
Repertoire Rehearsal
1. Memory work
2. Slow metronome work, increase speed on difficult technical passages
3. Run-throughs of entire pieces (possibly record performance for evalutation)
4. Evaluate your performance based on:
  1. Pitches (correct notes and fingerings)
  2. Rhythm (correct rhythms, appropriate tempi, effective timing)
  3. Dynamics (loud and quiet, shape, gesture, RH vs LH, Melody vs Accompaniment)
  4. Timbre (tone color, pedaling, melodic prominence, shading, soft pedal, exploiting register)
  5. Style (appropriateness to genre and composer, pedal, articulation, dynamic range, tone)
Review / Planning / Fun
1. Play through old repertoire, and/or rehearse difficult technical passages in old repertoire.
2. Record what you accomplished during this rehearsal in your practice journal
3. Write down a plan and goals for the next rehearsal in your journal
4. If you have time left, reward yourself by playing something you enjoy (and/or something easy)

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