1. The Harmony of Daily Practice
A Lecture for Students, Teachers, and Parents by
Dr. Miroslav Lončar

2. The Harmony of Daily Practice
Intriguing title
Goals of the presentation: To give some ideas about practicing more efficiently; and how teachers, students, and parents can collaborate effectively in this important aspect of learning

3. The Harmony of Daily Practice
Let’s analyze each part of the title:
Harmony – Merriam Webster definition: A pleasing arrangement of parts
(Discord: lack of concord, disagreement, inharmonious combination, variance)
Harmonious practice will consist of several parts that can be arranged in a pleasing way for better results
Daily: After a while, we start loosing our skills and start forgetting things.
In order to make progress, the previous learning experience needs to be fresh in our brain and fingers
After a few days, we have to re-learn what we already knew, we regress
let’s say a students intents to practice six hours a week
Unbalance in practicing can create anxiety, frustration, physical problems, tension, and injuries
All serious musicians practice daily.
1. Bad:
2. Good:
3. Best:
Days 1,2 3,4 no practice, days 5, 6 three hours a day
2 hours every other day
An hour each day

4. The Harmony of Daily Practice
How much to practice:
Year of Study
Hours/Week
Minutes/Day 1 10 2 20 3 30 4 40 5 50 6 60

5. What Is Practice?
Practice is a combination of activities that we engage in to reach a certain goal: learn a line of music, memorize a section, play a piece expressively, play without mistakes...
All aspects of playing the guitar need to be practiced:
Sitting position
Technique
Projection 
Practicing without a regard for one of the following elements will produce undesirable effects and will foster bad habits:
-sitting position
-tone quality (nails)
-rhythmic accuracy (counting) and steady tempo (metronome)
-projection (know your dynamic scope)
-expression
Practice pronouncing the title of the composition and the name of the composer (ask teacher!)
How to practice a piece: Two simple, important rules: 1. Slow, 2. Small units
Create a productive pressure on yourself
Bruce Holzman: “Some practice until they get it right, some practice until they can’t get it wrong

6. Creating Harmony
A harmonious practice session will consist of several parts, (makes the time go by really fast)
How to arrange a practice session:
1. Stretching
2. Warming up
3. Technique: right hand techniques, they are the building blocks of our pieces:
free-stroke (arpeggios)
rest stroke (scales)
Left-hand Techniques:
Connecting
press-release for relaxed playing
Finger independence
Slurs
Barring
4. Repertoire/Interpretation
Analyzing the piece
Pre-reading (visualizing--athletes)
Slow practicing of a section–- a measure, a 2-measure phrase, a 4-measure phrase
Building bigger blocks
5. Performance
Some common mistakes in practicing:
Playing too fast for the level of learning
Attempting to play a difficult piece without going through the important steps of learning it as outlined above.
Playing wrong (Practice makes --- permanent )
Not going back to the written music frequently

7. How to practice Daily
Ideally, we should practice the same amount of time each day
If it is not possible to reach the desired amount of daily practice time in one block, one should try to:
Break it up in smaller sessions, use free time to practice
Use traveling time, waiting time, TV time, bed time--for various types of practicing
Practice different things (analysis, visualization, mock playing, practicing the technique on your body)
If you don’t succeed one day, there is always another day

8. Who Are the Actors?
Teacher
Student
Parent

9. The Role of Teachers and Parents
Teach students the value of practice
Teach students how to practice
Incorporate practicing techniques in the lesson—practice with student
Assign music that is appropriate for the level and enjoyable to play — ensure a success
Give frequent feedback,
Talk to the parents
Organize performances where students can practice performing
Provide information about opportunities
Parents:
Create a conducive practicing environment (room, instrument)
Help the student work out a daily practice schedule, encourage the student to practice
Reward practicing (?)
Talk to the teacher on a regular basis (how involved?)
Develop your own interest in guitar, be a passionate listener

10. Role of the Student Students: Develop a discipline of practice
Learn to practice slowly
Take the responsibility for a given assignment
Be honest with yourself
Be your own critic!
Listen to guitar music! Listen to classical music!

11. Practicing for a Performance
Practice for a performance by performing!
Take advantage of many types of performances: home performance, studio performances, shared performances, solo performances, ensemble performances, competitions, recordings, live broadcasts, public places
Each situation is different and needs to be practiced because it feels different
An important performance should not be a first performance –( How I prepared for an important performance)
Difference in approach between learning a piece and practicing for a performance
Why do we perform? Practice to express yourself through your playing
Why sometimes performances don’t go well even if performer knows the music well?
Mainly because of a feeling of unfamiliarity with the situation, the main one being in front of other people– not having a point of reference
Fitness for a performance does not last long – performing needs to be recurrent
When to start performing?
How do you know that you know a piece well?
Practice to recover!
“I hope” is a recipe for a disaster (“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail”)

12. Questions and Answers, Discussion
Thank you!