Practice Routine: Why Practice Makes Skill Not Talent.

Some people tend to think that music improvement is innate but in fact majority of the improvements are acquired through practicing and learning different aspects and not through innate selection. A lot of amateurs are discouraged by comparing themselves to professional actors and believing that those individuals are gifted. But skill is not so much born as made. A regular training regimen, whether of the brain or of your hands or voice, is to train your brain to see the patterns and your hands or voice to react correctly. Music awareness explains that progress is not achieved in one giant leap and occurs in small daily steps that gradually accumulate to great outcomes. Musical development can be expected when the practice is a regular activity.

Music is learned by the brain by means of repetition. One playing of a chord or singing of a note does not develop memory, repetition of the chord or sound every day develops a good muscle memory and sound recognition. This is the reason as to why 20-40 minutes daily practice is quicker than learning 3 hours a week. The daily practice keeps the learning fresh in the brain hence, the fingers and ears become increasingly better. In the case of irregular practice, the learner forgets and he/she has to begin again and again. What is taught through awareness is that music is not gained through motivation process but rather consistency and repetitions. Consistency eliminates struggle and it is substituted with progress.

Good practice routine must be organized rather than unsystematic. There are numerous learners who are sitting with an instrument and repeating the same song over and over without making any improvement since they are not practicing technique. The growth occurs in several parts of the practice: warm-up activities, rhythm activities, technique development, and application of the songs, etc. This brings about full development as opposed to half learning. Music awareness also helps the learners to allocate time wisely to practice so that both the practice and the pleasure can be enhanced. Balance of practice makes the process of practice quicker and less frustrating.

Goal-setting enhances uniformity, as well. Learners lack goals and will therefore end up being lost and will lose interest. However, learning is fun with mere weekly objectives. Goals may be minor: learn 2 chords, improve speed at slow tempo, practice scales every day, play one song without difficulties. Tracking progress is learned via awareness due to the need to be able to see progress over time. Many steps forward create trust. Trust is a motivating factor. Consistency is then supported by motivation.

Another important element of practice routine is mistake management. Beginners end up quitting the practice due to sickness of making mistakes. Failure is not made up of mistakes, it is the learning process. Any error can reveal what aspect requires to be improved. Awareness of music also trains learners on how to isolate challenging parts of the song and rehearse in slow motion instead of repeating the entire song over and over. Practicing slowly minimizes errors, and the fewer errors one has, the more confident he/she becomes. This renders practice gratifying as opposed to pressurizing.

 

Cultivation is also enhanced when listening to be included among the habits of the learners as well as ear training. Most individuals are concerned with playing, and do not listen to music, yet music is sound-related and listening enhances internal comprehending. Automatically, learners improve performance when they are exposed to good music and when they watch rhythm and melody. Beat, chord changes, and melody movement are some of the things that learners given awareness will be keen to listen to. Listening develops musical intelligence. The performance is enhanced by musical intelligence.

The other aspect of consistency that is significant is burnout prevention. Other learners study excessively and give up out of exhaustion. Extreme effort is worse than a sustainable practice system. Music awareness promotes the formation of routine that suits you. Even short daily practice develops more than long irregular practice. Long term success is achieved through sustainable learning. Mastery is achieved by success over the long run.

Finally, consistency develops musical competence more than talent since it brings about consistent gains, enhancement of recollection and minimized fear. This is because when practice is regular and organized, the learner will no longer feel as struggling and instead enjoy improvement. Music is not something tough, it is a daily routine. Consciousness brings about discipline, discipline brings about improvement and improvement brings about confidence. It is the way that music mastery can be developed.