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Recently a new student related to me their difficulty with practicing. In their case it had primarily to do with time management and focus. This person said more than once of "trying to get through practicing." After some discussion we agreed to focus on learning and practicing arpeggios for fingering and working on only one or two pieces of music at a time. The very first chapter of the book Best Practice by my friend Judy Minot is her discussion of "Practicing" is a practice." Playing and practicing any musical instrument, in spite of frustrations, should always be a joyful experience. To quote Judy in her book, "Practicing is not something you need to " get through" to get to the good part. Instead, begin thinking of practicing as a practice, an activity you engage for it's own sake."

I have a couple of students who play a Jackie EC. In order to get them to build good knowledge of the key board (buttons) we play tunes that offer accidentals, arpeggios, and scale runs. One recent lesson with a student was a real struggle with a tune they received over a month ago. My student commented 'I played it much better before my lesson.' To which I responded that playing it and practicing are two different things. One can learn a tune and competently play it by just sitting down and playing it over and over again. One can also learn to develop fingering and muscle memory by practicing difficult phrases and fingering over and over. When I speak to a prospective EC player who wants to take lessons, I always ask what do you have difficulty with and what do you hope to accomplish. Almost always one of their answers is to hit the correct button for the right note. That is, get to know and learn the button layout (key board). Just playing tunes will accomplish this over time or one can really dedicate some time, effort, and practice to accomplish this quicker and better and benefit overall. Just saying...

I'm feeling really discouraged. I can't play tunes at a consistent level and am always crashing and burning at sessions, even when I can play the tunes at home. I know the answer to this problem is more practice, but I could use some encouragement. Anyone?

Have any of you experienced this????: I seem to go through periods of playing/practicing where I think I am making progress, and then I can go for weeks where I think I sound worse than I did 6 months ago. Tunes that I have played for a while, and I just sound awful. Part of it might be that I am trying to improve my fingering, so I am trying to re-learn phrases to make them more efficient overall. It sometimes gets very discouraging. Anyone have words of wisdom or advice? Thanks