How can I be motivated to practice my instrument?

Question

I need to practice for All-State but I find that after 20 minutes of it I'm bored and can't concentrate. How can I be motivated to practice?

Answer 1

Hey Band

It's better to practice 15 min . every day than none at all. But you must practice every day and weekends, no exception. You are bored because you are practicing the same thing over and over and YES, anybody gets bored.

I tell my students to practice what they have problems with and not what they already know. And I know that is what you are doing.

Here is a link for you to practice new chords. This way, you will expand your library of chords and once you know them, email me and I will give you scales to go with them.

http://www.8notes.com/guitar_chord_chart...

Answer 2

Keep your instrument out. Keep the music on the stand.  Practice for 15 minutes and stop. Come back to it at least an hour later. Do the same thing.

While practicing, decide which measure or group of measures you do not do perform well.  Repeat only those measures several times.  Slower if need be to get them correct.

At the end of the day play straight through the assignment.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Take a break and then get back to it.  Sometimes it's pretty hard to keep practicing the same song(s) over and over and over, so try mixing up what you're playing, or learn a song you really like.

Answer 4

Write down a goal for yourself of exactly what you want to do better this week.  "I want to practice this ONE SECTION of the All-State piece and play it with no mistakes," or "I want to play this to a metronome at x*x beats per minute," or whatever.  Make a very clear, goal-oriented statement.  Often we get bored of practicing because we don't have a definite direction on what we're trying to accomplish, and so we just start "noodling" and wasting time.  Writing down practice goals makes it much more project-oriented, and working on a task like that usually holds our interest a little better.  Once you've accomplished your goal, STOP.  Put the instrument down, give yourself a pat on the back, and set a new goal for your next practice time.  If you give yourself a direction and stay on task, you'll be surprised all you can accomplish in 20 minutes.  

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

i feel EXACTLY the same way, i got like a D in band cause i didnt fill out any practices charts all term. but the way to go about it is to find a song that you really like, that sounds cool and is a challenge, and play at it. eventually you'll love playing that song. its not the songs that you need but its still useful to practice playing something.

Answer 6

YO YO Ma did a master class at my university years ago & he said that practicing your instrument is the art of sounding bad until you sound good. most of us get bored easily due to impatience, we want to sound awesome right now! when we don't sound awesome right away-it gets frustrating. patience is key!

Try recording yourself while practicing, listen to the recordings, be brutally honest with yourself about what needs to be better, practice until you feel it is right then record yourself again. (technology never lies). if you like the end result-move on.

Answer 7

Hey! I too am a musician. I get motivated to practice by listening to other skillfull players, and different music that I like, which makes me want to get out my intstrument and play. That's my personal one.