“Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” — Vince Lombardi
Hey, I get it. Practice can be cumbersome.
Some days you’re inspired and suddenly 45 minutes flies by. Other days, you’d rather throw on Netflix, turn your brain off, and not think about your instrument at all.
After nearly 20 years of teaching hundreds of students, I’ve found that getting better isn’t always about having more discipline. Sometimes you just need to make practicing easier and give yourself a better reason to do it.
Here are three simple, but maybe not-so-predictable, things I’ve used with my students for years to get better results.
Tips, hacks, and bears, oh my!
Practice Tip #1: Find Your Fuel
What songs do you love? What artists can you listen to over and over again?
Nothing comes to mind? Start with a genre.
Still nothing? Start with what you hate and do the opposite. Haha.
But seriously, spend some time listening to music and figure out what actually gets you excited. Find the song that makes you think, “I need to know how to play that.”
With our students, the ultimate goal is freedom: being able to play what you want, when you want, with whoever you want, without needing a teacher there forever.
That’s what I think a great teacher should ultimately be trying to accomplish.
The formula I’ve used for years is pretty simple:
Find what the student loves. Teach them that. Then use the music itself to sneak in theory, technique, rhythm, and ear training along the way.
Simple? Yes. Instant? Definitely not. But it works.
If you’re constantly forcing yourself to practice music you don’t care about, start there. Find your fuel.
Practice Tip #2: Lower the Barrier
Do you keep your guitar in its fancy hardshell case underneath the bed protecting you from the boogeyman?
Do you have to walk upstairs, dig your keyboard out of the closet, unpack it, find the power cable, set up the stand, and THEN start practicing?
Or maybe you’re a drummer and have to drive 20 minutes to a rehearsal space because…well, drums. Haha.
I get it. Those are all legitimate obstacles.
But they’re also going to kill your consistency unless you’re already obsessed with practicing.
So make practicing ridiculously easy.
Keep the guitar out of the case and on a stand near the place you naturally end up when you get home.
Keep the keyboard plugged in and ready so all you have to do is hit the power button and start Bach-ing it out. Sorry, had to.
And if your instrument naturally has a bigger logistical barrier, find a workaround.
Drummers, for example, can use an electronic kit. Even professional touring musicians use electronic and practice setups when they can’t access their full rig. You can practice at home without making everyone else in the house wonder if the ceiling is coming down.
Whatever your instrument is, ask yourself:
How can I make the distance between “I should practice” and actually playing as short as possible?
You’ll probably pick up your instrument more often than you think.
Practice Tip #3: Schedule It
Yep. Sometimes you just have to put it on the calendar.
Set a daily alarm. Give yourself a reminder. If you’re a calendar person like me, actually block it out:
4:00–5:00 PM — Practice vocals.
And when you finish? Check it off. There’s something strangely satisfying about that little checkmark.
Treat it like an appointment.
But here’s another trick: you don’t have to start with an hour.
Set a timer for five minutes.
Seriously.
Tell yourself you only have to practice for five minutes. Once you’ve picked up the instrument and started playing, you’ll be surprised how often five minutes turns into 15, 20, or 30.
And if you’re scheduling practice every day and absolutely dreading it every single time, go back to Tip #1.
Or…maybe try another instrument.
Seriously.
Maybe guitar isn’t your thing. Maybe you’d love piano. Or bass. Or drums. Or singing. There’s nothing wrong with changing direction until you find the thing that actually clicks.
That’s one reason we keep our trial lessons inexpensive. You should be able to explore without making some massive commitment first.
That’s It… 3 Practice Tips
Find your fuel. Lower the barrier. Schedule it.
These ideas can work for almost anything you’re trying to improve at, but I’ve watched them work particularly well over nearly two decades of teaching music.
At McCormick Music Lessons, we teach guitar, bass, ukulele, drums, piano, and voice at our Costa Mesa and Laguna Hills locations.
If you’ve been thinking about finally starting lessons, or getting back into music after some time away, CLICK HERE to inquire.
We’ll reach out, learn a little about what you actually want to play, and see if lessons with us make sense for you.
Now go practice. Even if it’s only five minutes.
Your friend and teacher,
Andrew McCormick