“If excellence is a habit (which it is), then students must consistently play in ways that are fundamentally excellent nearly all the time.” -Robert A. Duke Whether we’re practicing or performing, all of us musicians are striving for excellence. But do students really...
“Only accessible material enables students to acquire the habits of mastery that beget secure, artistic performances.” Time and again, when I hear students audition, some will attempt to perform music that’s beyond their capacities. “This’ll be...
“When we practice deeply, we can trust ourselves and execute without forcing.” When you confront a technical challenge in your music making, does a voice within you ever say, “Try harder”? I get the impression that many rising musicians believe that trying...
Many music students believe that if they can get through a piece in practice, they should necessarily be able to perform the piece on stage. Then, when they become undermined by nervousness, they conclude that their performance problems must be caused by psychological...
Let’s say that you’re about to practice a new piece of music: What’s your typical plan of attack? Researchers have observed that expert and student musicians display profound differences in their approaches to learning new material, and those differences lead to huge...
