Are you practicing—or just repeating?

and a 15-minute practice challenge to help you find out

https://youtu.be/StDjt0kxBUM?si=mT2aD4oD8cCJ4Ogn

Welcome to September.

If there was an award for "working harder, not smarter," I would win it. I have spent many hours in a practice room frustrated with myself, yet totally unsure of what I was actually working toward.

You can imagine how productive that approach was?!

So now I ask you: are you practicing—or just repeating? And if you are not sure, how do you tell the difference?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help sort this out:

1. Do you have a goal for each practice session? (Hint: "be better" isn't an effective goal.) Knowing what you are working toward not only helps you focus your practice time, but also helps you evaluate yourself constructively afterward—and decide what comes next in your practice.

   
   

2. Are you working on specific sections, or just playing/singing/speaking the entire piece on repeat? While you should play your whole piece—and enjoy it!—when working on something technical, small sections of focused, specific work tend to move the needle faster.

   
   

3. Are you practicing for what's coming up next? Have an audition coming up? Check in with your audition mindset. Preparing for a performance? Maybe character work, visualization, or performance practice belongs in the mix. Working toward a technical goal? Make sure your practice is actually supporting it and not dancing around it.

Finding a goal-oriented approach to your practice will not only help you move closer toward your goals, but also feel better. 

You will always know what you are working on, how close or far you are from succeeding, and have a sense of accomplishment when you end each practice session and musical week.

Your voice, and you, deserve all of that.