10 Things You Can Practice in 10 Minutes

By Anne Sullivan 

Roadrunners are birds known for their speed. If you’re a fan of classic cartoons, you know they can be pretty tricky too.

When your day is jam-packed with school and sports and homework, you might think there’s no time to practice, even though you know it’s important to practice every day. 

Here’s some good news: if you can find just 10 minutes to practice, you can stay on track and keep you and your teacher happy. In fact, you may be amazed how productive just 10 minutes of practice can be. It won’t work as a steady practice diet, but it will keep your fingers and your music from backsliding. I’ll share my list of 10 roadrunner practice ideas; all you have to do is make the time!

TEN ROADRUNNER PRACTICE IDEAS

1. Play through everything you need to do for your lesson (or as much as you have time for) one time.
2. Choose a difficult section from one of your pieces and try to play it from memory.
3. Play a scale and arpeggio at three different speeds and three different dynamics.
4. Play a piece or etude one slowly, focusing on accuracy.
5. Play through the piece you know best from beginning to end without stopping.
6. SIghtread a short piece or two.
7. Choose any trouble spot from a piece you are learning and play it slowly 10 times. 
8. Stretch your memory muscle by trying to memorize four measures.
9. Play your scales and arpeggios or exercises in 2 different keys.
10. Play once through whatever you practiced yesterday to keep it on track.

Practice doesn’t have to be complicated - just do it!