Mini-Practice Ideas for Maxed Out Students

By Anne Sullivan 

You can only do so much in a day.

You’ve got school, sports, homework and that’s just the beginning. Your days are jam-packed already, and you haven’t even found time to practice. 

You know practice is important. Practice is how we improve; it’s what we need to do to play the music we love. And we love playing the harp too. But how are you supposed to fit in all the practice you want to do when you just don’t have the time?

I imagine that you’re pretty good at finding practice time most days. I hope, too, that your parents help you schedule practice time and stick to your schedule. But some weeks seem to have more activities loaded into them than others. These are the times you need to have emergency practice plans in place, mini-practice plans that will keep you moving even during the crazy times.

Mini-practice idea #1: Once through everything

Even if you don’t have enough time to drill down and do all the focused practice you normally would, you can keep all your music fresh in your fingers by making sure you play through everything once every day. It’s not the same as practicing in depth, but it will minimize the repair work you’ll need to do later.

Mini-practice idea #2: Only the tough spots

Sometimes just making time to practice the tricky spots, the ones that you’ve already put a lot of extra work into, is a good plan. Those are the places that need to catch up to the rest of the piece anyway, and this may be the perfect week. Play through everything else is you have time, but focus on those tough spots for now.

Mini-practice idea #3: Technique only

When you’re not sure what you can really get done, the best fallback plan is to do your technique work. Keeping your fingers in shape is absolutely necessary, so if your exercises and etudes are all you can manage, at least you can count on them to be playing well when you can get back to your pieces.

Remember these are only emergency tactics; you don’t want to use them as your regular practice routine. Before you use any of them, I suggest you let your teacher know when you have one of those crazy weeks ahead of you, and ask what he or she would recommend for that week. Planning ahead won’t keep your schedule from getting crazy but it will keep your harp playing on track!