Are You Not In The Mood to Practice?

By Anne Sullivan 

We all have times when we don’t want to practice. We are tired, we had a long day at school, we have too much homework. But the practice must be done.

Although I look forward to my practice now, I was awful about practicing when I was a child. My parents threatened weekly to sell the harp or the piano if I didn’t practice. That was the only thing they knew would send me running to the living room to practice. 

When you don’t feel like practicing, it’s tempting to just close your music and go do something else. That may not be a bad idea, but here are a few other strategies to help you find the motivation to practice, even when you don’t feel like it.

1. Have the world’s shortest practice session. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Granted, in 10 minutes you can’t do much, but you may find that 10 minutes stretches into more time once you get started.
2. Pick just one thing to do. Give yourself just one task. Instead of thinking that you will spend the next hour or two practicing, set yourself one very small goal. One example might be, “I’m going to play those eight measures on the second page 25 times and then I’m done.” If that’s really all you do, you have accomplished something. But maybe you’ll discover that you can…
3. …Do one more thing. If you have a little momentum gathered at the end of your task, try giving yourself one more small thing. Hear the crowd cheering for you, “One more thing! You can do it! One more thing!”
4. Play through a favorite piece. Playing one of your favorite pieces just once can lift your spirits and give you the energy boost to start your actual practice. And it’s a great review technique too!
5. Do it first! This is the strategy for the chronic procrastinator. Try doing your practice before you do anything else. Try this on the weekend too. It will make the rest of your day more enjoyable.