practicing with limitations - material and how to deal with it, part I

as I explained in the post practicing with limitations I beleive practicing is most exciting when you set limitations to what you do and when you do it. (the ‘when’ includes time management principles to get a daily practicing routine happening and I’ll cover that soon)

so, now you’ve narrowed down your field of study to what excites you most, you’re enthusiastic about learning something new and you are ready to start. but what happens next, when you actually practice? how can you practice the selected material and make your daily routine a daily success?

here are a couple of principles to make it happen.

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practicing with limitations

practicing with limitations

I see many musicians (especially young ones) getting frustrated with practicing. there are two main reasons for this.

for one, musicians are overwhelmed by the many possibilities and the number of materials to study. they ask “what should I practice?”, they don’t see the wood for the trees.

others complain about not having enough time to really practice deeply because they have a huge load of responsibilities everyday and at night they’re too tired to focus.

“what” and “when” are the most commonly asked questions.

this post is about the “what” but it will also help to get the “when” under control. (I’ll post a seperate article about the “when” later)

practicing is actually very simple if you follow one simple principle.

keep it simple by applying limitations!

I spent 8 years studying music at conservatories in germany, the netherlands and the usa. I’ve gotten so much advise from teachers, musicians, friends and audiences, I still wouldn’t know where to start hadn’t I come up with a solution. it’s a simple solution, too.

limitation!

limitaion leads to simplicity.

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