My students often ask me “how long should I practice for?” To me, the answer is more complex than the student may expect. You wouldn’t ask “how long should I do my math homework for?” Other classes will assign specific goals, such as a number of workbook exercises, and a student will spend as much time as it takes to complete them! I’ve always been an advocate for “quality practice over quantity practice” In other words, my short answer to this student is that five focused minutes is always better than thirty distracted minutes.

I was reminded of this while reading a study from The University of Texas at Austin and San Antonio. The article, titled “It’s Not How Much; It’s How.” These researchers had professional musicians learn a difficult passage of music, allowing them each to choose their own practice method, and how much time they spent. The next day, each participant came in to test how well they retained what they had studied the previous day. They found that the most important aspect of effective practice was addressing and correcting errors as quickly as possible. The “time spent practicing” had almost nothing to do with it!

Don’t get me wrong, we shouldn’t be afraid of mistakes. In fact, this same study found that even these professional musicians made many mistakes in the early stages of their preparation. I know that I still make countless mistakes when I practice! The challenge in effective practicing is to focus on these areas of our playing. Sometimes there’s a passage that we know really well, and we feel really good when we play it. It may be fun, but it doesn’t do much to help us become better musicians.

So how do we get better at addressing errors in our own practice? The most important step is to always practice with a goal in mind. The more specific, the better! You’ll often start with a large goal, such as “memorize this piece by the end of the month.” From there, you can build smaller goals into your daily practice. On the first practice day, you could try choosing a smaller section (just a few phrases) to try to play from memory. When you come back the next day, check in with that same spot. For myself, I always find it easier to memorize music if I can sing it in addition to playing it. After a while, you’ll meet your smaller goal, and will be one step closer to the larger goal. This is just one example of practice goals.

Another thing to keep in mind is that our goals should be flexible. Perhaps when you were playing that section from memory, you noticed that the sound wasn’t as clear as you’d like. Set a new small goal of playing that passage with clarity: consult the score, play it slowly with a metronome, and perhaps listen to a few good recordings. By keeping specific goals at the forefront of your practice, not only will practicing become more efficient, you’ll likely feel better about your progress as well. If any of my students are reading this, and you feel like you’re unsure about what goals to set for your practice, let me know so that we can work together to figure it out. Always let your goals decide how long your practice sessions are, not the clock!–Daniel Boschee