Pianist – Daniel Bachelis

Whoa now!  The greatest aspect of a pianist isn’t his/her musicianship, technical ability, phrasing, or artistry, but merely his/her ability to plan ahead?  How could this possibly be true?

Well without practice time, none of those above things can ever improve, and without good planning, rarely will you practice.

I personally know from experience that without a solid habit, you won’t practice much.  I have gone semesters where I have gone weeks with only a few hours practice, and I’m a piano performance major!  The reason was because I didn’t plan WHEN I would practice.

When you never plan when you will practice, odds are you won’t practice much, but why?

Because something will ALWAYS COME UP!

Your friend sees you, there’s a great recital going on, there’s a concert at Wharton, you have homework in other classes, it’s your friends birthday, and many other excuses.  All those things STOP you from practicing when you don’t plan accordingly.

Start setting aside practice time as if it were a class.  People usually go to their classes (when they have to anyway), and rarely do things come up where they actually won’t go to class.  When you have class that conflicts with a social event with friends, friends usually will be upset, but NOT mad at you.  In order to practice your solid 2 hours a day, set aside what time you will do it EVERYDAY, as if it were class.  You can even tell your friends you are going to class, (because it is!)

Here’s one more thought.  Lessons are usually a 3 credit course for only 1 hour a week, and 1 hour in a studio class, but it’s a 3 credit course!  So that practice time is really class!  If you take a hard 3 credit course at this university, odds are you’ll have homework at about an 1 hour every other day, and class 3 hours a week.  Well, I think its time that we musicians united in treating our practice time like class time, that’s what all those hours are for.

Plan accordingly boys and girls, and we’ll ALL have a great semester.  It’s time to take our artistry to the next level. What separates the GREAT from the mediocre?  One Answer: Practice!

PS, and as always, if you need any accompanying, feel free to contact me.  I love reading your comments and E-mails.  Bye byes!