The Mandarin Translation of 31 Days to Better Practicing

In 2007, I wrote a series of articles entitled 31 Days to Better Practicing, which quickly became one of the cornerstones of content on this blog. A few years later, I expanded this series of articles into a free ebook of the same name, which has been read widely and been used in many piano pedagogy classes. Until now, one of the drawbacks of this work was that it was only available in English.

That changed this weekend, as Yihan Zhang has just released the first instalment of the 31 Days Mandarin translation on the WeChat platform so that the ebook can be available to Mandarin speakers in China and throughout the world. You'll need the WeChat app and can subscribe to Yihan's AndMusic channel on that platform to receive the rest of the articles, which will be released over the next month (a QR code to subscribe is below).

31 Days to Better Practicing: A Reader's Guide

Nearly a year ago, I wrote 31 Days to Better Practicing, a month-long series on ways to make one's practice time more enjoyable, efficient, and diversified. The series consists of articles, links, anecdotes, thoughts, and videos of different artists performing. Since then, I've been honored to have received many letters from students and teachers that have found the series to be a great help in their work.

However, I was completely unprepared for a question a new student at the Royal Conservatory asked me a few days ago: What is the best way to read 31 Days? Day by day? All at once? I must confess that when I wrote the series, I was only thinking of putting my thoughts in order for the current article and deciding where to go for the next one. It's only with some distance from the writing process that I realize the importance of finding entry points to the series as a way of influencing how people utilizes it.

So without further ado, here are some possibilities on how to read 31 Days to Better Practicing and incorporate it into your practice routine.


1.) Start at the beginning and read one article every day. I wanted to write the 31 articles with a clear beginning, middle and end. The first few articles discuss how to set aside time for regular practice, move on to warming up, and goal setting, then move on to different ways of practicing, and end with techniques for putting everything together. There's so much information in the articles, links (with even more information), and food for thought in the video selections that it might be useful to incorporate some of the techniques over a longer period of time.

2.) Read the entire series in one sitting. Many of us (including myself) enjoy information overload. Read the entire series in one sitting, then figure out what's useful to you in your practicing.

3.) From the table of contents, read the articles with the information that pertains to you the most. I'm all in favor of getting down to business. Don't bother with techniques you don't feel have value to you, but cut to the chase and utilize what you need, now.

4.) Read the last article first. Find Your Muse, Find Your Process takes the series in an entirely different direction, and ends with the importance of the artistic journey that underlies the entire process. But when I finished the final article (with the embedded Linkin Park video that both inspired and confused many people), I had a horrible feeling that perhaps I should have started the entire series with FYMFYP and had everything follow from the premise of the artist's journey. If this is the reading that you feel is important to you, by all means start with the ending and move on from there.

5.) Read the comments as well as the articles. One of the wonders of writing and reading blogs in the Web 2.0 age is that the articles themselves don't tell the full story. Read the comments to see how others react to the subject and add their own perspective.

6.) Add more comments. The writing of the series is finished, but comments are still being accepted. If you have anything important to add to the discussion, or even if you disagree with what I've written, the comments are the place to voice your opinion for everyone's benefit.

How have you read and utilized 31 Days?

Find Your Muse, Find Your Process

Forget everything you've read about in this series for the last month.

Art isn't about things you "would" or "should" do. It isn't about placing yourself in a mould, nor is it about following in anyone else's footsteps. It's not about conforming to the prevailing style, nor is it about recreating the past.

Often creating art means distancing yourself from others, disappointing others, finding new ways, viewing the past on your own terms, knowing what to keep and what to throw out.

I recall being told by a well-known composer that I would never have a career in new music because I paid too much attention to creating a beautiful sound at the piano. He was wrong. I also recall being told by a major piano teacher that I would never have a career if I didn't have a perfectly aligned hand position. She was wrong.

I know of operatic singers that have absolutely no interest in performing music written before 1900. I also have several friends who turned their back on classical music to find success in other musical genres. I have also worked with some who abandoned successful careers in more lucrative professions in order fulfill their dreams of learning how to play or sing classical music at a high level even if they had no hope of ever making a living at it.

There comes a time when musicians need to find the music that genuinely speaks to them, a creative process that is congruent with their way of being, and a method that works for them and them alone. If it is important to fulfill goals, create them. If it is important to work without fixed goals, abandon them. Create a toolkit of techniques that work, bearing in mind that many of them may need to be set aside until they are needed.

I will finish the series not with any platitudes, buzzwords, or clichés, but with the video of Linkin Park's Numb, that shows how rage and rebellion can be the impetus that puts an artist on the path to creativity. Turn up the volume up for this one.

Linkin Park - Numb


Back to 31 Days Table of Contents

Taking Stock of Your Accomplishments

There is so much work involved in learning an instrument. When we're working hard and improving steadily, it is often difficult to notice that we are making progress at all. We need some items in the win column.

That is why it is worthwhile to take a look back at the work you've done in the last while, either with your teacher or by yourself. Here are some milestones to measure your progress:

• Pieces learned to a fluent level. Extra marks for pieces memorized and/or played in public. It is useful to keep a repertoire list for this purpose.
  
• Successful recitals, festivals, or competitions (and I mean successful in the level of performance relative to your expectations. Winning outcomes are a bonus but not the true barometer of the performing enterprise).
• An increase in the time spent at the instrument.
• An increase in skill level, and being able to do things that seemed difficult or impossible previously.
• An increase in the satisfaction you feel in playing the instrument. Although not a true indicator of self-esteem, improving your playing should make you feel the pride of setting the bar for yourself and then jumping over it.

What are some of your greatest accomplishments in your playing or singing lately?

Next: Find Your Muse, Find Your Process

Add Collaboration To Your Activities

Learning an instrument can be such lonely business. You practice your instrument all week, alone. You meet your teacher and the focus is on you alone to improve. Then you go back to the practice room and work some more, alone. And finally go on stage to perform, alone.

Why is it that collaboration is a valued enterprise nearly everywhere but in piano playing? Collaborative pianists (also still called accompanists in some places) are often perceived as failed pianists, and many people assume that only the pianistic cream of the crop get to perform alone on stage, without the tarnish of any other musician spoiling their perfection, except the occasional orchestra backing them up. But guess what? The reality of this false image of the piano soloist doesn't measure up to how things really work in the music world. Nowadays, it is the collaborative pianist that has the fast track to a playing career, with more performances, more doors that can open, and more opportunities for earning income.

Pianists in their teens often fall by the wayside at the same time that their friends who play other instruments find camaraderie in orchestras. Often adding a bit of collaborative work to the diet of a young pianist is precisely what they need to keep going, and I speak from my own experience regarding this. Collaborative playing can be introduced at an early stage through duets, working with singers of the same age, choral accompanying, and chamber music for the intermediate pianist. There are numerous collections of works for this purpose, and the list is growing regularly. In addition to introducing this new variety to a pianist's musical diet, you are introducing a working process to their playing through the act of working with others that can often completely re-inspire pianists to redouble their practice efforts.

Chamber Music Sampler, Book 1 Edited by Joanne Haroutounian. Set of performance parts for piano trio (piano, violin, cello). Series: Piano. 31 pages. Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Company. (KJ.WP324) See more info...

Christmas Music For Piano Duet Arranged by Norman Dello Joio (1913-). Piano duet songbook for piano four-hands (no lyrics). 31 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (HL.9239) SMP Level 7 (Late Intermediate) See more info...

The Contemporary Singing Actor Women's Edition Volume 1. By Various. Vocal Collection. 240 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (740192) See more info...

Next: Taking Stock of your Accomplishments

Developing an Artistic Sensibility

Whether we wish to become a performing artist, a well-rounded musician, or even just a dabbler in all things musical, our activities don't stop at practicing our instrument, showing up for weekly lessons, and playing in the odd recital or competition. Music is but one part in the larger world of the arts and culture, and if we want to reap the benefits of participation in the artistic process, it is not merely healthy, but necessary to experience what the rest of the arts have to offer. For those seeking a career in music, the intersection of different forms of art is what can nourish us, and often questions we have about one discipline can be answered by what we find in another.

Here are some activities that it is worthwhile to experience in order to get a full grounding in the arts:

• Going to concerts and operas
  
• Listening to recordings
• Watching great performances on YouTube
• Going to art galleries and other venues featuring the visual arts
  
• Developing an interest in reading, especially in the fields of the novel, short story, and poetry
• Going to the theatre
• Seeing ballet and modern dance
  
• Experiencing works featuring new media
• Seeing important works of architecture, both old and new

One of the great developments I have noticed in the last few years is that there are many more ways to participate in the creative process than there have been in the past. Why just observe an art form when you can start doing it for yourself? Follow your muse and you can start to feel the connection between your work in the practice room to the larger world of arts and culture.

Next: Add Collaboration to your Activities

Run the Program

One of the most important things to do when preparing for a recital, RCM/NMCP exam, competition, festival, or audition is to run your program before performing it. Most of us spend our practice time working on sections of a work and practicing the difficult bits over and over again. But as we get closer to the performance, it is necessary to put things back together and get a sense of what it is is like to perform everything on the program, in order, and as close as we can get to full battle conditions.

Performers often find that works that seemed easy in the practice room often are more difficult when placed in the program, especially when they are near the end and fatigue sets in. Here is a possible road map for running works and programs in the lead-up to a full recital:

1. Run each piece regularly. I've already written about how to take your performance for a test drive--every day on individual works within the recital. Doing this will give you a good head start for recital preparation.

2. Around two months to six weeks before the recital, be able to perform multi-movement works (or song groups for singers). Practicing transitions between songs and movements is also an important element of preparation. Do you take a long time? A short time? Attacca?

3. One month before the recital, be prepared to do a dry run of the entire program. Being able to run a program a full month before the real thing will alert you to further development that is needed in order to integrate each work into the whole. Skip this step and you might find yourself at the dress rehearsal a few nights before the show unable to get through a program because you didn't work on developing enough stamina. Once you've run the program this far in advance, you can then work on fine-tuning for a full month and feel the confidence that comes with detailed musical preparation done well ahead of schedule.

There is no substitute for walking on stage for a recital feeling fully prepared and in command of the works on the program.

Next: Developing an Artistic Sensibility

More Practice Links

Here are some recent practice-related finds from around the blogosphere:

Graham English discusses how to turbocharge your practicing.

Ben Clapton helps you get over your fear of new pieces.

Jeff Mason shares his list of books on practicing and musical subjects.

Natalie lists some great websites for students on the Music Matters Blog.

Ed Pearlman talks about what's in a scale.

And Rhona-Mae Arca adds a new twist to ear training.

Next: Run the Program

5 Ways to Add Length to Your Practice Session

Sooner or later in nearly everyone's musical education, their teacher will sit them down and give them The Talk. This usually happens at a moment when the current amount of practice time is not sufficient in order for proper growth to happen.

So you go home and, having super-sized your practice time from half an hour to an hour (or from one hour to three) per day, try to figure out what to practice in order to add the extra time.

Here's what to do:


1. Work in more detail. With the added luxury of time on your side, now you can take apart each phrase and discover what you need to do in order to make it fit into the whole. Once you've finished working on one phrase to your satisfaction, go on to the next one.

2. Repetition. Once you've got a passage worked out, repeat it several times to solidify it in your playing. Having longer practice sessions can accomplish this very nicely. Bear in mind that this doesn't mean running whole pieces several times and calling it a practice session unless the detail work is already in place.

3. Come back to each piece you're working on every day. Day-by-day repetition is what can add tremendous reliability to your performance. That passage that almost worked in the first session of the week can usually be played with ease if attended to daily. There's something about working hard on a passage, setting it aside, and then returning to it the next day that builds confidence and command to what seemed initially unplayable.

4. Warm up properly. Consult with your teacher as to how you should warm up every day. I've already written about this, and with a longer practice session, you can have the time to put it into practice.

5. Add more diverse activities to your daily practice session. Changing gears several times can lessen any chance of boredom practicing. Activities such as technical exercises, sight reading, transposition, reviewing old pieces, playing in a different musical style, and improvising can make your time spent at the piano more rewarding.

Engage in these types of practice techniques and you'll find that the time can actually fly by. And remember to take breaks. Many people have trouble concentrating for extremely long periods of time and that's okay. A good rule of thumb is that for every hour of playing you should take at least a 10-minute break to rest both arms and mind. Come back after a small break and you'll find yourself energized.

Next: More Practice Links

Add To Your Skills By Learning Theory

Another sure-fire way to improve everything you do at whatever instrument you play is by learning music theory. Knowing about the building blocks of music can greatly improve your comprehension skills, lessen the amount of time initially learning a piece, and improve the quality of musicianship at all levels. Some of these basic materials include knowledge of accidentals, different scale types, intervals, rhythm, chords, candences, transposition, analysis, and musical terms. At more advanced levels, concepts covered will include harmony, counterpoint, and analysis.

If you're doing RCM/NMCP exams, each grade level comes with specific pre-requisites or co-requisites, and for the advanced levels, several theory and history exams are needed to receive the full certificate.

If you're in a university program, you will invariably be required to take theory courses as part of the curriculum. If you're studying privately, there are several choices available:

1. Self-study. Not recommended.

2. Study with your main instrumental/voice teacher. Possible, although it can take a chunk out of your lesson time better spent learning your instrument.

3. Study with a dedicated theory teacher. Teachers who specialize in teaching theory, whether in the private or class format, generally have a much greater knowledge of how to teach these concepts and know what the proper standards are at all levels.

I cannot emphasize enough that students at every level will be rewarded many times over by taking the time to integrate music theory instruction into their musical education.

Here are some recommended theory books from popular publishers and methods:

Rudiments of Music Book 1. By Cora B. Ahrens. (Vol 1). Boosey and Hawkes Scores and Books. Softcover. 24 pages. Published by Boosey & Hawkes. (48007726) See more info...

Piano Adventures Theory Book, Level 1 (A Basic Piano Method) Written by Nancy Faber, Randall Faber, Victoria Mcarthur. Instructional book for piano. 40 pages. Published by The FJH Music Company Inc. (FJ.FF1079) See more info...

Elementary Music Rudiments: The Complete Elementary Music Rudiments By Mark Sarnecki. Theory. Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Rudiments. Book. 264 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company. (EMR10) Level: Preliminary, Grades 1 and 2 Rudiments. See more info...

Harmony: Book One By Mark Sarnecki. Theory. Basic Harmony. Book. 216 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company. (EMH03) Level: Grade 3 Harmony. See more info...

Theory for Beginners By Barbara Wharram. Theory. Basic Rudiments. Book. 206 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company. (HT21) Level: Preliminary Rudiments. See more info...

Next: 5 Ways to Add Length to your Practice Session

Record Yourself

Our ears often lie to us. Problems go undetected, we let ourselves get away with sloppy work, and we don't fully hear our sound while making it.

We need a second set of ears, and recording ourselves practicing can do the trick. Whether you use a recording walkman (many of them still in use and lovingly maintained), a mini-disc recorder, an ipod recording plugin, or a laptop recording directly to hard drive, there are many ways to record your work in the practice room.

Here is one way you can do it:

1. Record yourself in either a section of a work, the entire work, or the entire practice session.

2. Listen to what you recorded.

3. Decide what needs to be fixed and get deeper into your practice session.

Listening to a playback of a practice session can be quite disheartening at times. The way we sound when we're playing often differs from what shows up on a recording, with the benefit of a little distance from the source. We also tend to have a certain objectivity listening to others play that we don't always have in our own playing. Listening to ourselves on recording forces us to listen with that same audio-specific, objective set of ears and can open the door to new insight that can inform our next step in the practice room.

Next: Add to your Skills by Learning Theory

Non-Structured Practice Time

Everyone seems to think that practicing is all about work, work, work. We get new pieces and slave away at them, play them for our teacher, who proceeds to tear apart our performance and gives us a recipe for further improvement and we go home and then work, work, work until the next lesson.

So where did all the discovery, exploration, and fun go?

Teachers and parents walk a fine line when asking students to practice daily. Of course you can't learn to play an instrument without regular and committed practice, but finding an equal mix of work and fun in the practice room can be a noble goal to work toward.

For this reason, I recommend for musicians of all ages at least some unstructured time at their instrument every week. By unstructured, I mean working without a clear goal, trying out new pieces (remember the posts on sight reading?), figuring out your favorite song by ear, playing old pieces just for the fun of it, and improvising.

Younger students are the best at utilizing this type of activity without inhibitions. Mildred Portney Chase writes in Improvisation: Music From The Inside Out:

The two-year old child who goes to the piano for the first time will begin improvising because that is the only thing he can do. He has not yet been taught, therefore he has no preconceived standards or expectations to inhibit his explorations. The two-year-old child at the piano acts most intuitively, his mind not distracted from its natural ways. The older person is more involved in mental processes since even without training through formal lessons he will have acquired many impressions and developed many skills. Out of these, we build our own unique vocabularies.

And this is how composers are born!

Having time to fool around at the piano or other instrument can give us a sense of comfort and ease when we play. The fact that we "play" and instrument and not "work" it is no coincidence. The act of playing an instrument is very close indeed to a child's sense of play. Having no agenda for at least part of your time spent practicing can open up a world of possibilities and re-energize the working parts of the practice session.

Next: Record Yourself

Work Backwards

One thing I continually notice when adjudicating is that most performances tend to start out well, decline somewhat in the middle, and barely avoid disaster at the end. This is a sure sign that performers haven't been working on endings and second halves of works. I've already written about Making Endings Work and today I'll look at how we can put that into practice.

It goes without saying that we should always start our practice session at the beginning of a work. However, that approach means that a well though-out beginning can mask a poorly thought-out conclusion, since our attention naturally starts to wane midway through a practice session.

But whoever said we always had to start at the beginning when practicing? Try starting at the end first. Craft a satisfying conclusion to the piece, and then start to work backwards, phrase by phrase, section by section. You'll may immediately that you start to notice things that went by you previously in the work's second half. Keep on working and you just might get to the beginning of the work.

Try this approach for a few weeks in combination with working from beginning to end, and you will start to notice a sense of command and comfort in the second half of the piece, and you'll have enough reps of the ending under your belt that your performance won't fail when it comes down to the crunch.

Next: Non-Structured Practice Time

Silent Practicing

Here's a technique I often recommend and use when I'm feeling stuck on a passage:

1. For the passage in question, hear the passage mentally, the way you would ideally like to play it.

2. Play the passage.

3. Repeat the process, alternating mental playback of your ideal sound for the passage with your playing of it. See how the two inform each other.

Next: Work Backwards

Build Sight Reading Into Your Practice Session

Just over a year ago, I wrote an article on 10 ways of improving your sight-reading skills, which has since become one of the top-performing posts on this blog.

In this posting, I won't rehash the various ways of improving your sight-reading skills I already wrote about previously. I will, however, talk about why sight-reading is important and how you can incorporate it into your daily practice regimen.

What sight-reading can do for you

• Drastically cut down on the time spent on learning notes in a new work of music.
• Develop your pitch-reading skills in a moderate pressure-cooker situation.
• Develop your rhythmic skills in the same way.
• Develop your listening skills.
• Allow you to integrate rhythm and pitch reading, stylistic thought, and physicality in a way not always utilized in traditional note-learning.
• Allow you to play and enjoy large amounts of music you might not otherwise find.
  

How to develop your skills

You won't develop into a great sight-reader by only doing it at lessons and exams. Regular practice for only a few minutes a day is the best way to progress in a pain-free environment.

The publication I recommend above all others is the Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests series by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Divided into levels corresponding to RCM/NMCP grade levels, the books are divided into weekly units (around 10 per book) with one daily sight-reading and rhythmic example, as well as daily ear-training examples for each week. The amount of work involved per day is actually quite minimal, since it is the cumulative effect of the reading practice that improves skills. With a 10-units per volume and daily practicing, it should take approximately 10 weeks to get through a book. The short length of time it takes to complete a book also ensures that a student not up to par on his or her reading skills can easily do two or even three levels a year before taking an exam. The trick is not to cram these books but to work at (savor!) them as part of a daily practice routine.

And then enjoy the results.

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests: Book 2 By Boris Berlin And Andrew Markow. Daily Exercises for Piano Students. Ear Training and Sight Reading. Late Elementary. Book. 32 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company. (4S2) Level: Grade 2. See more info...

Next: Silent Practicing

More Practice Links

Here are some more great practice-related posts from the blogosphere.

Music Practice Tips' Ben Clapton shares 10 tips for memorizing music.

Kate Boyd at Notes From the Ivory Tower writes on How (and Why) To Keep a Practice Journal, with some easy steps on how to incorporate journaling into your practice session.

Valerie Kampmeier at Free2Create looks at the blessings of needing to rethink your creative priorities in Are you feeling disillusioned? Great!.

Rebecca Hass at The Resonant Life looks at failure as a way to eventual success in It's my party and I'll fail if I want to.

The Music Teacher's Helper Blog's Ed Pearlman asks us to re-examine our notion of a mistake.

Finally, Rhonda-Mae Arca, who writes the always illuminating Musings at Musespeak, blogged about a video by Alan Watts shown before a group meditation session, embedded below:



Next: Build Sight Reading into your Practice Session

Interludes--Some Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

A teacher is not a miracle worker. Well, sometimes they can be, but for the most part the greater responsibility for development lies with the student and their responsibility to return to their instrument day after day, to give in to the fun of the process in order to have a good enough musical product that the teacher can indeed work their magic on. The important thing for the teacher to do is make the practicing as fun as it can be.

----------

One of the things I feel most strongly about as a teacher is the importance of teaching students to think for themselves, to cultivate independence in them. With many of my professional or near-professional students, they often need that reassurance that they do indeed have the toolbox to uncover and fix their own mistakes and discern which is the right way to go in their practicing and development. In short, they need to give themselves the validation that they are indeed artists. The goal of independent musical thought is an important one, and the earlier students are encouraged in this direction, the more they will perform not as a teacher's automatons, but as young individuals, each with something genuine to share.

Next: More Practice Links

5 Things to Remeber About Fingerings

One of the most common reasons that pianists have problems with musical passages is bad fingering. Too many times I see pianists young and old glossing over fingerings in the early stages of learning, and then wonder why they have troubles getting a passage up to speed a few weeks later.

This posting will not be a treatise on what constitutes good fingering, which I consider a highly personal art (science?). However, here are some ideas on how to find the right fingers to play the right notes:

1. When you learn the notes and rhythms, learn the fingerings too. Playing a passage with correct fingering will lessen the amount of time spent learning the piece. The earlier you start, the more efficient the learning process will be.

2. When the printed fingerings don't cover all the notes you need in order to properly learn a passage, add them in pencil. This will take a small amount of elementary reasoning and a couple of tough decisions, but will pay dividends in the long run. Of course, it is somewhat redundant to have a finger number over every single note, but try to have the critical musical corners fingered as much as you need.

3. Once the passage is learned with the right fingerings, repeat with the exact same fingerings during practice. Repetition with the right hand shapes and finger crossings can make the process of working up a piece a relatively quick one. On the contrary, use sloppy fingerings and you'll have work to undo later on (see #5).

4. If you need to change a fingering, realize that you are giving up something in order to get something else. Take repeated single notes, for example. Most editions print changing fingerings. However, not all pianists agree. Deciding if you are a finger repeater or finger changer can be a matter of taste--just realize what each fingering type accomplishes and listen for the sound you want.

5. The longer you wait to change fingerings, the longer it takes to undo. Correcting mistakes that go back to the initial learning process take an awful amount of time, practice time that could be spent in other productive ways. There may be moments when you realize that the original fingerings you used no longer make musical sense. If you need to make this decision, remember #4--giving up something to get something else is fine, as long as it is for an ultimately musical reason.

So take out those sharpened pencils and get to work fingering your way to pianistic excellence without the hassle of relearning.

Next: Interludes: Some Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

Making Endings Work

One of the most common areas for improvement I notice in the performances I hear has to do with endings of works. Too often I see a great deal of effort expended on working up the beginning and middle of a piece, but the ending is viewed as an afterthought. However, endings are some of the most memorable parts of a performance, since they highly influence the quality of the applause (polite vs. boisterous) and the audience's memory of the performance.

So, to put it bluntly, work on endings of pieces. Here are some things to consider:

• Does the ending extend the overall mood of the piece or does it make a sudden break with it?
• Are there any particularly difficult technical demands on the performer at the end of the work? Often composers will put their nastiest technical writing just before the ending so the work can end with a bang.
• Is there a particular choreography to the ending that will make it more effective? Could you benefit from fluorishes and showmanship or economy of movement and stillness?
  

For singers:

• Is there a postlude following the last vocal line? How does it relate to the end of the work? If there is a postlude following the end of your singing, don't forget to remain facially engaged, as the audience is still looking at you. Therefore you must still look connected to the song while the piano or orchestra plays the postlude.

The ending of a work shouldn't always be the last part of the piece you learn. Putting the ending further ahead in the order of battle for music learning will ensure that it is a priority and not an afterthought.

Next: 5 Things to Remember About Fingerings

More Practice Links

As we approach the halfway mark of the month, here is the next batch of useful practice links for the avid musician.

Martin Schuring at Arizona State University has written an essay on practicing from the oboist's perspective.

Charles Moss has written an article on required practice that examines some of the basics of the process.

Here is a useful article on taking piano exams from an anonymous Geocties retro-site.

Brent Hugh at Missouri State College has assembled a large pagh with piano practice principles and methods resources.

Looking for some interesting piano repertoire? Try the Pianopedia.

Those studying Baroque music might want to check out Dr. Brian Blood's useful page on ornamentation.

Finally, those wishing to maintain good physical health when practicing might want to check out the Musicians and Injuries page, with lots of useful prevention information and recommended books.

Next: Making Endings Work