to play an instrument can communicate
our feelings and bring joy to others to
practice allows yourself to take a break
and dive into a new world if we do that
with others we learn to understand the
true value of teamwork for the
development of our brain it's fantastic
researcher and Nita Collins explains how
playing an instrument involves almost
all brain areas at the same time it
trains the visual auditory and motor
skills and engages our emotions it gets
millions of neurotransmitters together
that then go out to build new synapses
that not only help your eyes ears and
hands but also all other areas to
prosper to our brain it's like a
firework of learning and development but
there are more reasons why it's so
useful practicing an instrument teaches
us that we get better with training and
when we play something wrong we get
instant feedback either by hearing it or
by someone in our band we learned the
value of feedback adapt our playing and
get better a lesson that we can apply to
other aspects of life top performers
usually start early as a kid pianist
Lang Lang played around eight hours
every day the Academy of Music in Berlin
knows that at the age of twenty their
top violin students have practiced
around 10,000 hours each but it's not
only the amount of hours violinist
Leopold our famously said practice with
your fingers and you need all day
practice with your mind and you will do
as much in one and a half hours here are
a few ideas practice slow and mindful
you should train slow and with full
focus if you practice too fast
you risk internalizing mistakes and
becoming great at playing poorly once
you can play well slowly raise the tempo
gradually if you are tired or unfocused
take a break and relax otherwise you
might learn new mistakes for
that you have played well earlier keep
it interesting it is important that you
are not bored from your own practice so
try to make it as interesting as
possible approach each practice like an
adventure to learn something new about
the music about your own body or the
instrument you may one day play quiet
and melancholic melodies while the next
day play something more upbeat and
powerful practice hard parts first your
attention is strongest at the beginning
of each session it's then that you are
most likely to succeed once you are
comfortable with the hard part repeat it
play around or practice something easy
you also can try to play the part
backwards and very eight rhythms and
tempo until the notes become your best
friends
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imagine throughout your practice try to
stay in contact with the music one way
is to use imagination to make the music
alive you can think about music like the
voices of people talking when one takes
a break the other gets louder to show
emotions think about a dance a river
floating or a bird singing a solo which
part of your piece will be accompanied
by a violin and which by the flute maybe
the most important idea is what we call
process learning to get good at anything
we cannot just focus on the results but
we also should enjoy the path it takes
to get there let's try to make each step
on this path meaningful whether you join
a fun jam session or challenge someone
in a rap battle if you enjoy the process
you might one day even go on stage if
that's what you want some of us just
want to learn listen and dance
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