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The biggest mistake in practising fits in one sentence:
Many people "practise" by playing the piece from beginning to end. That is not practice; it is checking.
What you practise is not the whole piece but the hard places.
A three-step method
| Step | Do this | Test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 find the difficulties | divide the piece, mark where it sticks | you can say exactly which beats |
| 2 slow down until you can do it right | slow to the point of no errors (see [[concept:slow-practice\ | slow practice]]) |
| 3 raise the tempo and consolidate | small increases, then back to the whole | still correct at the new tempo |
Step 1 is the one most often skipped. If you cannot say which beat sticks, the only option is running through from the top — spending most of the time on what you can already play while the difficulty goes unsolved.
The core principle: repeat what is right, not what is wrong
The mechanism deserves stating plainly:
Practising is not "playing it many times" but "repeating the correct action until it is automatic".
| How you play | Result |
|---|---|
| one right, one wrong, dozens of times | two ways learned, one of them wrong |
| slow enough to be right every time, many times | only one way becomes automatic |
The second row is the effective one — so "slow enough to be right" is not caution but the only way to guarantee you are practising correctly.
Which also explains "getting worse with practice": if the wrong repetitions outnumber the right ones, the wrong version is what becomes automatic.
Three practical tests
| Test | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Can you start from any point? | If not, you are relying on the momentum of running from the top |
| Can you play the easy places slowly and still be right? | Distinguishes true automation from coasting |
| Can you join a break? | Practise the joins separately (between phrases, between sections) |
The first is the most useful: much apparent fluency is held up by the order of memory — start in the middle and it collapses, which shows no single place stands on its own yet.
How this divides the labour with other entries
| Entry | Handles |
|---|---|
| [[concept:slow-practice\ | slow practice]] |
| [[concept:hands-separate\ | hands separate]] |
| [[concept:memorization\ | memorisation]] |
| [[concept:rhythm-training\ | rhythm training]] |
| [[concept:recording-self-assessment\ | recording and self-assessment]] |
This entry is the outline: find the difficulties first, then use those methods on them.
Diagram: the three steps and the two traps
Listen: repetition in small units
"Slow down until you can do it right" corresponds, aurally, to repeating a short span until it is stable. Use rhythm on the simplest possible repeated shape — the real object of practice is often this four-beat scale.
Common misconceptions
- "Practising means playing the piece several times." That is checking. What you practise is the difficulty,
- "Slow practice wastes time." It is the only way to guarantee practising correctly (see
- "Getting it right once is enough." Three correct repetitions in a row are the minimum before the correct
- "Fluency means playing it from start to finish." Real fluency is starting from any point and stopping and
not the whole.
action is fixed.
resuming at will. :::
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 练习方法的核心原则（针对性、降速、重复正确、从任意位置开始）为通行乐器教学表述
- "练习是把正确动作重复到自动化"及"避免重复错误"的机制，为通行学习心理学与演奏教学结论
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.