The Practice of Practice

Talent means nothing when it comes to getting better. Practice is everything. But exactly what is good practice? How does good practice create talent? And what in the world does a pinwheel have to do with practice? The focus of this book is music practice, but these techniques and mindsets can be applied to any skill you want to improve.

This book covers essential practice strategies and mindsets you won’t find in any other book. You’ll learn the What, Why, When, Where, Who, and especially the How of great music practice. You’ll learn what research tells us about practice, but more importantly, you’ll learn how great musicians in many genres of music think about practice, and you’ll learn the strategies and techniques they use to improve. This book will help you get better faster, whether you play rock, Bach, or any other kind of music.

Whatever instrument you want to play, The Practice of Practice will help you get the most out of your practice. This book will help you become more savvy about getting better. It will also help you be a more informed teacher or a more effective parent of a young learner. Don’t practice longer, practice smarter.

The book covers 6 aspects of practice:

What: Definitions, and what music practice does to your brain.

Why: Motivation is crucial. Learn ways of keeping the flame lit in this section

Who: A lot of people including yourself will impact your practice. Learn to use them to your advantage.

When: This section covers how much, and what times of the day are best for practice. Also covers the development of practice over time.

Where: Where you practice affects how well you practice. Learn to harness the place of your practice.

How: The longest section of the book includes information about goals, structuring your practice, as well as specific techniques tested by researchers, and specific strategies pros use to get better.

Get better faster. Don’t practice longer, practice smarter.

Jonathan Harnum is a multi-instrumentalist with over 30 years of experience practicing, playing, and performing music; he's been a teacher for over 20 years, earned a PhD in music education from Northwestern University, and is the author of Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music; Sound the Trumpet: How to Blow Your Own Horn, and three other books. Harnum lives, plays music, writes, and teaches in Chicago and Connecticut.