What do you learn when you practice?

I guess you practice on your instrument hoping to become a better instrumentalist with the joy that follows. However, there are many learning processes involved when you practice on your instrument.

If you learn about the factors that can limit your progress as an instrumentalist you can have more effective practice sessions. Here is a short example:

At times when you practice on your instrument you might find that you are nervous and don’t feel too good when playing because you feel forced to play due to a music lesson coming up and you feel that you haven’t done your homework and maybe other negative feelings are present for some reason.

The feelings we have when we practice a certain piece of music have a tendency to be evoked anew when we play the piece at another occasion. In other words:

1. You have learned to play a piece of music.
2. You have also learned to play that piece of music with negative feelings involved.
3. You have learned to play the melody with a tension level that might be too high and that will limit the quality of your performance.

Knowing that you learn not only a piece of music as you practice but also feelings you have as you play, good or bad hand posture and high or low tension level and more things you can also use this knowledge to your advantage!