There are two main ways I practice playing my instrument - the first being when I am learning/practicing an actual written piece of music (a composed song on a score) which involves me having to learn the piece absolutely correctly note from note, and the second being a more casual way of practising that would work with more independently driven, improvised pieces.
During 'classical practising', I will go through the piece bar at a time, fill in all the fingering according to what's comfortable for me (in pencil), and repeat hands separately until I've learnt it.
I think writing on the music is a very effective way of making the music "yours" and when there is an especially challenging piece it's very helpful to write out all the problems and parts to watch out for. (e.g a note with many ledger lines).
During 'creative practising' I will usually find a chord chart for a song online and experiment with different chord voicing/extensions, seeing what works, what sounds interesting or different - and generally having fun with it! When I feel like I'm not making any progress, I usually look at an arrangement by some other artist on youtube and take ideas from that or try to analyse what exactly they're doing.
Above all else, the most important elements to practising in my opinion are the following:
- fingering
- repetition
- learning hands separately
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