I was out to dinner the other night with some professional musician friends. We are all in our 60’s.  During the conversation, one of them talked about how much she loved practicing. I thought about it for a minute and decided that I heartily agreed with her. I have always loved practicing my instruments.

I’ve written a lot of articles on the importance of practice. Remember, if you want to be a musician of any kind, then you should love doing the work, which includes practicing.  I practiced hours a day when I was a kid because I enjoyed it. It took me a long time to convince my parents that I should be playing the piano. So, when that piano came, I practiced 2 hours a day to start because not only did I love it but I wanted them to know they had made the right decision. (They thought that there was something wrong with me since I was spending so much time indoors at the piano.) But by the time the bagpipes came around, it didn’t even phase them when I started practicing them for countless hours a week as well. (It also didn’t cost them anything either as the lessons were free in the high school pipe band.)  I added an hour a day of bagpipes to my schedule. Why? Because I loved to practice and I wanted to be great.

 Here you are, you’ve decided that you want to play the bagpipe. Playing the bagpipe is a journey…and a destination. Are you enjoying the journey? The journey is practicing. The destination is being able to play a list of tunes on the bagpipe by memory. The question is how soon do you want to get to the destination? When it was me, I wanted to get there as soon as possible.

 Think about how practice affects your progress and adjust your schedule accordingly. And if you need more suggestions on how to practice efficiently, feel free to contact me.