Quietly, without much fanfare, the most impactful force in our musical journeys is our daily practice routine. We often give a lot of credit to that inspiring concert we attended last week, or the deep insights we gained from a masterclass yesterday. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, those singular events play a far smaller role in our overall development than does the simple act of practicing every day. Indeed, we need to be inspired, motivated and encouraged along the way. But what really determines our success is what we do on all the days in between. In fact, the very best thing you can do for your playing is to practice a little bit every day rather than a lot every few days. Why? Because the most essential improvement comes from reinforcing good habits. And the most crucial way you can reinforce good habits is by doing them every day.
So, progress in music is not usually observed in spectacular epiphanies. It is best observed in consistent, small amounts of time each day (even 15-20 min a day) listening to or playing music. This time builds a cadence in your nervous system that cannot be replaced by a long amount of time on the weekend. Your nervous system starts to accept the new information as not being new, but rather as familiar. Eventually, you don’t have to think about it anymore. Consistent practice reinforces the new neural connections you are making, and your body will start to connect the dots for you.
I think what is so powerful about daily exposure to music is how it affects our ability to perceive. For example, as one repeats the same practice material, scales, or listening assignments, one becomes sensitive to subtle differences: how the tone quality shifts with decreased volume, where exactly a phrase starts to sound, how the feeling of tension shifts with a slight difference in pitch. Such small discoveries build up over time and add depth to the inner landscape, which cannot be sped up. With intensity, you may experience a boost in skill for a day or two, but a plateau after that; with regularity, the climb in progress is much slower but steady and constant.
The other transformative gift of daily practice is the connection it gives you to your instrument. As you visit music every day, it ceases to be a thing outside you, something you do, and becomes more of a companion, and the problems that plagued you are no longer things that keep you from doing the music, but just part of your conversation with it. Even your errors contain knowledge, and over time, with daily practice, you will develop an unshakable faith in yourself, a faith that is not dependent on a good day or a bad day, but on your ability to continue to grow.
Fingers, embouchure, breathing, and back will also thank you for your daily routine. It is always better for these physiological mechanisms to be exercised on a daily basis than to rely on occasional heavy-duty work. Practicing every day will maintain the physical systems in a relaxed state, without the strain that you will inevitably experience if you allow long periods of inactivity. Additionally, daily work will allow the body to familiarize itself with the movements needed to hold the instrument and play.
But the greatest benefit of daily practice isn’t radical short-term progress. It’s the formation of a consistent musical self. The distinction between a person who plays an instrument and a musical person. The distinction between a daily practitioner who hasn’t mastered every detail and a daily practitioner who has. It’s the fact that through showing up every day (however clumsily) you eventually start to feel like music isn’t just something you do. It’s something you are. And that distinction between “doing” and “being” is the most powerful benefit of showing up every day and patiently working through the material.