One of the first questions that music students and parents ask is:

How Long Should I Practice Every Day/Week etc.?

and my answer (and my colleagues at DSM would answer the same) is:
I Don't Know

because time, in itself, is not the answer to progress, growth and development in anything.  But knowing how to use that time, establishing habits/routines to be productive, planning what to do before practicing will help assure that you're moving forward in your musical goals.

1) ELIMINATE WASTED TIME- Isn't the Internet and this vast social media world we live in wonderful?  If you're like most people you get up first thing in the morning, open a browser and check-in.  You browse your social media sites, check your email, maybe send out a few tweets and email replies.  It's your routine and you enjoy it....and in most cases, it's a huge waste of time that starts your day out on the wrong path.

Do you really need to:
know what your old college roommate had for dinner last night?
know what bar your local Batista partied at, with complimentary photos, last night?
See photos of a co-workers dogs sleeping?

Probably not, in most cases.  
Do these things get your brain warmed up to being productive?
Does this time help you reach your goals?
Do you ever feel fulfilled after 20-30 minutes of this each morning?

I'm willing to guess NO, to all.

Write down your musical goals.  List both short-term and long-term goals.  They can be simple things like finishing a song or longer and more involved things like understanding Chord/Scale relationships or writing a song for your wedding.  Having these goals and reaching them, helps you see your growth.  

How about starting your day, after your morning Coffee if required, with 20 minutes working on steps to help you reach these goals?  Maybe, you can't play your instrument because everyone else is sleeping when you get up.  Great, spend some time studying the musical concepts that you're working on.  You have to understand concepts before you apply them.  Go through some of our Quizzes.  Re-read the Lesson area, read an upcoming lesson.  Write lyrics.  Do something to truly wake up your brain and get it thinking.  There's no benefit to having your brain in neutral for the first hour of every day.  

This will become your routine. Your brain and body will expect it and look forward to it.

2) THINK BEFORE YOU PRACTICE-  Your music educator should help you be aware of your musical  weaknesses and the trouble areas of the music you are working on.  These are always the things we should spend the most time on and start our practicing with.  Everyone, no matter their skill level, has weaknesses and things they don't do well.   Plan your practice sessions to work on one of those, each time before you start.  Human nature is to play/sing the songs/material we know and do well.  But, in order to get better and move forward we need to address and focus on our weaknesses.

3) MAKING MISTAKES ARE PART OF LEARNING- Even the greatest musical performers make mistakes.  Most likely, all of your favorite recordings have mistakes or things that the performer would like to fix.  Making mistakes and having trouble with, both, technical and knowledge issues is part of moving forward and learning.  Accept; that you will make mistakes, that there will be concepts you don;t understand at first, that you will need to ask for help and guidance from people.  This is all a natural part of the learning process.  Making mistakes means that you are moving forward and not just staying with the familiar and comfortable.

4) STEP AWAY, TEMPORARILY, WHEN YOU GET FRUSTRATED- You've identified your weak areas, you've written a plan for what you want to accomplish this week, you've planned your practice areas, you're getting up very morning and working from the plan.  Yet, you just can not master this one thing this week.  You feel upset with yourself, you feel like it's a waste of time maybe even.   Step away from your instrument and do something else.  Nothing else productive is going to happen when you've reached that stage.  Do something else.  Maybe that IS actually a good time to watch some movie trailers or check where your friends have checked in at.  When you come back to it, you may find that the problem has solved itself.  If not, and you still have trouble, keep removing things until you find the one thing that gives you trouble.  Take away the Dynamics and focus on Notes and Rhythms.  Still not getting it? Slow down the tempo.  Not yet getting it right?  Work on notes only or rhythms only.  Eventually, you will find what the problem is.  If not, send us a question via your Personal Workspace. 


Take control of your time or it will gladly control you.

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is to say 'I don't want to.'" - Lao Tzu 
 "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." - William Penn  
"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." - Will Rogers 

(image- "The Persistence of Memory"- Salvador Dali  1931)



[side note- I have posted details of my dinner and photos of my sleeping dogs on social media sites, so please blame me for your wasted time if you like.]

Every DSM and DLP student has a private, secure, virtual workspace.  This is the hub for your music education.  You have access to the entire DSM Staff, who are glad to answer any questions you have regarding playing your instrument or the musical language.  Video and sound files, relating to your education, can be exchanged here. 

Login from the link at www.dsminfo.com.

You should have received information on your username (generally your primary email address) and password when you started at DSM or DLP.  Please use our contact form if you are not sure of either.

Hopefully, one of the first things you notice is that the entire DSM staff is a consultant on YOUR project!

We're all here to help you with your music education.  Submit a question at any time and it immediately goes to all staff members.  You may end up with several replies to your question and a few different ways to solve your problem.  This is not possible with a traditional method book!

At the top right, you can find another way to access your DLP curriculum material, our calendar of events at DSM and our extensive library of videos for all instruments.  These are both videos we have created and ones we have selected as containing good valid information for music learners.  Spend some time with these.  There is a lot of great information and our library is being constantly updated!

If you're a DSM student you will have a project assigned each week.  This is the; WHAT/WHY/HOW for your musical week, also known as an II Doc.  This is always listed as due at your next session, though of course, some assignments may require several weeks to complete.  But, the goals that your teacher assigns should be possible to accomplish in a week.
You'll find all of your II Docs in the Project Tracker of your workspace;

Your assignment for this week, and past weeks, appear in the Project Tracker area.  This is where you can view all of the comments for your "project".  If you hit Reply at the bottom, your comment or question goes directly to your educator.  You can also post a message that will go to all of your consultants.  This is a great place to post any general music questions you have, or questions on the DLP curriculum.

The message area can also be used to share MP3 files or leadsheets/worksheets for your assignemnts.  Simply click on ATTACH FILES to upload or DOWNLOAD FILES to download any files that your teacher attaches.  This is a wonderful way to expand your lesson materials.

Your private virtual workspace is a unique music education tool and is only available through DSM and DLP.  It's personal care and service using 21st century technology.  We're proud to be able to offer this to our students and hope this brief walk through helps you have a better understanding of how this educational tool can be utilized.

Thanks and keep checking back as I delve further into the DLP Series in future blogs.

- Mike