Practice better, play better. It’s not hard to make your practicing five percent better. Try one or two of these.
One. Own your practicing.
This is mostly a change of viewpoint.
We choose to practice. “I want to get better” means “I want to practice.” So practicing is voluntary. (Once you've volunteered, it's also mandatory, because there's no other way to get where you want to go. But it’s still voluntary.)
Owning your practicing means embracing the notion that everything about it starts with you. If your practicing is good, that's you. If it's not so good, also you. If you want to change it, you can change it. Want it to be better? Go ahead and make it better.
Try starting here:
Expect to enjoy your practicing.
Expect that you'll get better at playing.
Expect that you'll also get better at practicing.
Embrace the idea that practicing is a great way to spend your time.
Celebrate your progress.
Two. Schedule it. Start like this:
Make a reasonable guess at how much practicing can fit into your life.
Schedule a week's worth of practicing. Be specific about time of day each day, the elapsed time and the day of the week. (Aim for every day.)
Write down the schedule or put it in your calender.
Stick to your schedule for a week. At the end of the week, evaluate how you did and adjust however you think you need to.
Do that for a month and then sit back and figure out how you made out.
Repeat.
This one step may make more difference in your practicing than anything else.
Three. Organize your practice space.
Make a dedicated practice space where you practice every day, even if it's something you have to set up before each practice and put away afterwards. Make it neat and comfortable: good seat, good work surface, good light, good sound isolation, instrument stand, music stand, books, pencils, etc. Decorate it if you want. Make it a nice place to spend your time.
Four. Use a notebook.
You can use any kind of notebook, and you can use it any way that makes sense to you. Try this:
Personalize it - name, phone number, email (in case you leave it somewhere), photos of musicians, slogans you like.
Every day before you practice, write down the date and time and anything you want to say about what you want to work on.
If you discover something you want to remember, write it down.
Every day after you practice, write down either “Good” if it was a good session by any definition at all. Otherwise write “Done” - you showed up and put in the time, and that’s a different version of “Good.” There's no other option.
Five. Separate practicing from playing. They are two different things.
Don't worry about playing songs all the way through, or getting all the notes. You'll get there sooner or later. That's playing. Pay a little more attention to how you have to move in order to play - what your fingers/ hands/ arms/ shoulders/ everything else are doing. Work on that stuff. That's practicing.
Remember this, from First, Learn to Practice:
Music is not what we do. Music is the result of what we do. We play music, but we practice motion.
And this, too:
Get small and go slow.
Work on small sections. Play them slowly and notice what happens. Build up from there.
Six. Relax and have fun. This means:
Stretch before, during and after.
Make sure you’re not gritting your teeth, holding your breath, or tensing your shoulders. Keep your feet flat on the floor and don’t slump or curl your spine.
Only positive self-talk. There's never a reason to knock yourself over your practicing.
Mix in things you do to get better with things you do just for fun. (There's fun from entertaining yourself, and fun from meeting challenges, and fun from getting better and fun from running the show. Make sure you look for some of all of it.)
End your practicing on a postive note - something you do well and/or enjoy doing.
Seven. Notice more. Whatever you're doing, go an inch or two deeper. Listen more closely. Look more carefully. Pay attention to how your fingertips feel. Spend a little more time on one of the things you least like doing, and find something to like.
Eight. Compare notes with someone else who practices. You can help them and they can help you. Practicing is solitary but it doesn’t have to be lonely.