Nothing tells you more about your practice routine than a mistake that you cannot seem to fix. When mistakes occur, many beginning musicians take that as a sign that something is wrong, but a mistake is often a sign of something that is right, namely, the location where your attention should be placed. If you miscue a rhythm, or your finger comes off a key one instant too late, or if a phrase dies in the middle for no apparent reason, it isn’t just a mistake that you need to correct. It’s information. If you can figure out how to use that information, your practice routine will become more peaceful, more precise, and far less frustrating.
The first step in using mistakes is to stop at the moment they happen. Many beginning musicians make a mistake, grimace, and play on to the end of the phrase or the section, as if it were more important to reach the end of the music than to understand the mistake. This allows the confusion to set in more deeply in the hands. The better approach is to stop immediately, go back one beat or one note before the error, and examine what changed. What changed? Was the rhythm here? Did the hand shift? Did the eye lose the place? It helps to define the mistake because a general impression that “that doesn’t sound good” is more difficult to correct than a specific impression that “the third beat is coming early.” This brings us to the next common beginner’s mistake: playing an entire passage over and over again and hoping that somehow magically the mistake will disappear.
Usually, it doesn’t. All you get is a repetition of the mistake. Instead, identify the smallest passage of music that includes the mistake. If you fall apart on the third measure of a four-measure phrase, don’t play the whole phrase. Play just the entrance to the third measure. Play the mistake itself. Play just the note after the mistake. Practice the transition. If the mistake is a rhythmic one, clap the rhythm. If it’s a fingering mistake, practice placing the hand quietly and see if the motion feels cramped. A short practice plan built around mistakes can fit easily into fifteen minutes. In the first few minutes, play a short passage once slowly and listen for the first place that the music falls apart. Spend the next few minutes practicing just that passage, slowly enough so that you have control. Then practice just the entrance into that passage, and the passage after it, so the correction is not isolated.
Finally, play the full passage again to see how it feels. This way, mistakes won’t be permitted to multiply, because each practice session has a specific repair job to do, rather than a general aim to “play it better.” Another habit of beginning musicians is to get mad too quickly at the same mistake. Tension will change the body, and a tense body will not play as steadily. Fingerings become stiff, the pulse speeds up, the ears stop listening. When you feel yourself getting mad, stop the music and switch modes. Sing the line. Tap the rhythm on the instrument but don’t play. Air the fingerings. Often these quiet modes of practice can tell you if your problem is with reading, with fingering, or with memorization. They also renew your concentration without putting you into battle mode.
Not all feedback comes from the outside. You can build feedback into your practice routine. After each passage, ask yourself one question. Was the rhythm steady? Was the tone even? Was the line connected? Only one question. Too many at once scatter your attention. Over time, this practice will change the way you regard mistakes. They will stop being interruptions and become signs telling you where to put your attention in the next practice. Music needs correction to grow, but correction will only work if you slow down long enough to hear what the mistake is trying to tell you.