When it comes down to it, there is absolutely no substitute for practice.  You can develop a special relationship and connection with your instrument by spending a couple hours practicing with it every day.

You should have a regular practice routine that consists of warm of exercises and playing your favorite type of music.  Performing doesn’t necessarily count as practice, although playing at gigs, in church, or for your own personal enjoyment is a vital part of your music development.  Still, it won’t replace the time you spend to practice the piano.

There are certain times, however, when you can’t simply maintain a regular routine.  Sometimes there are other things in life that will keep you away from practice.  Even if this is the case, you should still make time for practicing whenever you can.  Don’t give up on something that may seem like it’ll take forever to learn.  One tactic you can take into consideration is called “target bombing”.

Whenever you have just an hour to practice playing piano, you need to find something that’s generally not in your arsenal.  It can be a lick, scale, transcribed solo, section of a tune—anything.  This is also important:  what you choose must be small.  Don’t set a basic or general goal.  Instead, select a little piece of something (such as a pentatonic lick that you can learn in 12 keys).  Assume that this one hour is the only opportunity you’ll ever have to learn this particular piece.  Tomorrow you’ll be moving on to something else.

You need to have the attitude of, “What, exactly, can I do within the next hour that will improve my playing permanently in one small, yet measurable way?”

Your plan should be to devour this one small thing within one hour.  Devour it so completely that it can’t slip away.  If it’s a lick, for instance, make it a short one and then learn it in several keys.  Practice piano techniques such as your fingering and play it randomly over ii-V progressions.  Solo a few tunes and then work that lick in however you can.  If you can work it into tunes, make sure that the transitions are smooth to and from other voicings.

Keep reminding yourself that if you don’t get it by the end of your hour, you never will.  But if you ingest it entirely, it will immediately begin to appear in your performances.  It’ll become a small element of your style that you can never lose.

This, of course, is target bombing.  It’s focused, intense, and can be tremendously satisfying and effective.  Although at first it may seem like a mere method that you use because you can’t find the time for more routine-oriented piano lesson practice, you will find it to be so successful and enjoyable that you make it your primary approach!

Each small step you take will take you closer to the top! 

This approach truly works wonders for many students.  Unfortunately, it can also fail for some students who aren’t prepared to use the right type of focus or tunnel vision.  You need to be willing to gnaw on one thing for an entire hour.  At first you may have trouble focusing on your objective as you practice playing piano in this way.  Once you successfully target bomb a few times, you’ll realize how effective it can be.  So give it a try!

Copyright 2009 Lauren Paltrow (Stage Pianist)

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