How can we teach students to practise?
I know I talk about this a lot, but for me, this is fundamental to good teaching. Learning how to practise should sit firmly in every beginner’s toolbox from the very first lesson.
We spend hours choosing repertoire, refining technique, and discussing musicality, but how often do we explicitly teach the skill of practising itself?
While there is limited formal research on instrumental learning, one influential framework that helps conceptualise development is Fitts and Posner’s three-stage model (1967). Without drifting into a full literature review, their cognitive–associative–autonomous model offers a useful lens through which we can think about practice.
I like to adapt their terminology into something I find more practical for teaching:
Macro practice
Micro practice
Nano practice
These three levels help students understand what they should be practising — and how to do it effectively.
Macro Practice: The Early Foundations
In the early stages, most beginner students practise in a macro format.
At this level, they are learning:
How to produce a sound
Note recognition
Melody and harmony
Pulse and rhythm
Time and key signatures
Basic coordination
Pieces are short. Success is defined clearly: correct notes, correct fingers, accurate rhythm, steady pulse.
The aim at this stage is not artistic mastery, it is accurate construction.
Students need to understand how quavers and crotchets function within a time signature. They need to follow the printed music carefully. They are building the foundations of musical literacy.
Macro practice is broad. It is about assembling the whole.
But here’s the challenge: many students stay in macro practice far too long.
They believe practising means playing the piece from beginning to end — repeatedly.
And that is where we must intervene.
Micro Practice: The Problem-Solving Stage
After an arbitrary period of development, students must transition into micro practice.
This is where real progress accelerates.
Micro practice is about deconstruction.
Let’s take the clarinet as an example.
A common technical hurdle is going “over the break.” Students must learn that:
Increased air velocity is required
Stronger diaphragm support is necessary
The instrument’s resistance changes significantly
The fingering shifts from many fingers down to very few
Spending ten focused minutes addressing just this transition is micro practice.
Rather than playing the entire piece repeatedly and hoping it improves, the student:
Isolates bar 14 (for example)
Gets that bar secure
Adds bar 13 to give context
Expands outward gradually
Not playing backwards, but building backwards.
Micro practice asks:
Where exactly is the problem?
What is causing it?
How can I break it into its smallest workable unit?
I often use the ironing analogy with students:
If you play the mistake every time you play the piece, you are ironing in a crease.
Creases are much harder to remove than they are to prevent.
This stage is highly individual. Every student. Every instrument. Every piece.
But teaching students to recognise problems, rather than blindly repeat repertoire, is transformative.
Nano Practice: The Artistic Stage
Nano practice comes much later.
In Fitts and Posner’s terminology, this aligns with the autonomous stage , where technical execution requires far less conscious effort.
Now the focus shifts.
Nano practice is about:
Tone colour
Phrasing
Style
Dynamic nuance
Interpretation
Character
It is no longer “Can I play this correctly?”
It becomes “What am I saying?”
I often compare this to drawing a house.
A young child draws a house: four windows, central door, triangle roof.
As we mature, we observe more houses. We refine our coordination. We learn to shade, to create depth, to control line and proportion.
Eventually, with years of study and observation, an artist can create something hyper-realistic, or wildly imaginative, full of nuance and detail.
But that level of artistry rests entirely on the foundations built earlier.
Nano practice is artistry layered on secure technique.
The Real Question: What Exactly Should I Practise?
Everything begins with one simple but profound shift:
Instead of saying,
“Practise this piece.”
Say,
“Practise moving smoothly between these two notes until there is no hesitation.”
Instead of,
“Learn bars 1–16.”
Try,
“In bar 8, ensure the pedal lifts cleanly so the phrases don’t blur.”
Or:
Fix the note that growls before it speaks.
Work on clean articulation in one specific rhythmic figure.
Smooth the transition between two awkward fingerings (“fire engines,” as some of my students call them).
Specific. Targeted. Measurable.
Encourage students to keep a notebook with clear written instructions:
What exactly am I fixing?
How will I know when it’s better?
How long will I spend on this?
Practising is a skill in itself.
And like any skill, it must be taught deliberately.
Teach Practice From Lesson One
If we truly want independent musicians, we must teach them how to think during practice.
Macro builds the structure.
Micro refines the mechanism.
Nano creates the art.
But none of it happens accidentally.
From the very first lesson, we should ask:
What is it that I need to practise today?
When students can answer that question clearly, progress becomes purposeful, and artistry becomes possible.