On practice expertise

One of the most frequent questions I get from my students, is “how do I know if I practiced enough today”? For a professional - the answer is that one can never practice enough, and perhaps can only be answered by a seasoned therapist :). However, regardless of one’s level of musical accomplishment or ambition, one’s ability to assess one’s own progress on a given day is essential to staying motivated in one’s practice, and to feel confident in performance.

So how do you know that you have practiced enough in a given practice session? The question to ask, is “have you made improvement on a that passage or section that has been giving you trouble?”, AND “are you now able to play the challenging elements correctly, repeatedly and consistently ?” If the answer is an unequivocal YES! to ALL the requirements, then indeed, you have practiced those particular challenges enough, until …..tomorrow ;).