How to Make Practice Feel Like Performance

Every musician knows the value of practice — hours spent working on scales, tricky passages, and acquiring technical fluency. It can be a lonely process.

But there is something you can do that will help make every practice session feel more like the thrill of a real performance. And the good news is, this will not just keep you engaged, but it will supercharge your musical skills.

The trick is to practise with playalong tracks.

Having access to playalong tracks is like having your own personal musical trainer, one who keeps you engaged and makes you a better musician. Here’s why:

1. The complete piece is more satisfying

Especially if you play a single line instrument like the trumpet, violin or flute, a piece of music is often written with an accompaniment, usually on piano. So a piece doesn’t sound complete without that backing. Playing with accompaniment is therefore a lot more satisfying. This, in turn will make you want to practise for longer leading to more rapid progress.

Pianists can also get the same satisfaction by practising duets—we have a range of such pieces here on 8notes, and for most of them your computerized duo partner will happily play along with you as often as you like. For example Flute Duets, Violin Duets, Trumpet Duets

2. Improving rhythm and timing

When practising alone it’s easy to get into bad habits. Perhaps playing an easy phrase too quickly, or a hard one too slowly! Sometimes we read a rhythm the wrong way. Playing with a backing track will quickly help you identify these problems, since if you do not play correctly in time, you will not be able to fit your part with that of the accompaniment.

3. Enhances musical expression

Good backing tracks, such as the ones you'll find here on 8notes, include changes in dynamics and other musical details such as legatos, staccatos, tenutos and more. Playing with a backing track will encourage you also to play with sensitivity to these musical details, since you will need to match your playing with what you hear.

4. Strengthening listening skills

Talking of what you hear, using a backing track will build your listening skills, not just because you need to match the dynamics and articulation of the backing track, but because it will improve your aural awareness of chords, cues and counterpoint.

Playing with an accompaniment will also help you to play with good intonation, i.e. ‘in tune’, because you will be able to compare what you are playing with a perfectly ‘in tune’ accompaniment.

5. Building confidence.

Playing with a backing track provides simulations of real performing situations, which will boost your confidence when playing with others and in front of an audience. It will develop your ensemble skills, helping you to know when to blend-in, follow or lead within a group.

Want to try it?

8notes offers thousands of pieces with playalong tracks, covering everything from Mozart to jazz standards. You can play three pieces for free every day — or unlock unlimited access for the price of a single music lesson.

Explore playalong tracks on 8notes.com by looking for the keyboard and band icons next to the play button, or by exploring the duet section for your instrument.

 
8notes playalong options