How to Play Through a Whole Song (Without Stopping for Mistakes)

Have you ever wondered why you can’t play through a song all the way through without stopping or making mistakes?

I’ve been teaching harp students for more than ten years and nearly all of them practice the wrong way when it comes to getting through an entire song.

So in this blog post I’m going to show you the mistake that’s stopping you, how to practice the right way, and some common pitfalls to avoid, so you can actually play complete songs without stumbling through.

What's Stopping You

To start, you need to understand why most students practice the wrong way in preparation for playing a whole piece and make a ton of mistakes and pauses as a result.

And the best way to think about this is that playing all the way through a song is like running a marathon.

To prepare for a marathon, you start with shorter distances, and slowly increase the distances you run until you work your way up to the full 26 miles.

No one in their right mind would only practice sprints of a few hundred meters, and then show up on race day and try to do a whole marathon.

But unfortunately, most students don’t think about practicing in this way.

The main practice advice you hear is to work on small chunks instead of trying to play through a whole piece.

And that’s for good reason! It is important to practice that way when you’re learning notes or trying to correct specific issues with your piece.

But, most students will then jump straight from those little sprints to trying to play everything in one go, completely skipping the incremental increases that come in the middle.

They’ll go from very small sections to playing the whole song and say, “I can play it right when I just play that spot. Why can’t I do it when I play the whole song?”

Well, just like you need to build up endurance for a marathon, you need to build mental endurance for playing an entire song.

There are so many things to think about and keep track of that your brain can get tired when it has to keep going for so long without a break.

How to Practice the Right Way

Now that we know what not to do, I’m going to show you how to practice the right way to build the endurance you need to get through the whole song.

The key is to start with what is doable.

So if you’re able to play a small chunk, start by playing that. That might look like just one measure to start with.

Then, add two small chunks together, and play two measures.

If it feels doable, you can add a third measure, and then a fourth.

If that feels like too much at once still and you’re unable to play through without mistakes, develop a second smaller chunk first, then add them together.

In that case, rather than going straight for a four-bar chunk, I’ll practice two 2-bar chunks first, then add them together.

From here you want to develop several of these medium-sized segments in the same way.

So in this case I could go to the next line, and start by playing the first two measures, then just the third and fourth measures, then all four of those measures in a row, and so on.

Then when you have several 4-measure segments, try doing an 8 measure segment, and continue working up the size of the segments you play like that.

Each time you move up to a longer section, make sure to start off by playing more slowly than usual to reduce the mental strain it takes to play it.

Continue working like that until you’re playing through the whole piece.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Lastly, let’s cover 3 common mistakes students make when trying out this system of practicing. Avoid these and you’ll see a drastic improvement in the number of mistakes you make.

Always starting at the beginning

First, Try to make sure you’re not always starting at the beginning of your piece.

If you’ve ever worked on a piece of music that you could start really well, but then fizzle out and barely be able to get to the end, this is why.

Make sure you cover the whole song in medium and larger sized chunks before playing straight through from beginning to end.

And don’t upgrade to a larger section unless everything inside it has been addressed in a smaller chunk first.

Only playing correctly once

The next thing you want to avoid doing is only playing correctly once.

Whatever size of chunk you’re working on, it’s always best to repeat it correctly 3-5 times before moving on, to make sure what you’ve practiced really sticks.

Your brain is going to remember whatever you do the most, so if takes you 10 tries to play it correctly, that means you played it 9 times wrong, and 1 time right.

What do think your brain is going to remember?

So before you move on, even out the scales a little bit, and repeat the passage correctly a few more times.

Not Looking At The Music

The last thing that students will overlook is really easy to forget, but makes a huge difference when it comes to playing for an extended period of time.

The more music you’ll be playing in a row, the more your brain has to remember, and the more likely it is you’ll need a visual reminder of what comes next.

So, practice looking at your sheet music. And I mean practice looking.

Plan when you’re going to look, and know where you need to be looking at that point in the song.

Kind of like how we place our fingers on strings, you can think of this like placing your eyes.

Make a marking on the page at those spots so they jump out at you and are easy to find. Using colour works great for that.

Then, as you practice your segments of various lengths, include the act of looking at the planned times in your music.

By tailoring your practice to playing for long stretches of time, you'll see a big improvement in how many mistakes you make when playing through a whole song.

Happy harping!

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