Of course, the instruments themselves don't make any sounds at all. They all require one thing -- the human touch. A person must take up the instrument and coax the voice from within it. And just as a new-born baby can't recite poetry, a novice musician can't evoke the instrument's full natural voice. Through practice, he or she develops a level of skill with that instrument.

Don't confuse skill with talent. Skill is acquired through hard work and a desire to excel. Talent is an innate ability; a gift that is bestowed on us at birth. Everyone has talent, but some people seem to have only to glance at an instrument and have it emit the most beautiful sounds. These musicians are blessed with a wealth of natural talent. The rest of us must spend countless hours 'wood shedding' in order to make our improvements. We depend more on our skill, which we hone and build upon with practice, to make us good players. Using that practice time effectively may be the most important thing a player can do to improve his or her musical skill level.

The goal in practicing is to improve our ability to coax the natural voice from our instrument. We want to be as expressive and nimble with it as we are with our own voice. Without thinking, we all use inflections, whispers, shouts and myriad other devices to express ourselves vocally. Ideally, we should be equally adept at manipulating the instrument's voice to express musical ideas. Most of us can't spend as much time playing and practicing as we do speaking, so we must make the most of the time we do have with the instrument.

Daily practice is necessary to sustain progress. When you skip days or weeks, the improvements you might have made fade quickly away. Establish a daily practice regimen that you can stick to. If you work a 'normal' job every day, it's a good idea to practice before you start working. You'll feel good knowing that you've been musically productive before you even begin the work day. Also, take one day of the week off. The rest will help you maintain a fresh approach to your music.

And don't over-do it. If you intend to practice for more than an hour-a-day, work up to it slowly. Don't jump right in with two hours in the morning and two at night. You can easily cause permanent damage in the form of tendonitis, carpal tunnel, or other repetitive stress injuries. These are debilitating and may never heal. If you do feel discomfort while you're practicing, stop immediately. Do not keep going and think the pain will go away. If you feel pain every time you play, see a doctor.

You should also strive for privacy when you practice. If your environment is quieter at night than it is in the morning, set aside time in the evening. Let those around you know that this is your own time and that you are not to be disturbed. Turn off your beeper, don't answer the phone, and stay out of earshot of the television or stereo. The further you are from the mainstream of household activity, the less likely you are to get distracted. Practicing in private also helps you feel less self-conscious about making mistakes.

And if you don't make mistakes when you practice, you aren't working on the right material. You should be concentrating almost solely on the passages that give you trouble. Instead of playing a song through from start to finish over and over, you should play it through only once to warm up and then work on the difficult measures. During the warm-up, make note (no pun intended) of any bars where you miss notes or beats. Then go back and practice each of these trouble-spots slowly enough so you can play every note clearly. Repeat the offending section until you can play it twice without errors. Then increase the speed a little and repeat the section some more until you can play it twice without errors. Continue this way until you can play the part up to speed. If after you increase the speed you find that you can't play it without making a mistake, slow it down again and repeat the section until you can play it cleanly.

Practice sometimes seems like drudgery. The repetition gets boring and it's easy for your mind to wander while you're playing a passage over and over. You go into a sort of 'auto-pilot' mode and your fingers move without your brain being engaged. While this is sometimes desirable when you're performing, it can be counter-productive during practice. Stay aware of what your hands are doing to make sure you're playing a passage correctly. If you are playing it wrong over and over, you wind up reinforcing mistakes rather than correcting them. And if, while you practice, your wondering about what to have for dinner, you are not fully present for the activity at hand. Keep focused on the instrument and making it sound as musical as you can. Even if you're practicing "Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star", you should be fully aware of the sound (or the voice) that you are forming.

Varying your practice material is a good way to minimize the monotony of repetition. If you work on songs A, B, and C on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and songs D, E, and F on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays, you won't become bored with your daily practice. And be sure to do warm-ups every time you pick up your instrument.

Developing a good sense of timing is as important in music as playing the correct notes. Just as with spoken language, your playing must maintain a natural, rhythmic flow. If your speech is fractured and difficult to follow, no matter how profound your words are, people will have a hard time listening to you. In music, if you hit every note but your rhythm is off, the musical message will be lost. A metronome is the best practice aid available to this end. It serves a couple of different purposes. First and foremost, it keeps you playing in time. It taps out an indisputable beat, and as long as you listen to it, you'll be right on the money. Secondly, a metronome helps mark your progress on a given piece or passage. When you slow a difficult part down, make note of the metronome setting at which you can play it without making any mistakes. As you master the piece, set the speed higher and higher as described earlier. Keep track of your progress by marking down the songs and metronome settings that you're working on in a practice journal. This makes it possible for you to know exactly how fast you played it yesterday, the day before, last week, etc.

Good technique is the cornerstone of good musicianship. If you form proper habits when you start playing an instrument, you'll set a strong foundation upon which you can build. If you form bad habits, you may find at some point that your technique actually hinders your playing ability. Breaking old habits is extremely difficult, especially if you've been repeating them for years. Do everything you can up front, including taking lessons from a reputable teacher, to develop the proper technique for your instrument. While you practice, pay close attention to maintaining that technique. Eventually, it will become second nature and you won't have to think about it.

Remember, when you practice, you are improving your ability to express yourself musically. Strive to find your instrument's natural voice and listen for that voice in every scale, arpeggio, or paradiddle that you play. Follow these rules for effective practice and you will be rewarded with a lifetime of music.

Practice daily, but don't over-do it

Don't practice mindlessly.

Focus on the musicality of what you're working on, even if it's only a C major scale.

Work on material that you find difficult

Use a metronome

Keep a practice journal

Develop good technique.