It is important to realize that there are several crucial parts of a practice session. Among these is Warm-Up, Drill, Review, Practice, and Recap. A good practice session will spend a definite time (usually at the beginning) in which the performer plays a variety of exercises to get them mentally and physically ready to play. Drill is the concentrated effort to define or enhance a skill. Drills will often use material the performer is already comfortable with to perfect a new skill. Review is easy to understand because everyone knows that "what you don't use, you lose". Practice is intense concentration on a certain part of a piece of music. In practice, you become the teacher as well as student. You must have clearly defined goals and several ways in mind on how to reach these goals. The Recap (or going over the focus of the practice) allows you to evaluate your progress and plan for the next practice session.
1. Performer goes through a set warm up exercise. This may include things such as long tone exercises, flexibility exercises, scales, range extending exercises, and mental imaging.
2. Drill using a set of exercises on scale patterns (interval studies etc.) may be used to develop a certain skill such as articulation or rhythmic reading.
3. Music that the performer is currently responsible for playing is reviewed. You must remember that maintenance is part of the over all goal. You must maintain your skills.
4. Sections of the music in which the player has trouble playing are broken down into easy manageable pieces. These pieces are honed one at a time and gradually added back together to recreate the entire section. These pieces may be played slowly or with a constant metronome depending upon the skill of the performer and the goal desired. If certain specific technical skills are required to achieve the selected music, you can include exercises that will sharpen these in the Drill and Warmup phases of your practice session.
5. In Recapping you would make note of what you achieved, what you haven't, and what you need to do during the next practice. This is where you would try to put it all together if you haven't already done so. It is a good idea to do some sight reading during every practice session. Remember You must maintain your skills.