- Sarah SPARK
- April 15, 2025
Cake is the Best
Imagine stepping onto a stage, the spotlight shining down, nerves tingling with excitement. You take a deep breath, ready to perform, but what sets apart a great performance from a good one? The answer lies in a concept that can transform your practice and elevate your music: intentional practice. This isn’t just about putting in hours of work; it’s about practicing with purpose and directed focus. Let's dive into the core principles of intentional practice and how they can change your musical journey for the much better.
Great Recipes make Great Cakes
Imagine stepping onto a stage, the spotlight shining down, nerves tingling with excitement. You take a deep breath, ready to perform, but what sets apart a great performance from a good one? The answer lies in a concept that can transform your practice and elevate your music: intentional practice. This isn’t just about putting in hours of work; it’s about practicing with purpose and directed focus. Let's dive into the core principles of intentional practice and how they can change your musical journey for the much better.
HOW SPARK PRACTICE WORKS
Great Performance starts with
Great Practice
And Expert-led Strategic Training
Achieve consistent and confident success with SPARK Practice's proprietary, neuroscience-driven Intentional Practice System
Get Neuroscience on Your Side
Maximize your progress with neuroscience-driven strategies and principles of learning and performance.
Get Better Every Time You Practice
Take your practice further with the SPARK Practice Formula, proven to accelerate learning and boost confidence.
Flex Your Courageous Performance Mindset
Your mindset is your superpower - permanently level-up to your resilient, kind, and brave SPARK Performance Mindset.
Know You'll be Great On Stage
Prepare concerts, auditions, and competitions with invincible, easy confidence from the SPARK PATH to Performance
Be the Teacher You Want to Be
Support your students to become curious, autonomous learners and performers so you can concentrate on the music
Cake is better when it's made with love
This all comes back to Intention. When we know why and how we want to do something, and we commit to it with determination and intention, the chances of us succeeding are much greater.
Further, when we have a strategy and framework to work from, these elements come together more quickly and more organically - because we’re nurturing a clear pathway to success rather than giving equal weight to all of the confusing options.
We can always refine and modify our goals - but to act with intention will give us more options and help us make the impact we really look for: the connection with our audience.
1
Spend 5 minutes on a Practice Plan
A couple major differences that I experienced as an elite rower were:
- 60-70% of my time training was accompanied by a coach, even at an elite level. Imagine if 60-70% of the time you played/practiced was with your teacher?!
- I didn’t have to worry about what to practice, all I had to do was show up well-rested with a good attitude, and I could trust that my coach had a plan.
- My coaches had a training path mapped out for my progression - leading my training towards big goals, and also accounting for rest and recovery.
2
Use my Best Practice SPARKs
The difference in time means that as musicians, we miss out on active feedback and are left to fend for ourselves much earlier in our musical, technical, and mental game development than sports athletes.
In music, our expectations for excellence are often unmet because students / learners don’t have the support they need to install the right information (theory & practical)
Great Recipes make Great Cakes
This all comes back to Intention. When we know why and how we want to do something, and we commit to it with determination and intention, the chances of us succeeding are much greater.
Further, when we have a strategy and framework to work from, these elements come together more quickly and more organically - because we’re nurturing a clear pathway to success rather than giving equal weight to all of the confusing options.
We can always refine and modify our goals - but to act with intention will give us more options and help us make the impact we really look for: the connection with our audience.
Try this SPARK Practice Plan
SOUND
Everything you need to know about Cake
PERFORMANCE
What Elite Sports Teaches us about Audition Preparation
ATTUNEMENT
What Elite Sports Teaches us about Audition Preparation
RHYTHM
What Elite Sports Teaches us about Audition Preparation
KINESTHETIC
What Elite Sports Teaches us about Audition Preparation
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The point of using dummy text for your paragraph is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters. making it look like readable English.
The point of using dummy text for your paragraph is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters. making it look like readable English.
Spark the conversation
This all comes back to Intention. When we know why and how we want to do something, and we commit to it with determination and intention, the chances of us succeeding are much greater.
Further, when we have a strategy and framework to work from, these elements come together more quickly and more organically - because we’re nurturing a clear pathway to success rather than giving equal weight to all of the confusing options.
We can always refine and modify our goals - but to act with intention will give us more options and help us make the impact we really look for: the connection with our audience.
See you in the practice room!
Sarah ⚡️❤️
What's The Practice Room?
It's our online community with activities, guided practice sessions, meetups for musicians, practice retreats, and more!
Practice Room Essentials, SPARK Practice Library