One of the questions I’m often asked is, “How do I develop flawless technique?”

Most musicians think that the key to fixing uneven fingers or sloppy runs is through repetition. Repeating passages over and over while gradually increasing the tempo. The only problem? When you get to performance tempo, your fingers stumble and the notes start to fall apart, leaving you frustrated that all your hard work hasn’t paid off.

And I’ve been there. In high school (and even into college), I would rush through fast passages, skip notes, and hope I’d land with the pianist on the next beat. I was doing all the right “repetitions” but I still wasn’t getting consistent results.

That’s when I realized that flawless technique isn’t only about having fast fingers.

Yes, it’s true that you need solid coordination between your fingers and tongue. But the real breakthrough comes from training your brain and body to work together.

And here’s the best part: you can start strengthening that connection without even touching your instrument.

In today’s post, you’ll learn five ways to do exactly that. Let’s get started!

➡️ BTW, if you leave practice sessions wondering if you’ve covered everything, grab your copy of the Ultimate Practice Audit Checklist so you never miss another beat. ⬅️

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1. Check Your Posture for Tension

Everything in your body is connected. This means that the way you stand, sit, and hold your instrument directly impacts your ability to cleanly and accurately execute a technical passage. 

That’s because poor—or even lazy—posture causes unnecessary muscle tension. And because everything is interconnected, slouching while playing can cause tension in your back, which can then lead to tension in your shoulders, arms, and ultimately, your fingers. 

Or if you’re a singer, poor posture can cause you to force the notes out, straining your vocal mechanism. This compromises the muscles around your vocal mechanism, which can lead to performance injuries. 

When you’re practicing, take time between repetitions to check your posture. 

How to Check Your Posture While Practicing

Ask yourself these questions to check your posture:

• Are your feet flat on the floor with your weight evenly distributed?
• Are your hips over your ankles? If your pelvis and hips are too far forward and over your toes, you may experience lower back pain. 
• If you’re sitting, does your chair allow your back to be in a suitable playing position? 
• Are you hunching your shoulders when you play?
• Holding your instrument with a vice grip?
• Gripping the floor with your toes?

Taking the time to check for and release tension not only makes challenging passages feel easier, but it also prevents injuries. Plus, it builds a stronger foundation for reliable technique.

And if you want to dive deeper into posture and tension, check out this blog post. It was originally written for flutists, but it contains insights that are applicable to all musicians.

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2. Assess Your Breathing

Even if you don’t play a wind instrument, the quality of your breath has a direct impact on the quality of your playing.  In fact, strong breath support for musicians is one of the fastest ways to reduce tension and improve consistency.

Here’s why:

Taking a shallow breath makes it difficult to manage nerves. When you’re nervous—which you may be for that difficult passage —your oxygen-to-carbon dioxide ratio gets imbalanced. Short, quick, and shallow breaths only exacerbate the problem. 

Think of your lungs like a balloon. A fully inflated balloon deflates more naturally than one partially filled with air. In a balloon that’s only half-full, you have to squeeze it to remove the rest of the air. 

If you’re a wind player, not taking a full breath may result in excess muscle tension because you’re having to tense your support muscles to squeeze the air out of your lungs.

Improving Your Breathing

Signs that you may be taking shallow breaths:

• Your shoulders lift when breathing instead of your ribs expanding up and out.
• Your jaw or throat feels tight before a phrase
• You take quick, panicked breaths before a tough passage
• You squeeze your abdominal and back muscles when exhaling.

When breathing, make sure you’re relaxed. This allows your ribs to float freely, and your diaphragm to move your stomach organs out of the way, which helps your lungs to inflate fully. 

Good breathing and technique go hand in hand. The more freedom you give your breath, the more reliable your technique becomes.

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3. Score Study: Analyze Challenging Passages

For a musician, score study is one of the best ways to train your brain away from your instrument. By taking an in-depth look at challenging passages in the score, you’re less likely to panic and doubt yourself once you pick up your instrument.

Quite often, note overwhelm occurs because you’re thinking only about executing the notes and not about the micro and macro phrasing—the larger picture. That’s why score study is a perfect complement to typical practice. 

Here’s what you can do in your score study—no PhD in Music Theory required. 

• Find the skeleton of the phrase—finding the main melodic notes helps you understand the foundational melody of even the most difficult passages. 
• Identify neighbor notes, passing notes, and other ornamental notes to understand how they support the skeletal melody.
• Find the peak of the phrase and other midpoints along the way. 
• Look for patterns and scales you recognize.
• Look at what the other parts are doing.
• Write in any necessary cues—don’t skip this, even professionals write in cues.
• Find the micro and macro phrases to understand phrase hierarchy.

This type of score study not only saves you time in the practice room but also transforms how confidently you approach new repertoire. It’s one of the strategies I delve into much deeper inside my signature program, The Practice Code for Musicians—where I teach you how to combine analysis, strategy, and artistry so that every practice session builds confidence for the stage.

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4. Use Rhythmic Solfège to Improve Your Rhythm

Sometimes, technical errors are more of an issue with rhythmic coordination than the actual movement of your fingers. 

One of the best ways to improve rhythm away from your instrument is to use rhythmic solfège, where you speak the rhythms out loud. This removes the playing aspect from your practice and allows you to focus on rhythmic accuracy.  

How to use rhythmic solfège:

Practice snapping your fingers or clapping while saying the rhythms with the metronome. I like using “TOH,” “TEE,” and “TAH” rather than the actual counts like “1 E & A”. 

Using rhythmic solfège helps you hear where you may be rushing through a passage or playing a rhythm incorrectly. It also helps strengthen your internal pulse. 

Want an added challenge? Conduct and speak the rhythms. It’s sort of like patting your head and rubbing your belly. You’ll find it really highlights where your “playing” self isn’t lining up with your “conductor” self. 

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5. Mental Practice: Use Memorization to Improve Technique

In fast passages packed with tons of notes, your brain doesn’t have time to read each note one by one consciously. It goes on autopilot and executes whatever you’ve practiced, even if it’s the wrong notes. 

That’s why memorization and mental practice are essential for musicians. 

By memorizing a passage and mentally recalling it, you train your brain to learn the notes away from your instrument, strengthening the correct neural pathways—or execution plans as I like to call them. It’s the same principle as rhythmic solfège: isolating one element (notes, in this case) to build more reliable technique. 

The beauty of mental practice is that you can do it anywhere. In grad school, I’d often review scores on the bus to and from campus. It made my actual practice room time more efficient and dramatically improved my accuracy.

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Bonus Tip: Mindset is Everything

Your brain is more powerful than your technique. If you have doubts about your ability to play a passage, whether for a lesson or performance, odds are you’ll make a mistake. 

This is because your subconscious believes what you tell it. And if you tell yourself you can’t play a passage, no matter how much you prepare, it won’t come out the way you want. 

This is why it’s so important for musicians to take time to get in the right headspace. Use positive self-talk and avoid words like “don’t” and “can’t.” Tell yourself that you can play that passage so you don’t doubt your technique. 

Write affirmations if you have to. I had a student who use to self-sabotage herself when it came to performances. To help her with her mindset and performance anxiety, I had her write daily affirmations to rewire her mindset. And her next performance was rock-solid. 

Bottom line: mindset shapes performance. Envision yourself succeeding, and your technique will rise to meet the expectation.

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As you prepare for your next lesson, performance, or audition, use these strategies to help you develop a stronger and more stable technique. And remember, they won’t replace the technical practice with your instrument, but they’re an excellent way to add to your practice. 

As the late Marcel Moyse said, “It’s a question of time, patience, and intelligent work.”

Which of these strategies are you excited to implement in your practice? Let me know in the comments below. 

And if you want to be sure you’ve given everything in your practice sessions, download the Practice Audit Checklist.