Did Grammy-winning musicians always like to practice when they were kids – or did they moan and groan about it, just like the kids in your band or orchestra? I asked some Grammy winners how they felt about practicing when they were youngsters. Here are a few of the responses from them that I have presented in my book, The Young Musician's Survival Guide, which has just been released in a newly updated and greatly expanded second edition.

From Joshua Bell, Grammy-winning violinist:
"'My mother insisted I practice violin every day, even if only for half an hour. Then I could do other things,' he reports. 'I had plenty of fights about not wanting to practice. I liked practicing much of the time, just not always.' In his mid-teens, he went through a phase of sometimes taking off several days. 'I goofed off a little too much then. I was able to learn quickly and pull everything together a few days before a lesson.'" (Page 23)

From Wynton Marsalis, Grammy-winning trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer:
"'Before eighth grade, I didn't want to play music. I wanted to play basketball,' says Wynton Marsalis, who first tooted a trumpet at age six. This future Grammy winner took some lessons in elementary school and was in the school band, but he didn't practice much. Instead he practiced basketball—all the time." (Page 27)

From André Watts, Grammy-winning pianist:
"'I liked playing piano as a kid but didn't always like doing the work.'" (Page 35)

From Gil Shaham, Grammy-winning violinist:
"'As a kid, I found practicing exercises boring, but not the music I really wanted to play.'" (Page 38)

Gil Shaham's comment pinpoints one of the keys that turned all of these future award winners into regular practicers: finding music they "really wanted to play." As Wynton Marsalis explains, in eighth grade his game plan changed when he discovered the music he "really wanted to play." That's when he started putting on recordings after coming home from school: "a John Coltrane record, or a Clifford Brown or Miles Davis. I thought, 'I want to play jazz the way they play'... I loved playing ball, but it seemed you could only go to a certain point with it. You could hone your game and beat people, but after that, what? It seemed like music was deeper... I stopped shooting a hundred free throws a day and practiced music all the time – an hour in the morning, an hour in the middle of the day, an hour later, or I'd have a rehearsal or gig. I didn't miss a day of practice for seven years." (Page 27)

Also offering helpful hints are two-dozen music educators and more than 150 top teen musicians who share ideas for how to make the most of online and offline high-tech musical resources. The following brief excerpts give a few strategies for success offered by the many musicians, students, and teachers who are featured in The Young Musician's Survival Guide:

Dare Ya!
"Games helped violin star Joshua Bell stick with practicing when his teen mind started wandering toward visions of video screens. 'What kept me going were the challenges,' he recalls. 'I'd set up challenges for myself, like I wouldn't stop until I did a difficult passage a certain number of times in a row without a mistake. By the time I did it that many times, I'd learned it and made a game out of it.'

"Besides being fun, this is something many teachers recommend. Often people practice a passage over and over until they get it and then go right on. That means they've played that hard part correctly only once, but played it wrong loads of times. Chances are they'll mess up again next time they try it. After you finally do a passage right, repeat it a few times correctly to pound it into your fingers and brain." (Page 44)

"How many times should you repeat it? Experts differ. Pro trumpeter Susan Slaughter of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra recommends, 'Begin at a tempo that allows you to play the passage perfectly three times, then gradually increase your speed. This method takes patience but it works!'" (Page 60)

Warm It Up
"Wynton Marsalis feels a good warm-up needs to cover all the basics involved in playing the instrument. That's how he organized his warm-ups when he got serious about trumpet as a teen. 'I learned that from basketball,' he says. 'In basketball, you practice your foot movement, your floor game, going to either side, your jump shot, free-throw shooting. It seemed like the intelligent thing to do the same with trumpet, to work on all the different aspects of technique.'

"A teacher can help you pick things to zoom in on for a warm-up... Solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie notes, 'My warm-ups are related to pieces I'm learning. I use passages from the pieces.'

'Find a warm-up that makes you happy,' recommends flutist Paula Robison, who tries to play hers as musically as possible. 'It should be filled with music from the first note, so you warm up that part of your playing, too. If you find a warm up that's right for you, it can help you get over that dry period when you take the instrument out of the case and may not feel like practicing.'

"Some musicians change their warm-up from day to day, but Ms. Robison has been doing the same one since she was a teen. 'The same arpeggios, long tones, and scales,' she notes. 'My father used to joke, "Haven't you learned those things yet?"' Sure, she learned them. That's why she keeps doing them, for the boost they give her." (Pages 52-53)

Listen Up
"Careful listening inspired many pros as kids, and even encouraged Wynton Marsalis to put down a basketball for a trumpet. Joshua Bell got all fired up about working harder on violin as an 11-year-old at music camp where he first heard recordings by violin great Jascha Heifetz. Jazz star Joshua Redman's mom played all kinds of recordings at home—classical, rock, soul, jazz, music from India, rhythm and blues. He soaked it all up. 'My teachers have been the musicians I've listened to on records or gone to hear in performance,' he observes. 'Listen to whatever kind of music you want to play. That music has a language. The way to learn that language is to listen to great examples of it.'" (Pages 45-46)

"'Having access to so much music online is great for being a well-rounded musician,' says violinist Hilary Hahn. 'I use the Internet to listen to a fair amount of folk, trip hop [a kind of British hip hop], rock, and world music. Listening to any kind of music informs your perspective. With a rap song, for instance, figure out why you like it and how to translate that energy into your playing.'" (Page 133)

Amy Nathan is the author of several books for young people, including The Young Musician's Survival Guide, Meet The Musicians, and Meet The Dancers.

Text copyright © 2008 by Amy Nathan. Excerpted from The Young Musician's Survival Guide: Tips from Teens and Pros, Second Edition, by Amy Nathan. Excerpts reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information, visit www.amynathanbooks.com or www.oup.com.