How to Fix Persistent Problem Spots
You know those places in a piece of music that ALWAYS seem to go wrong?
You try to practice them in every way you can think of, but somehow, EVERY time you get to that point in the song, it goes wrong.
As a performer and teacher I’ve experienced this many times. Fortunately, I’ve found a reliable way to solve those tricky problem spots that just won’t go away.
In this post, I’m going to explain why the normal way of practicing doesn’t work for these spots, and what to do instead to finally fix those persistent mistakes.
Why Normal Practicing Doesn’t Work
First we need to understand why the normal way of practicing doesn’t work for these kinds of tricky spots.
And to understand that, I want you to imagine someone popping a balloon near you.
When you hear that balloon pop, even if you’re expecting it, how does your body react?
Your shoulders raise, you pull your head in, and generally tense up throughout your body.
It’s a fear response that’s hardwired into our human brains.
But here’s the real kicker: if you see someone act like they’re going to pop a balloon, even if they don’t actually do it, you’ll probably still tense up in the same way, because your body is anticipating that scary loud noise.
And so what happens when we have a spot in our music that we know is hard, that never seems to go right? We get scared of it.
And when we’re scared, our bodies respond physically. We get tense, hold our breath, and lock up—and that’s the opposite of what we need to play well. We need to be relaxed and able to move freely.
A long time ago, one of my teachers said to me: Belief is a physical activity.
If you believe that you can’t play that passage, your body responds to that and will make it harder.
You can test this out for yourself right now.
First, pause and notice what your body feels like. Check in with your hips, your shoulders, your chest, and your neck to get a baseline you can compare to in a moment.
Next, think of a passage in a song you’re working on that you find difficult and worry about as you play.
Now imagine yourself playing it. You can look at the music as you do so if you want, and envision yourself playing each string in that passage.
Then check in with your body again. Did you start holding your breath? Did you tense up anywhere you weren’t tense before?
It’s amazing how just thinking of the difficult spot gets such a reaction from the body.
And that happens because you’ve trained yourself to be afraid of that spot—and your body thinks, “Okay, tensing up is how we play that spot.”
I’ve even had this happen where I came back to a piece I learned years prior, and my body still remembered places where it wanted to tense up.
So when fear is the thing making it difficult to play a piece, it’s hard to fix that spot just by normal practice methods—repeating the notes over and over again in isolation.
The good news is, we can retrain the body to make friends with the music and respond in a positive way.
If you believe you can play it - or even if you can redirect your thoughts to something more fun instead of scary - your body will react to match your attitude.
How to Fix Those Problem Spots
So now let’s talk about how to actually do that.
First, we need to come up with a different mental cue for your problem spot.
Normally, as you approach that spot, you might think:
“Oh no, here it comes!”
“It’s time for the hard part”
or even just “ahhhhhh!”
These kinds of thoughts cue your body to tense up to prepare and protect you from that difficult section.
Honestly, even just referring to it as a “problem spot” or “difficult section” can be enough to trigger that fear response.
So instead, we want to come up with something I call a “smile cue.”
As the name suggests, we want something associated with that section that makes you smile.
Truly, the sillier you can make your smile cue, the better.
How I came up with this is a little embarrassing... But I'll share it anyway, haha!
I was working on a piece with a segment I just couldn’t get through, no matter what I did.
So as I sometimes do when I’m alone, I started talking to myself… and this time, I started talking to my music.
I looked at that section and said:
“All right, let’s do this, little darlin’.”
And then I started to laugh, because what a silly thing to call a few bars of music!
But then something interesting happened.
Each time I got to that part of the music, instead of thinking about how much I didn’t want to mess it up, I remembered that silly phrase—and I started to smile instead.
And you know what? I started to be able to play through it without a mistake.
Ideas for Your Own Smile Cue
Here are a few ideas you can use:
Give the section a silly name
Make up some silly lyrics
Imagine the music is telling a story, and something funny happens at that spot
If you want something more grounded, you could also:
Remind yourself to breathe
Use a positive affirmation like “I’ve got this!”
Or my personal favourite: “This is so easy!” (even if you’re kind of fooling yourself—just pretend!)
Basically, any positive association with a passage will help turn that fear response into a confidence response.
Training Your Body to Stay Relaxed
Now, what you think as you play will already make a huge difference, but often your body needs time to really internalize this new way of responding.
So here’s how to train that.
Step 1: Practice Mentally
Start by noticing how your body feels.
Then let go of any tension you’re holding. Check in with your legs, hips, chest, shoulders, and hands. Take a deep breath, and think of your smile cue.
Now imagine yourself playing the passage.
As you do, keep your attention on your body. If you feel tension creeping in, see if you can release it and return to a relaxed state.
If this is difficult, imagine the music at a slower speed, leaving space between the notes.
Depending on how strong your fear response is, you may need to repeat this several times before your body starts to let go.
Step 2: Apply It While Playing
Now we bring this into your actual practice.
Start by checking in with your body again—hips, chest, shoulders, hands—and relax as much as possible. Make sure you’re breathing.
Then:
Play just the segment in isolation
Go very slowly
Shift your attention between what you’re playing and how your body feels
If you notice tension, let it go as best you can. It doesn’t need to be perfect—any amount of relaxation helps.
As it becomes more comfortable:
Gradually increase the speed
Expand to a larger section of the music
As you approach the spot, think your smile cue and check in with your body
If it’s hard to do in real time, look for long notes or rests where you have space to reset and refocus.
A Final Thought
I don’t expect you to fully focus on your body the entire time you play—that’s simply not possible, even for me.
The goal is to find opportunities to shift your attention between:
the music
the instructions for your fingers
and how your body feels
It is a lot, but that’s why we start slow and small.
And it’s also why they say music is good for your brain!
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