I’m on my 4 post of my series on Tools for Practicing. You can find the previous posts here, here and here.
Today’s topic is one that’s a no-brainer, and it’s a twist on the old saying, “Practice makes perfect”. Do you know how many times in my life in regard to practicing I heard that phrase? Too many to count! Or what my paternal grandmother, whose piano I use to teach with, always said: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until the good is better and the better is best.” In my life there’s been no shortage of platitudes about practice and perfection or improvement.
We know that no matter what the case, repeatedly doing things brings improvement. Shooting a basketball at a goal will hopefully bring improvement. Creating art on a blank canvas will hopefully bring improvement. And the story goes on and on. For 99.999999999999% of the population, doing something the first time will not bring about mastery of the craft.
So what’s the repetition concept about? The more we repeat something, but making sure that we consistently repeat it well is the goal. For me, I say this as a former “good enough”er. When I took lessons my answer was, “It’s good enough”. And that only got me so far. It was all about my expectation of myself. When I expected it to be “good enough”….it was. It was passable. It wasn’t excellent or the best work I could do. And so as a teacher and as someone who has had to work on that lesson at an older age, I’m trying to encourage and instill that in my students.
Repeating something is boring. There’s no two ways about it. But how can we repeat things to make it engaging for our brain and challenging as well? I like to try to challenge myself to play a measure, a line, a section, something like 5 times in a row without making a mistake. What happens if a mistake happens in time number 4? Start over. That sounds tough, but if you’re following my previous suggestions of going slow, taking the music apart and looking for patterns, this isn’t as hard as it may seem. And ultimately, the overall goal here is success in overall musicianship without being overly frustrated. The frustrated part of things unfortunately may not be avoided at times.
An example I have used with students in trying to break this up, because it is difficult to focus and concentrate on repeating things over and over is to do it for a time, whether that’s a number of attempts or a specified time period, then go to something that is known and fun to play. A mental palate cleanser, if you will. Then come back to it. Many times when we’re so focused or feeling like we’re not getting it, a little mental break to do something else can be a benefit.
The ultimate repetition comes from consistently practicing. Having the routine and structure of a set time and expectation when you’ll be practicing is important. My mother would make me practice while she was doing the evening dishes. And because we didn’t have a dishwasher, I’m convinced she took her time doing the dishes so I’d practice longer! While she never gave me an answer when I asked, her response made me think that was the case. In the moment, I wasn’t too happy about it, but now, I’m thankful. It made me a better musician because I had to spend time with music. In repetition. Again and again.
So set yourself a regular practice time. In that practice time, repeat things over and over again until they improve. Don’t settle for “good enough”. You’ll be thankful you did, and you’ll be a better musician because of it.