The Practice of Practice

by Jonathan Harnum

“There is no such thing as maintenance. If you’re not trying to get better, you’re getting worse.”

When great musicians practice, they go slowly enough that errors are avoided. When an error does crop up, expert practicers fix those errors immediately. That’s the strategy: fixing a mistake immediately. Anybody can do it, and anybody who adopts that strategy will get better faster than those who don’t.

In a 1995 study, a team of researchers led by Gottfried Schlaug discovered that the corpus callosum—the conduit between the hemispheres of the brain—was significantly larger in pianists who started studying before age seven.

Practicing slowly enough to avoid mistakes is probably the single most difficult thing for beginners to do. It can be a challenge for more seasoned players as well. I’m a long way from a beginner and I still have to remind myself to slow down when I practice. How do I know? That’s easy. If I’m making any mistakes at all, I’m going too fast.

If you flub a passage the same place every time and don’t take measures in your practice to fix it immediately (or better yet, go slowly enough to avoid the mistake in the first place), the myelin will blithely coat the neurons, reinforcing the actions that result in the mistake.

“You’ll never make a mistake if you never make a mistake.” Practice slowly enough that a mistake is impossible.

Focus on mastering the music as deeply as you can, and worry less—or not at all if it’s possible—about impressing others with your musical prowess. That’s a losing strategy.

Ass Power is the ability to sit your butt down in the chair and get to work, and the willpower and commitment to keep your butt in the chair to get things done.

During my graduate studies, I convinced some older adults to come to the music computer lab once a week for six weeks to learn how to compose music using Apple’s GarageBand program.6 Despite the challenges, the experience was a lot of fun for me, and for the students, too. When the course ended, one of the more accomplished class members went out and bought a new iMac just so she could keep using GarageBand.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. Henry David Thoreau, author (1817-1862)

In the research paper that introduced the term “deliberate practice” and the notion that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve serious mastery in a field, the researchers found that most professional musicians they interviewed napped in the afternoon, after their main practice session, and before their later, less rigorous practice session.5 Nearly every musician I’ve spoken with about practice says they try to nap regularly, and some nap every day.