Being Motivated and Having Patience in our Practice

Being Motivated and Having Patience in our Practice

“There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.

The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He was not getting rich fast enough.

Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once by killing the Goose and cutting it open. But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was dead.” ¹

When it comes to practicing, sometimes we expect so much from ourselves that we don’t realize we are well past our capacity to produce without damage. Or, sometimes we want to practice more, but we don’t know where to begin without forcing. With that in mind, here are 11 practice strategies to try as well as a list of recommended books. Be kind to your mind, and listen to how these strategies make you feel.  

1. Take your instrument out of its case. This is sometimes the hardest step.
2. Play what you WANT to play! It’s liberating to let your desires guide your practice. This is one of Laura’s favorite questions to motivate herself.
3. Make practicing fun through games. See below for books full of ideas with games that can be helpful for parents practicing with their kids. Here is Jane McGonigal’s TED talk about gaming.
4. Decide when you’re going to practice and put it in your planner. According to one study, when you write it down, you’ll be 42% more likely to do it.
5. Explore musical styles other than the one(s) you know really well. You can use this strategy with non-classical styles and scale systems like pentatonics, ascending melodic minor, and modes.
6. Record yourself and listen back. Listening back to even one phrase of music can be enlightening. BSQ uses this strategy as the crux of its rehearsing. 
7. Keep yourself accountable by practicing muted on Zoom with other people. Steffani loved doing this over the summer with her students and friends.
8. Organize physically-distanced chamber gatherings with friends/family (courtesy of Dr. Benjamin Lebwohl who set up his cello outside the window of his parent’s music room and read piano trios).
9. Schedule a lesson. Start private lessons or schedule extra ones.
10. Set specific goals.  Violinist Jennifer Frautschi says, “I have had to create my own structure by setting specific goals – I want to learn or refine this piece by this date- and deciding to ‘perform’  it for someone by that date. JUST as importantly, I have been using this time to feel free to explore things I didn’t have time to explore before, as I don’t have constant concert deadlines–  by reading new  pieces and revisiting old pieces for fun,  and striving each day for creative practicing.” This strategy also could connect with number 3 on this list.
11. Create a practice challenge for yourself (or together with a friend), such as 100 days of practice (not necessarily in a row), 1,000 hours of practice, practice videos each day, a set of pieces to learn, e.g.

Let’s also be okay with TV-binging, cooking, allowing our mind to recharge, or doing nothing, even if doing so keeps us temporarily away from our musical goals. Whatever you decide to do, remember to take care of your goose and its golden eggs. If we can care for our state of mind while working towards our goals, we will be more likely to return to the work and experience with greater joy in the process.  Happy practicing!

More reading

Bruser, Madeline. The Art of Practice. New York, Crown, 1999.

Byrne, David. How Music Works. San Francisco, McSweeney’s, 2012.

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. New York, Bantam, 2009. 

Fischer, Simon. Practice. Leipzig, Edition Peters, 2004.

Kaplan, Burton. Practicing for Artistic Success. Dobbs Ferry, Perception Development Techniques, 2004. 

Gallwey, W. Timothy. The Inner Game of Tennis. New York, Random House, 1997. 

Herrigel, Eugèn. Zen and the Art of Archery. New York, Vintage Books, 1999.

Kreitman, Edward. Teaching from the Balance Point. Western Springs, Western Springs School of Talent Education, 1998.

Nachmanavich, Stephen. Free Play. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1991. 

Ristad, Eloise. A Soprano on Her Head. Moab, Real People Press, 1981.

Sprunger, Ed. Helping Parents Practice. Clayton, Yes Publishing, 2005.

Werner, Kenny. Effortless Mastery. Los Angeles, Alfred Music, 1998.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

¹ Aesop. (1919). The Goose & the Golden Egg. In the Library of Congress, The Aesop for Children with Original Pictures by Milo Winter. (pp 91). Rand McNally & Co.