When practice sucks
For everyone
My practice session sucked today.
I am working on a set list (which I sent exclusively to subscribers last night—please subscribe), and decided to run that list before I started the rest of the day.
It should’ve only taken 15 minutes.
That 15 minutes turned into 45 which turned into “Do I even know how to play the piano?”, it was so bad.
I recorded my practice session, so when I listen to it later I’ll probably discover that it wasn’t that bad. But in the moment when you feel like you are having trouble finding where any key is, what should you do?
After completing a fundamental—run one scale with both hands ascending and descending with purpose and intention, for example—walk away.
Let it go.
It’s a bad hour, not a bad decade.
You didn’t suddenly forget how to play the piano.
Your neuropathways are forming. It takes a second for all that to sort out.
It happens. Some days, you’re a genius, other days, you’re excrement. You showed up both ways, and that’s the key—consistency.
