Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

My perspective has changed quite drastically about this subject, that it is worth mentioning. Even though I have always know the adage “Practice makes Perfect”, I guess I never took it seriously enough, or I did not understand how excellent perfect has to be or I didn’t understand how practicing is a constant on-going thing or maybe a bit of all three. You see, as most people, I have many talents. For example, I am considered a good dancer by many people and I have to admit that I am pretty good. I had a natural talent for dancing and it came easy to me. Maybe that was part of my problem. I would learn a new dance for example for a show and sometimes I would learn it the night before (if it was something I was performing by myself). I was even recruited to do a dance where I was playing a boy. The teacher couldn’t get the 5th boy and recruited me during university exams, so I couldn’t join the group for practice until I was done. Guess when that was? A few hours before the event started was when I was finally available. I joined them and learned the dance and performed. I was actually recruited when people couldn’t dance at the last minute because I got a reputation for learning quickly, being confident on stage and being able to pull things off pretty well, at the last minute. I guess this became a habit for me.

So, even when I wasn’t in university, studying for exams or whatever, I would still “practice” at the last minute. I thought practicing dance was about just knowing the dance in order and since I was pretty fast at learning that, I didn’t need to repeat this process over and over again. Of course, this didn’t translate too well when I taught others, if they were not as comfortable as I am to get on stage after only a few practices. I would have to practice much more with them than I was accustomed to for a dance. I actually worked with a group of 3 girls at one time on a number of dances who were ideal for me in that they picked things up very fast and were confident. I guess one thing I should mention is that these girls and I had been dancing since a very young age and had practiced many of these steps many times, so that does help.

One last thing I should mention is that when I wanted to study Indian Classical dance, I had two choices at that time, or I suppose my parents had two choices regarding me and dance. I was (1990 or when) only 15 years old, where many of my peers who were doing this art form had started when they were 5. It generally takes 10-12 years at the school to get to the point of considering graduation. I did not like that option at that time. The other option was a private teacher, with whom I could finish all the repertoire much quicker and get to the graduation level (which is more study culminating in a 3 hour solo performance called an Arangetram). I’m sorry to say that we did not choose the high road. I finished my training in 5 years (but I did not do the extensive theory work they do) and did my graduation. It was all about the destination, not the journey. I love to dance, but I can only say I am good, never great. I had the talent, but like so many people did not put in the practice hours to reach excellence. Oh how I wish I had known what I know now, I think I would have made a wiser choice.

So, then I grew up some more, I got married and I had kids. I had always loved the violin and when my oldest D decided she wanted to play the violin at age 3, I called around. I was told that most kids who start at 3 tend to quit because they get frustrated by their lack of motor skills and was recommended to wait until 5 years old, so that is what I did. I learned that that doesn’t have to be the case and started my third child M at age 2 1/2 and she is doing quite well. So, at age 5, D and I started a very interesting journey. I remember my husband asking me to make sure that “this new thing” not take too much time. We had one private lesson a week with the Suzuki program (a half hour). Then we found out that we would have a group class every 3 weeks and a solo performance every other 3 weeks, so two more violin related events in 6 weeks, what a drag!!! Then there was this curious thing about practicing. She was expected to listen to her cd of repertoire (21 pieces) 5 days a week and practice 5 times a week for a half hour each, so that is 2 1/2 hours of practice. My husband and I were both working and Devika had school. Sometimes, we did 5 practices, sometimes 2, but hey I thought it always added up to 2 – 21/2 hours so wasn’t that what mattered? Apparently not!! How was I to know? This was not something I had ever learned. Things generally came easy to me, school and other stuff, so I usually looked good with very little effort.

One beautiful day in November of 2006, my husband and I made one of the best decisions of our lives and that was to put ourselves on a leadership training program. This meant we received a leadership book once a month as well as 12 cds on various leadership topics. I talk more about this in another post, coming soon. It was mind-boggling to us, the things we learned. Once we got on this system of thinking, I progressed to reading 5-7 leadership and other-like books (per month) which challenged me to think. This is how I came upon reading Shin’ichi Suzuki’s books on his ideas on teaching violin and Ed Sprunger’s book on practicing. Wow!! What a transformation I had. Dr. Suzuki really spoke to my heart. I finally understood what this practicing thing was all about. Dr. Suzuki talked about how children learn their mother-tongue with no formal training. A Japanese child in Japan or elsewhere whose parents speak Japanese will speak this language fluidly with the same dialect as his/her parents by age 3 and know more than 4000 words. He found this to be a miracle, while most people took it for granted. He went on to create the Talent Education philosophy which was that “every child can.” and his philosophy was to bring up the children of the world with noble character through the violin as the means. So just as the child learns the mother tongue, the child learns the violin (with some technical coaching obviously). The child has to listen to the music he/she is working on, has worked on and will work on in the near to distant future over and over again and build the ear. They learn their pieces by ear. They are also expected to do a lot of repetition with repertoire they have already learned, over and over and over again. I only recently realized that in Francais and Espanol, the word for practice is répétition/repetición (repetition). That surely explains a lot. Practice is about repeating something over and over again to reach excellence. Another important reason for practicing known repertoire over and over again is that when something needs to be improved in technique, those changes are always rehearsed with pieces that the student knows like the back of his/her hand. The piece is known by the muscle memory and the student can concentrate on the new technique to be learned and not have to concentrate on the piece, the notes or anything related to the piece. I went from a mom who just put in the time to one who inspired her kids to practice everyday since July 1, 2008. D and K have not missed a day, not ONE (this works out to 600 days of practicing by February 20, 2010, just 24 days away). M has pretty well done every day, but I’m sure she and I have missed about 2% of the total. 99% of the time, we do our practice in the morning, so it is prioritized and done early. Many a day, the kids have come running from bed convinced at the end of the day that they have not actually done their practice. M has in fact done two practices in one day a few times because I could not convince her that she had in fact practiced that morning. So, how did that happen or more importantly why did this happen. Before I answer that, don’t get me wrong, we are not perfect, we are constantly practicing how to practice, but we are improving constantly and we do get it.

So, why? Well, after reading this similar message in many books, finally the switch got flicked in my mind and that of my husband’s. I will get into this story in another post, so stay tuned for ‘the switch is flicked’. If we want something special to happen, we have to be willing to do the small things over and over again, over and over again. The little things over and over, may not look like much in the beginning, are as easy to ignore as to do, in fact is easier and more comfortable to ignore than to do, but will compound itself and lead to something beautiful (if one chooses to follow one’s dream). As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Do the thing, and you shall have the power.” Also “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” And to make this a hat-trick “There is a natural progression to everything in life: plant, cultivate, harvest.” I decided to plant and cultivate and let the harvest come. I decided to do the little baby steps, day by day and trust in the effects of compounding.