Practice Makes Habit

Hi everyone! This is Miss Tayna with you today. I've been thinking a lot about practicing recently and I wanted to share some insights I have had over the years. There is a saying that I'm sure most of you have heard. It is, "Practice makes perfect!" I believed these words for multiple years, thinking all I needed to do was practice my music over and over and over again and I would be fine. I would learn the piece and play it flawlessly. However I never seemed to reach that level of perfection with just practice on my own. My private instructors always had something to correct or something I could improve upon. It wasn't until college that I learned the truth. Practice doesn't just make perfect. Practice makes habit. So I could either learn something perfectly right OR perfectly wrong.

This is where the Law of Averages comes into affect. This law states, "the principle that supposes most future events are likely to balance any past deviation from a presumed average," meaning, if you play something wrong more times than right, you have a higher chance of playing something wrong, or visa versa. Also, if you play something wrong, then right, then wrong again, then right again... What chance do you have of playing it right the 5th time? Your averages are split 50-50. So you have a 50% chance of playing it RIGHT on the 5th time. That's not great averages. To increase these odds of playing something right you need to play it right over and over and over again, multiple times. It's hard to do but worth the time if you want to feel confident come performance time. 

To go along with the Law of Averages I am going to talk about two more "laws" the Law of Consistency and the Law of Recency. I learned both of these from one of my favorite college professors, Dr. Rohrer. I can't begin to tell you how many times I heard about these laws during my years at college. They play a HUGE effort in my practicing and rehearsals to this day. 

The Law of Consistency is very similar to the Law of Averages. Consistency refers to practicing a passage more times right than wrong. If you are consistently playing your music correctly then you are going to keep playing your music correctly. If you are consistently playing dynamics and showing emotion with your music then you will keep showing emotion with your music. 

The Law of Recency claims that the things most recently learned are best remembered. If you played the right note, chances are you will remember to play the right note again. Or if you played a rhythm incorrectly, chances are the next time you play it will also be incorrect. This is very important, especially at the end of your practice time. If you choose to end on a "bad note" when you come back to practicing the next day that "bad note" will be the last thing your brain remembers. However if you choose to end with your absolute best effort then your brain will remember how well you practiced the day before. ALWAYS END ON A POSITIVE NOTE.

All three of these laws emphasize the need to play things right more than just once. By practicing music correctly multiple times and by ending on a positive note with your best effort you'll be able to make the most of your practice time and learn how to play your music "perfect." One of my favorite sayings is, "Amateurs practice until they get it right, Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong." Happy practicing!