Category: Email Archives
-
When deep practice makes you feel like a failure
I gotta get something off my chest. It’s about deep practice. Deep practice is the kind that involves real introspection. Paying close attention to your physical movements. Noticing your thoughts. Being aware of your habits. Deep practice is required if you want to change things. Exercises that involve reconditioning basic movement patterns. Adjusting what you eat to…
-
Why your body hurts when you play the piano
Your body doesn’t hurt because you were taught wrong. It hurts because you’re doing it wrong. You are the only one who can fix it. There’s no teacher out there who can fix it for you. It doesn’t matter what a teacher says to you. At the end of the day, you are the one…
-
Loving and Accepting Yourself – Practical Tips
“I suck at piano and I know I should give myself more love and acceptance. But, I don’t know how.” Usually, these problems can be sorted out by getting clear on what exactly you’re trying to do and why you’re trying to do it. So, let’s unpack this a bit. I’m going to define three…
-
Why it’s easier to push yourself when the stakes are high
At my last workshop, this question was asked by Rachel, an opera singer: “In performance, the stakes are higher. In practice, it’s hard for me to prioritize. There’s like a roadblock in my practicing, but in real life I’d handle it better.” It’s normal for real-life performance situations to make us perform better. More is…
-
When your playing sounds “mechanical”
First, let’s get one thing out of the way: just because a teacher told you that your playing sounds mechanical doesn’t mean it does. (the teacher might not be expressing themselves very well) While we’re at it, let’s get another thing out of the way: your mechanical-sounding playing is not the fault of the metronome.…
-
Why Music Practice is No Fun
I was looking through some old notebooks the other night, and I wanted to share this: I’ve noticed that when most people practice music, they don’t have fun. When I practice, however, I do have fun. So…why don’t you have fun while practicing? (It’s not because you suck at music.) Westerners view music as an…