In Music, Does Perfect Practice Make Perfect?

Perfect practice is hard to define when you ask a performer to dig deep into what ‘that’ means to them and how realistic their expectations are. I’ve worked with a lot of musicians over the years and one thing they all have in common is they practice a lot and unfortunately, they don’t get the results they want.

Most of the musicians I work with are professional musicians, so it is their full-time job and a job can be hard work and lots of hours. Unfortunately, one of the biggest reasons most musicians don’t get the results they are looking for is because they are looking for perfect – the perfect pitch, the perfect cadence, the perfect audition – and it doesn’t exist.

Setting yourself up for failure

Musician’s will often say, I need to get that piece down perfectly. When asked what perfect means, they don’t know. They usually respond with – perfect; no mistakes. I always say, if you can’t define something then you shouldn’t expect it. 😊

The challenge is, by the time I start working with a musician they already feel beaten down because getting a professional gig is so incredibly competitive that they are in a negative spiral. I get it but perfect practice is not going to get you that gig. It’s going to set you up to feel worse about yourself every day until it feels almost impossible to practice or perform.

I am going to tell you something you already know – perfectionism is a figment of our imagination and all it does is leave you continuing to search for solutions that don’t exist. What does end up happening is that every day you fail because you didn’t hit the mark of perfection. Your pitch was off, or you chipped a note(s). Every day the feeling of being “less than” continues to grow.

It’s not who you are, it’s what you do

This is one of the hardest concepts for musicians to understand. Why? Because they’ve made it personal. Their entire identity is wrapped up in wanting to play music so perfectly and it’s all they have, that it becomes who they are. Almost everything a musician does has to do with their music. All their emotions are wrapped up in their music.

Work, be it music or otherwise, should not be emotional. Sure, there may be some emotions included but as a working musician, work needs to get done. When work needs to get done, most emotions must be left at the door.

Allow music to be what you do, not who you are. Rediscover your WHY for playing music. Most musicians I’ve worked with love playing their music until they forget why they are playing it and get emotionally wrapped up in it.

From practice to performing

On top of spending so much time being emotionally invested in perfectly practicing, that carries over into performing and (sometimes) creates a volatile experience. When practice isn’t going well, all those emotions show up to sabotage a musical performance. The nerves beforehand saying, I have not perfected that piece, carries over into that piece. The nerves grow and negative thoughts continue making it virtually impossible to play.

Every chipped note lingers in your head and tightens your muscles. Now, you’ve missed your entrance into the next piece of music because you were in your head. This is only a small part of what it looks and sounds like.

Growth mindset and child’s mindset

As I said above, find your WHY for being a musician. Figure out what you love about it. Practice and play from a place of curiosity. What’s next? What can I learn? How can I get more creative with this piece? Most musicians will talk about how there’s so much to learn because there are so many combinations in which to play a piece of music but rarely do, they practice from that place of curiosity and growth. Learn to play from a growth mindset – I want to continue to learn, grow and hone my musical talent. Leave the fixed mindset of – there’s nothing else for me to learn so I need to be perfect now – behind you.

While a child’s mindset is like a growth mindset, it’s different. Young children have so much freedom to be curious, creative, and have fun. When they are young, they grow a lot from those experiences. That is how we all grow up but along the way we lose most of our freedom to be curious, creative, and have fun.

Unfortunately, as an adult you cannot have this freedom in the same way you did as a kid, however you can relearn how to experience curiosity, creativity, and fun in a different way.

How should I think about my music?

• Understand there is no perfect nor do you want to be perfect because you want to continue to learn and grow in your musical endeavors.
• Practice deliberate practice which requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.
• Realize that your music is not who you are, it’s what you do.
• Just play! Be curious and get creative.
• Have fun playing. What is going to make playing more fun? Jamming with others? Playing a different genre of music? Open mic? Do something that allows you to have fun on a consistent basis. This fun allows you to grow overall in your music.

Yeah. It’s easier said than done… if you want to be the musician you know you can be, these are important concepts toward changing your musical foundation. And they work. While I am only giving you the what and why, the how is based on your individual needs. You can work on your how and/or we can work together on the Beating the Audition Demons System. Let’s take your passion to the next level.