Practice - Training the Brain
Most people think practicing the piano is about training the fingers. (Or practicing any other instrument for that matter.) To a certain degree you do build up motor skills and muscle strength as you continue to practice any instrument. Wind instruments you build lung capacity and embouchure…. but with any music lessons the main thing that your working on building is the brain. There are several qualities that you improve when you practice and the more you can find other ways to develop these qualities the better, I think, your practice time can be.
Patience…. yes I think practice has to develop patience. Anyone that has practiced scales by playing whole notes counting at 40 beats per minute has either developed patience or gone insane long before…. I think if you do find other things that help you “cultivate” patience, then you will be better off in your practice as you’ll be more willing to stick with the slow, methodical practice that you typically need.
Focus… music is an activity that can demand all of your attention. I know many of my piano students will say that if they are not 100% “There” they run into problems playing as well as they’re used to. This is why it’s useful to make to-do lists and try to “offload” some of the duties of the mind so that you can give your full attention to practice and playing. More important though is that you actually practice focusing entirely on where you are and what you are doing! (It seems the world today demands multi-tasking from us all and so this skill I think is harder than ever to develop.) If you find yourself practicing a piece of music that bores you, try to find things in it to bring interest - whether that means counting obsessively, focusing on fantastic details of dynamic levels and phrasing…. whatever can keep the mind engaged in the task and only on the task at hand.
Persistence… beginning students are always surprised when I tell of how many months I spent working on various classical pieces. Early on in method books students usually progress fairly quickly and spending 3 weeks on a piece of music can seem like an eternity, but you also have to develop the attitude that if there are things to improve and it takes longer you can see it through. This does go along with patience, but the idea of sticking through a LONG task to completion is something that can be so useful in many other areas.
These are just a few of the things you’re training your brain for when you practice any kind of instrument. I haven’t even begun to talk about the other things that you are developing, (note name recognition, interval recognition, some of the aural skills, etc.)
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