A lot of time in the practice room ain't necessarily cutting it
“No points for busy.
Points for successful prioritization. Points for efficiency and productivity. Points for doing work that matters.
No points for busy.”
—Seth Godin from his blog post “Busy is not the point”
Just because you practiced three hours yesterday doesn’t mean you got a lot done on the horn. The same goes for score study or marketing yourself.
I am always challenging my students to practice practicing. I think back to college and can’t believe how much more efficient I am now in the practice room. I can get done in 15 minutes what might have taken me 45 minutes back in the 90’s.
Here are just a handful of the hundred things that are more important than just the total time you spend in the practice room:
Frequency of practice sessions
Prioritization of what needs practicing the most
Goal setting
Getting into the feedback loop by recording yourself
Your focus level during the session
The list goes on and on..
But while total time spent is not even close to the most important practicing metric, you’ve still got to put in the time. As a wise person once said, silence can not improve.
