What is “Practice” FOR?

I’ve asked a few of my students to answer this journal prompt recently…
“What is practice FOR?”

Because I saw them talking about their practice the way I treated it for a long time:
On my bad days, I treated my practice like a “practice test”.
And on my good days, I treated it like a rehearsal.

(Spoiler alert…it’s neither of those things…)

I’d treat every rep like a mini performance thinking
“THIS will be the rep I get it RIGHT!”

Really I was trying to collect enough proof that I was good enough… proof that I wouldn’t fail. 

But that slowed my progress waaaay down,  and created some funky habits to boot  that have been DIFFICULT to undo. 

I was great at noticing problems,
but I’d try to power through or navigate around them intead of gently moveing and working through them….
… instead of sitting in the discomfort of “it’s not right yet!”
…instead of slowing down, zooming in, getting curious, and being open to experiments that may-or-may-not work… 

Nope… instead, I’d panic:

“What if that was a performance?! I would have bombed!”Ugh! just…try again but don’t do THAT! Do it RIGHT this time!”….

…then I’d throw some more pasta, panic again, and just kept hammering away feeling like I “working so hard”
… but really I wasn’t even checking to see if I was hitting the nail on the head! I was damaging the whole piece.

I’d never feel satisfaction or meaningful fundamental progress in my practice. 

Goodbye to any potential flow state, self trust,  or compelling storytelling. 

So…that mindset and routine showed up in my auditions and performance. (Shocker) 


Please, my passionate friends, remember that

The practice room is:
your PLAYGROUND,
your SCIENCE LAB,
and your GYM!
Not your imaginary stage. 

As yourself…

Am I practcing to IMprove, ot TO proove?

You can build your self-trust by putting your practice time to good use! 

• Use it to obverse (“How Fascinating!”)

• Use it to collect data (not evidence/proof of “readiness”)

• Use it to experiment.

• Use it to zoom in, and slow down.

• Use it to find the millisecond that isn’t quite working.

• Use it to investigate the roots!

• Use it to drill your specific technical motor skills…so that they’re your HABIT  by the time you hit the stage. 

• Use it to practice self-coaching, over self-criticizing. 

• Use it to practice your growth mindset and patience 

• Use it for creation, not to hot-wire your way to “PRODCUTion”

• Use it to take 2 steps backward (on purpose) beucase it might reveal a new path you haven’t tried yet.

• Use it to make the weird “bad” sounds that perhaps unlock something freer 

• Use it to tinker! And practice creative problem SOLVING 

• Use it to document and track your progress 

• Use it to fail on purpose!

• Use it to PLAY like a kid in a sandbox. Find fun in the (inevitable) mess. 

…chances are you picked this because you once found it to be the most FUN thing to do. 

I think the more you fail on purpose in the practice room, the less you’ll fail in performance mode. 

So when I say “get your reps in” I mean:

 Your “show up” reps, / your “motor skill drill” reps, / your “turning the conscious into unconscious” reps, / your playtime reps… 

Not your “whole piece over and over and over again until it’s perfect” reps….

…cuz while that strategy FEELS like the quicker way to perfection… it’s not.

It’s the shallow way. and it’s leading to a dead end.

Remeber:
“Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be” (Andre DeShields)

And..

PRACTICE is the act of teaching your brain how much your heart cares. (Are you a good teacher?) 

Get intentional.

Get creative (you are an ARTIST after all) 

Happy practicing!