These days, I compare practicing to working out a lot. There's so much overlap. And it helps people understand the challenges of practicing.
In No Sweat by Michelle Seger, the author brings up some important concepts when it comes to how we think about exercise.
The danger is that a sedentary lifestyle is said to be as detrimental to your health as smoking. And we all know that most people don't exercise.
The problem is most people believe they don't have time. And when it comes to going to the gym or getting a 30-60 minute workout in every day, it is hard to fit in that kind of time.
And so, we believe that if we can't get a "proper workout" in, then it's not worth trying anything at all.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Because of Michelle's simple concept of "everything counts."
Any kind of movement counts towards your health and wellness. It could be as simple as parking far from the grocery store door so you get more walking in.
Or being more active with your kids. Or taking a 5-minute walk outside.
And let's face it...even the busiest person can find a few minutes for some movement.
It's the same exact issue with practicing the piano. In the busyness of life, we think that if we can't get a solid 10-15 minutes in, we should put it off until tomorrow. Except, tomorrow never comes.
But so many more activities can count as "practicing."
Spending two minutes figuring out a new fingering.
Spending time listening to recordings of your pieces on the bus.
Writing some reminders in your music (but not letter names...those are forbidden).
Challenging yourself to see what incremental improvement you can make in the spare pockets of the day.
All those little bits add up to something big over time.
And when you open your mind to the idea, you can get so much more practicing in than you ever thought possible.