Lazy minds..., ...make a bad practice session. Options

[dave brum]

I've just had this notion.

Last night when I was on my own, I was doing some practising and I kept losing my place in the music, playing wrong notes, fingering incorrectly etc. So much so that I had to keep going over everything from a back to basics approach. I am unemployed due to illness and consequently have a lot of time on my hands, so piano practise is very much a leisure time activity that I do when my mind is in a relaxed or 'lazy' state.

Just now I've played 5 perfect double octave scales and amazed myself with all of my h/w tunes, all because I've had to get up early, get showered and have breakfast to at 9am today negotiate Brum's rush hour traffic onto the m6 and pick up my mother in law from Northamptonshire, then put myself in a situation I don't want to be in, go and see my bourgeois in-laws. The relevance of that is that my mind is now racing in fifth gear and in a state dissimilar in every way to how it usually is.

So, the question is, is a carefree mental attitude bad for our music studies, and do we need to 'tone up' and self-discipline our thinking to put it into practise in our music rooms? And can music be good for our concentration in the long term???

[viola-mad]

So, the question is, is a carefree mental attitude bad for our music studies, and do we need to 'tone up' and self-discipline our thinking to put it into practise in our music rooms? And can music be good for our concentration in the long term???

In brief, yes and yes! The fact that you have sussed this out yourself will probably make it hit home.

For sure, if you want to make good progress, then practising mindlessly is going to leave you frustrated. I've found it's both more satisfying and more productive to do 20 minutes of focussed practice than 2 hours of mindless practice. There is lots of good stuff on the How to practise better thread.

Concentration, I am convinced, is a type of fitness in itself. It's like a muscle. To increase its strength and stamina, you have to exercise it. The more you concentrate, the more you are able to concentrate.

[corenfa]

...

So, the question is, is a carefree mental attitude bad for our music studies, and do we need to 'tone up' and self-discipline our thinking to put it into practise in our music rooms? And can music be good for our concentration in the long term???

I think it depends on how you define "carefree". If you mean in the sense of not having a practise plan and just doing whatever, then yes I think that is bad. However, if you mean "carefree" in the sense of not beating yourself up when you mess up in some way, then I think that is a very good thing. I used to be awfully hard on myself when I didn't do something I was "supposed to" musically, and I needed to become more carefree about that; still to take it seriously and have a plan for what I wanted to do, but not to come down on myself like a ton of bricks if I didn't progress as fast as I wanted to.

Feel free to come join us on the mindful practising thread that viola-mad mentioned (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) if you like

[anacrusis]

at times when I can't do the focused sort of practice which gets the notes of pieces learned (I've long since given up with scales, I'm too lousy at them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)) - I will either stop, if a couple of attempts to rally myself fail, or sometimes switch musical activities, either to going over old repertoire I can play, or some sightreading of music to see what I might learn next. I don't keep going at something I really want to learn, because I do end up learning in the mistakes. Not a luxury enjoyed by professional or career musicians, but ideal for me, whose music is a hobby and a release. If I'm having a few days in a row of such loss of concentration then the option of "patch practice" gets the material learned pretty much as quickly as more sustained practice can, minute for minute (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif).

[Martin.Walters]

There are times I have mindless and mindful practising.

Often a little inspiration will give me the adrenaline to work harder.
A good amount of sleep and mental happiness helps. Help being the primitive word, vital is better!

Now when it does come to mindless practice, I find myself studying very little and playing pieces I like.
It takes time to train the brain routines. Just as it takes time to study.

[ianporsche]

I think we've all had times when the mistakes creep in- some days In find there will be a scale I can't play even though I know it well. If this happens don't keep practising the same thing over and over, all you'll achieve is making new mistakes and end up frustrating yourself more and more. Either move on to practising something else or say to yourself it aint working today- I'll have a day off.