Like many other classical musicians piecing together a life in this improbable field, I have had my finger in a variety of pies over the years. Performance, teaching and composition have all swirled through my professional life, their energies and proportions always shifting. But whatever the project, through it all there is practicing. And here is a little secret: the practicing is the best part! Whether in preparation for a concert or blissfully un-tethered to any final product, practicing is there, patiently waiting for us. It draws us in, and once it has our attention, it demands we bring to it everything we’ve got. It is not always pleasant! In fact we discover that practicing is a microcosm of human experience, by turns thrilling, tedious, fascinating, obligatory, rebellious, creative, ordinary, mysterious and as predictable as the sun. Our practicing gives back to us everything we give to it—and with a specificity we don’t always welcome. Sometimes the piano has 88 teeth and our practicing chews us to bits. But then…. it digests (at its leisure), and eventually, miraculously, returns us to ourselves as people who can now play that beautiful piece of music that we love, which previously lay beyond our reach.
We might say that practice is one thing, yet that which practice unlocks—the extraordinary magic of human musical expression—is of another order altogether. But the truth is that one does not exist without the other! We can’t enter the gates of (pianistic or musical) heaven without doing our humble, honest work on earth. In other words, we cannot play well without practicing well. That is true for at least most mortals, and obvious enough. But consider this corollary, with the attendant empowerment it holds for all of us at every level: we cannot practice well without playing well as a result! Such is the power of sincere, intelligent and skillful practicing. If the material we’re working on is appropriate for us and we practice it well, we cannot fail. Pride & Practicing is an exploration of all that it means to practice well.
And Pride & Practicing is dedicated to all practicers everywhere! I offer this newsletter in support of your practicing. Whatever your level of ability or experience, may you practice well, and may your practice bring you joy.